About a month ago, I exclaimed to my trainer “I can ride!” This should not have come as a surprise since we have had horses for eleven years and I had been taking lessons before that, but I was beginning to wonder.
Looking back, I stopped riding consistently enough when I came off Lily in early June. I didn’t get back on a horse for two or three weeks, and then Lily injured herself immediately thereafter. Caring for her injury and rehabilitation took up most of my horse time, and I only occasionally rode Hap or my trainer’s horse Havoc. By the time I was ready to move Lily home to exchange with Hap, I had become very unfit.
However, with Hap back at my trainer’s, I have been riding more consistently. I was rather discouraged at first, since I always felt so weak while I rode, and very stiff and sore afterward. For me, balance on a horse is a given after all these years, and the muscle memory remains, but balance and memory need some strength to back them up, and I just didn’t have it. I tried to avoid thinking about what would happen if Hap performed one of his big spooks, which involves dropping his shoulder, pivoting and trying to bolt, because I knew there would be no chance of me staying on. Fortunately, Hap has been particularly lamblike this autumn, and his biggest spook has been an occasional flinch.
Today was the last nice day before a threatening storm front, and I decided to enjoy the mild autumn day by riding bareback. I rode Hap twice this week, so I decided to ride Havoc. From the bareback point of view Havoc is a wonderful horse because he is so well-trained, but he is a big mover, which makes it a bit of a challenge. And like many Thoroughbreds, he has a back bone that puts one strongly in mind of a stegasaurus.
I rode Havoc longer than I would have predicted, feeling the my muscles stretch and relax as I rode him. Havoc thought he was getting a good deal, because on my best day with the bareback pad, I ask for less from the horse than I do on my worst day with a saddle. I refused to think about how much this is going to hurt tomorrow, because even when I am in good shape, I get really sore after I ride a horse bareback.
I’ll pay tomorrow, but I had a great time today.
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If I don’t ride for a week then have a hard ride, I’m sore for a while. Riding around bareback sounds like so much fun! I doubt I’ll get much chance to do that until after we move and there’s room to ride bareback.
The ‘stegasaurus’ link points back at the index page. Recursion is a bummer.