Being Brave with a Breeze

Today was supposed to be sunny and warm.  Instead we woke to overcast, windy and cold.  I had been counting on a warm calm day for my second ride on Winston.  The horses were all wound up at breakfast time so I was apprehensive about riding.

After breakfast, I had my French lesson.  Isn't the internet a wonderful thing?  My tutor lives in the midwest but we Skype a lesson once a week.  She sends me Word documents to complete/discuss in our class and videos to watch.  It just amazes me -- how convenient and how effective it is to take a French class this way.

Then I logged into work and spent the rest of the day in front of the computer.  I also made bread -- so easy to do when you are trapped in the house anyway.  We had it for dinner tonight -- my favorite crusty Italian bread -- with an Ahi salad.

lettuce, apples, fennel, dried cranberries -- added sliced seared Ahi on top after tossing.

lime cilantro dressing

The sun did finally come out mid-afternoon but the breeze never stopped and it never got very warm.  I took a deep breath and went down to the barn to ride my horse.  This was our second ride at home.  After tacking him up, I lunged him for a few minutes to gauge his frisky factor.  He was perfectly well behaved so I ditched the longe line and got on.

What a fun horse.  He is so different from Jackson who was a blast, but in a different way.  Riding Jackson was like going to lunch with your best friend.  We laughed and laughed and talked constantly.  Jackson struggled with being straight but he tried hard to please.  When he couldn't do something, he would come up with a work around that was creatively hysterical.  I laughed a lot when I rode Jackson.  He wasn't sound enough to ever progress past very basic stuff but I didn't care.  We were all about relationship.

Winston likes to work.  He is strong and straight and balanced.  He wants to make me happy but, even more, he wants to do it right.  He doesn't understand half-halts and gets strong when he is frustrated, but he never gets mean or loses his brain.  He didn't get silly at all in the wind.  We worked mostly on transitions in and out of trot.  I decided to try canter despite the breeze and the yah-hoo it can inspire.  I took a deep breath and asked.... I got a transition that was smooth as silk.  And his canter was amazing.  Jackson struggled to get the correct lead (probably a painful feet issue) and then he would race around with his head in the air like a giraffe.  Winston was like shifting gears in a sports car.  He smoothly and effortlessly cantered in a controlled and balanced, yet powerful, way.  I asked him to lift his back and it was like one of those arched Japaneses bridges magically appeared under my seat.  It was not subtle.  My butt was lifted up, up and away.  ...I almost started to cry; I was so happy.

He is going to be so amazing when he grows up!  And we are going to have so much fun getting there.