Catch-up

It seems like I'm always playing catch-up with this blog. It's not that nothing is happening, it's more that I've been overcome by events.

Saying goodbye to a good friend. We attended a memorial for our very good friend, Al, who passed away recently. It was a sad day, made easier by gathering with our friends in La Jolla to remember Al and the good old days.

Movie Tuesday. There was no movie Tuesday last week. Dennis was busy with work and there was nothing good playing anyway. So we skipped it.

No trail ride. But I did have a riding lesson on Wednesday. It was interesting that on one side of the arena, Doc was perfect, doing everything I asked of him. On the other side, however, he didn't even pretend to listen. Huh? We figured it out...the gate was on the "bad" side of the arena. Apparently, he wanted out. Not a real good training day for us.

Night of the Horse. Saturday we met our friends, Betsy and Greg, and their friends, Marilyn and Judy, at the Del Mar Fairgrounds for Night of the Horse. We had an arena-side table for dinner and the show.

It was a really great evening watching some very talented riders and well-trained horses. I wonder if we can teach Doc to sit?

Finally, a Riding Lesson

After several weeks of bad weather or absences, Betsy and I finally got together for our regular Wednesday horseback riding lesson. Doc was ready. He is such a good horse, stands like a rock for mounting and dismounting. That's very important now that my left knee (the mounting leg) has a missing ACL after the electric bike incident last August. I wear an ACL brace now when riding or doing any other exercise that might strain or tweak the knee. Riding with the brace is not excellent but I'm giving it a try and Doc is very accommodating.

The lesson went well. The wind was blowing fairly hard, but horses don't seem to mind it as much as we do. Just another day for them. Doc and I are practicing roll backs as a way to get him to use his rear legs and muscles to push him, rather than his front legs to pull him along. At least I think that's what we were doing. Of course, Doc already knows all this; I'm the one who's learning and, luckily, I have the best trainer ever to help me. :)

To do a roll back, we ride close to the rail in the arena and, as we get to a certain point, I turn my head toward the rail while applying pressure with my leg back from the girth (button 3). Turning my head causes my body to apply pressure along with my leg so that the horse turns toward the rail and pivots (if we both do it right) on his rear leg so that we are now going in the opposite direction with a push from his rear instead of a pull from his front. Ta da!

Is that right, Betsy?