Friday, February 5, 2010

Weirdness

So for the first time in quite a while, I rode a horse other than Kieran in my lesson the other night. Kieran, you see, had just had his teeth done earlier in the day so he got the day off in case his mouth was sore.

So I rode Dobbin, a Belgian cross gelding who is built like a tank but smaller than my guy (barrel-wise and height-wise and stride-wise). Nice guy, a bit further along in his training than Kieran is (his canter departure is more reliable), but he's not as fit as Kieran is (he just came to the barn not so long ago and hadn't been ridden for months before that). Anyway, by the end of a half-hour lesson, it was obvious he was pooped.

But before that...OMG it felt so weird riding a different horse (and in different tack than I've grown accustomed to). His stride felt all wrong and his trot felt all wrong (and don't even ask me to sit it, it isn't pretty. Plus Dobbin hasn't really learned about rating his gaits so he doesn't really "get" slowing down the trot. He thinks if you say slow down you want a walk). Eventually, I got the hang of it, and we even cantered a little bit before he got tired.

It was definitely a good thing to ride a different horse but I really missed riding my boy. :)

1 comment:

SprinklerBandit said...

New horses are a fun thing. I mostly only ride my horse because I don't have time for others. A couple weeks ago, I rode my old mare, and I was just sure she was off because her stride felt so weird to me. Nope, she's just different, that's all.