Riding
Awareness of the outside world. Elephants & really large pumpkins. Oregon Zoo Twitter 14 Oct 2021. Assist to Balloon Juice: Friday Evening Open Thread: Monster Mash 15 Oct.
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Housekeeping note. The new barn has requested a low profile. Henceforth it shall be referred to as the Hunter Barn. They do both. I don’t want to write out New Hunter/Jumper Barn each time.
Onto lesson the second.
Different instructor; same horse. The new instructor looks to be my regular teacher. I would have been perfectly happy to stay with the first instructor but schedules didn’t match. Horse will undoubted change over time. Very happy to stay with his slow self for a while. [First Lesson]
Second instructor put me right to work. Two-point. Drop stirrups. Post at walk. Sitting trot. I’ll leave you to imagine the creaks and groans the next day.
Day was warmer. School Horse was less inclined to trot than he had been on Saturday. Even I had trouble starting the engine.
The cantering went better, as it does. There were a few strides down one long side when everything felt right with the world. I’ve said all along that I am better at the canter than at the trot. Now, I’m in a discipline where this will work to my advantage.
Trot crossrails. Around the outside in a four-crossrail course. Criss-cross of two inside crossrails, at a canter!
Afterwards, we went on a hack around the property. School Horse tried to convince me that he had never seen that, or that, or that over there. Nice try, dude. Otherwise, lovely stroll. Best walking all day.
I. Was. Exhausted. The sort of exhausted where you drive home carefully because you know your brain is sludge. Some physical, mostly mental.
Onwards!
Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine
Virtual Brush Box 
Yay!
Portland’s was my first zoo. We lived near Woodland Park in Seattle and my husband worked there, but he says now he will not visit a zoo again.
Someone once told me, that in a lesson, if you’re not working hard enough to hurt – not hurt hurt, worn out and sore where you should be – that you’re not working hard enough. I, of course, ignored this. 🙂 Hey, it wasn’t my instructor.
Working hard enough to hurt, or to ache a little—yes, that is my approach.
Slightly less tired these days. Still not good for much after. I have learned not to have plans for later in the day.