You know how great it feels to put on a favorite pair of jeans you haven't fit into in a while? How you get to skip the adjustment stage and move right into the total comfort of familiarity?
That was me on Monday, sitting in an English saddle, riding Sailor the Thoroughbred in patterns such as H-X-M and in 20 meter circles. I was wearing gloves with velcro backs, breeches with knee patches and a helmet. There were cavaletti poles in the corner and girls running around with half-chaps on.
I held my hands in thumb-to-thumb position above his withers and focused on the flexion in my elbows. I went into two-point and tried to pick up the correct diagonal. Somehow, in the middle of Wyoming I had walked into a building and gone back East for the afternoon. I felt like a fairy tale character who discovered home was right around the corner all along.
My lesson followed that of a local doctor. He and I chatted for a minute about eventing and I said something to the effect that my husband would never be an English rider. "He's a cowboy," I explained.
Many cowboys have come to love three-day eventing, he said. "It's the adrenaline."
Jack in breeches? That'll be the day.
That was me on Monday, sitting in an English saddle, riding Sailor the Thoroughbred in patterns such as H-X-M and in 20 meter circles. I was wearing gloves with velcro backs, breeches with knee patches and a helmet. There were cavaletti poles in the corner and girls running around with half-chaps on.
I held my hands in thumb-to-thumb position above his withers and focused on the flexion in my elbows. I went into two-point and tried to pick up the correct diagonal. Somehow, in the middle of Wyoming I had walked into a building and gone back East for the afternoon. I felt like a fairy tale character who discovered home was right around the corner all along.
My lesson followed that of a local doctor. He and I chatted for a minute about eventing and I said something to the effect that my husband would never be an English rider. "He's a cowboy," I explained.
Many cowboys have come to love three-day eventing, he said. "It's the adrenaline."
Jack in breeches? That'll be the day.
1 comment:
Sounds fabulous :) I've been riding English in cowboy country (though less cowboy country than you by far) for a long time. It's the way to go! :p
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