Cob Jockey

While I was in Texas, it rained a lot.  This meant all we could do was walk under saddle and in very specific areas, but that was more than enough for me to get a lot out of it.

I ended up riding all three of them, although my ride on Paddy was more of a "use the horse as a four legged saddle rack so I can try out Sean's new jousting saddle," which had arrived that morning:

The jousting saddle is CRAZY cool!

First up was Griffy, and this was before his suspensory diagnosis.  It's definitely intermittent, he never took even a faintly lame step with me, although again, we were just walking.

Riding in fashion boots because I just could not fit anything more in my suitcase

JenJ gave me a bit of a lesson on him, and I learned quite a bit about myself.  Like that my right arm likes to float up and toward or even sometimes across the neck in very specific circumstances.  I had no idea.  And that despite my best efforts, I am still very very crooked:

Oh look, it's me making Griffy go crooked in the same way I make Connor go crooked.  Sigh.

She pointed out my left leg, which still likes to get heel up and back.  And also that I'm not great about remembering to "turn and look" around turns, especially to the left.  Which is also Connor's bad side.


You'll notice that in all of these pictures I'm holding an Equicube.  I absolutely loved it.  When you're holding it, you can't not have a bear down, because if you support it with your arms instead of your core, your arms get smoked.

JenJ has several inches on me, but her saddle wasn't a bad fit for me at all

It also pointed out to me that I still have no tension or musculature between my shoulder blades, because that area was screaming the next day.  I sat there at the airport with my shoulders burning and ordered one of my own, which I've already learned some more from.  More on that later this week.

After Griffy, I took a spin on Leo, who is a totally different ride.  Jen has done an incredible job with his early training.  He's almost entirely seat trained, and so sensitive, if I pitched forward even a degree or two, he'd stop dead.

Does it fit in my carry-on?

You can't really call a relatively green 5 year old a schoolmaster, but he definitely gave me a lesson.  Crookedness and wobbly cores have no place on Leo, he just doesn't compute with them.  I am so, SO impressed with how solid his early training it, and with his attitude - he just has that "I'm so happy to see you, what fun stuff are we doing today?!" attitude.

Hoovering up a pile of alfalfa

I am so grateful for the chance to ride these guys and for the things JenJ pointed out, because they made a lot of sense in the context of what the vet found last week.