joflasher | weekend review

Saturday - horsies! Had another riding lesson with Doug this weekend. We loaded up Stoney and Tisa into the trailer and took them over to the Hollis riding ring for our lesson. It was wonderful. A real sized ring with jumps and everything. Unfortunately, it was originally supposed to be Tisa and Vinny but Vinny refused to get on the trailer. We lost an hour arguing with that dumb horse before I started pushing to load someone else. I think I might have ticked Carol off but Doug wasn't getting paid for that hour and its not fair to him to eat up his whole day just because someone's horse won't load. I gave him a tip for being so nice about it.

Anyways, the lesson at Hollis went well. There was both a baseball game and a football game going on beside the ring, kids everywhere and another horse at the ring but Tisa handled it all. The only thing she really didn't like was the toddler in the cotten candy pink fuzzy coat who kept giggling with excitement and waving her arms wildly whenever Tisa came near. Apparently pink fuzzy toddlers eat horses.

We did lots of walk/trot work and trotting poles and stuff. We tried jumping but Tisa was insisting that she could trot over anything we put in front of her. She did one jump and everything else she just picked her knees up higher. We had the cross rails about 2 feet high and she was STILL just trotting over them. I didn't think she could get her legs up that high. She seemed so pleased with herself about it too...I did all sorts of trotting work with her over obstacles last fall and this winter and now I'm regretting it. She just doesn't seem to realise she is allowed to jump things. We'll work on it more next time.

After we came home, I left Jenna use Tisa as her lesson pony. Jenna is a weeee-tiny little girl, maybe 5 years old, tops. She's so small that her legs don't go down the horses sides at all...they just stick out from the horse's back like little pegs. Still, she tries really hard and is fearless about being on an animal so much bigger than her. She used to take riding lesson on Majic before Majic had her baby. Majic took good care of her...almost too good since everytime she'd start to trot and Jenna would start to bounce, Majic would stop. Jenna never got a long enough trot to really "find her seat" as it were. Recently she's been taking lessons on George but that wasn't working at all. George is too green and too stubborn to be a lesson pony for a kid that small. You really have to push George with your legs to get him moving and her legs are just too short to do the job. George also likes to argue with the person leading him, so doing a lead line lesson with him doesn't work well either. Basically, all Jenna could do on George was get led around at the walk and she's good at that. Its time for her to learn other things.

Tisa, though, will do whatever the person at her head asked her to do. Doug would start running, Tisa would start trotting, Jenna would bounce up and down like a little spring, clutching the saddle and SMILING for all she was worth. It was incredibly cute...especially since we had to wrap my stirrup leathers around the stirrups something like 8 times to get them short enough to fit her. Afterwards, Doug and Jenna were going over how to untack a horse. Jenna couldn't reach anything until Tisa lowered her head almost to the ground and kept it there until Jenna was done unbuckling the bridle. I really wish I had had my camera. Tisa also got her belly and legs brushed a lot, since that was what Jenna could reach.

Doug thanked me profusely for letting them use Tisa. He was a little leary at first, since he's seen Tisa throw her tantrums about learning new things. I promised him that she's a doll when she's being asked to do something she's good at and that she wouldn't give them any problems. I was right. He said that it was wonderful to have a horse that would actually trot out and stop on command. I don't know how often I'll let them use Tisa but the both seemed to enjoy it. I don't want to tie up my horse on the weekends where I can't use her when I want but if we're done with her, it'll do her some good to be a lesson pony. Besides, Jenna wants to do leadline classes if she ever gets good at riding the trot.

On the down side, both the Boy and I agree that my synthetic saddle just isn't cutting it anymore. Tisa is starting to get really ansy about having it put on and I think its because its hurting her. It wants to slide back from where it should be and its making rub marks on her shoulders. I guess I need to start saddle shopping for something with a real tree that won't move around so much. I don't like hurting my horse just to save money.

Sunday - bridle shower and bike
I went to Stacey's bridle shower and i have so much sympathy for her now. Her future in-laws are the stereotypical HUGE Italian family and are very set in their ways. Take this shower. To me, a bridle shower is where you get a bunch of the bride's friends and female family together, you gossip, watch bad movies and throw toilet paper around. Gifts are bride specific and are often of poor taste. To Stacey's in-laws, a bridle shower is a formal affair (I was the only one in jeans), has ALL the family, male and female, and the gifts are strictly from the registry. It was held in a banquet hall and really looked like a miniture reception, complete with a HUGE buffet and tiered cake. Very weird. I can understand why Stacey is feeling put apon by her in-laws now.

Afterwards, I drove out to S and A's and met up with the Boy. He'd driven his bike out there while I was at the shower and he and S were changing oil and oil filters when I arrived. A and I made dinner (hmmmm...kabobs) and afterwards, we watched the movie Ghost Dog. Don't bother if you haven't seen it, its not that good. I convinced the Boy to leave his bike there and ride back with me, seeing how it was 40 degrees and raining. Sick Boy makes everyone miserable and isn't worth it just to have his bike at home.