It's still 1,000,000 degrees in Indiana (wtf?) ... so this morning I threw on some jeans, my paddock boots and went out to the barn. I groomed Hampton, threw on his bridle and walked into the arena. At this point I was getting funny looks by fellow boarders. I parked him right up next to the arena wall, hopped up on it, swung my leg over ... and bam, off we went riding bareback! It was the first time I have ever sat on Hampton without a saddle. He was somewhat hesitant to walk on, but quickly got the hang of it. We mostly walked with a couple of 20 meter circles of trot thrown in. Lets face it, I have not ridden bareback in YEARS and I'm not as good at it as I once was. Also, I have more self-preservation these days than I did when I was 18 and never blinked an eye at trotting and cantering rank, green Morgans around. Yeah, not so much these days.
The BO even said that out of all the people at the barn (everyone else has an older, steady schoolmaster) ... I was the one she least expected to come out and jump on bareback. LOL. Oh, I still have that little girl inside me who just loves to ride. No worrying about bending ... or if my horse is on the bit ... just ride.
(Note: Photo is me and Hampton last year, the first day he ever wore a saddle.)
"Somewhere behind the rider you've become,
the hours of practice you've put in,
& the coaches who have pushed you,
is the little girl who fell in love with the sport and never looked back.
Ride for her."
Good for you! Bet it felt great.
ReplyDeleteHi! Thank you for following my blog. :)
ReplyDeleteSometimes you do need to not worry about anything, and just ride. Sometimes it's the best medicine.
How fun! Everyone should do something like this every now and again,especially when it is too hot or cold to do any serious training!!
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