As I mentioned, I have started learning to ride horses. Strictly for pleasure; no shows or anything (for now). All I know is that I love the animals & enjoy riding them! There's an awful lot to learn.
I've only had one lesson so far but I enjoyed it, and I only fell off once, haha.
No photos yet, but next Friday when I go back (I have a wedding rehearsal to attend this Friday) I will take some.
Amanda, who I am learning from, is my sister Michel's best friend. She has been on horses as long as she can remember. She said she doesn't really remember learning, so she is worried about giving me 'proper' instruction. But honestly, I just want to learn how to ride for my own enjoyment.
She lives out in Glen Saint Mary on a little over 2 acres & has two horses, Sage & Midnight. They are both very friendly, but they are 'spirited'. Sage is a 4-yr old gelding Quarter Horse, he is kind of a caramel color. He was rescued from a barn that got shut down here in Jax a few years ago because of animal cruelty. They rescued something like 50 horses. Sage looked awful when she got him; he has put on almost 200 lbs & is a beautiful animal, but he hasn't been worked with enough to make him very obedient or confident. He is actually somewhat of a fraidy cat when you take him off her property, because he simply doesn't know what alot of stuff is. He also was very neglected at the barn he was rescued from, and they hardly ever worked with him.
Midnight is a 14-year old Quarter horse mare. She has only had 2 owners- Amanda, and the lady she bought her from. She is all black with just a tiny spot of white between her eyes and her rear ankles. Amanda bought her from a friend who had raised horses her whole life, but wanted to sell Midnight because she had thrown the lady, fell on her & landed her in the hospital. (This is information that was given to em after I had been riding her for an hour!)
She is very friendly, but she just has her own ideas about what is going on & if she doesn't like your agenda, well that's too bad!
She warned me that her horses are not exactly good horses for a beginner.....
Midnight also does NOT like the saddle strapped too tightly. Every time we tried to tighten it, she would pooch her belly out & just stand there looking at us... we finally settled on it being a little lose instead of aggravating her, because it was my first time on her. I only planned on walking her slowly.
We rode around in the yard for at least an hour, just kind of getting the hang of some commands. She really was being good, so I asked Amanda if we could take them off the property for a walk.
Sage is kind of pokey; he is a bit lazy. But Midnight wants to move quickly everywhere. She gets impatient walking or standing. She had been behaving pretty well & listening to me- we were riding back to the house after walking around for a good hour or so, and since Sage was really dragging along, Amanda kind of took off ahead of me. Well Midnight did NOT want to be behind him (no one told me she prefers to be in the lead all the time!), and when he got ahead of her she took off. I just started riding, and all I know how to do on a horse right now is WALK!
The slightly not-tight saddle kind of rolled over to the right a little bit, which left me sort of half hanging off. I wasn't sure what to do & all I could picture was going underneath her feet, so instinctually (instead of falling under her), I leaned forward & grabbed on to her hair. Big mistake! Of course, to a horse that means "LET"S GO!" and that's exactly what she did. I felt her back feet come up off the ground as she started to gallop & I panicked, so I kicked my left foot out of the stirrup, and then pretty much jumped off. I hit the ground and kind of rolled; at some point I twisted my ankle pretty good. Not sure if I did that while bailing, or when I hit the ground. It's bruised and it's still sore, but it'll be fine! I had some other fun bruises appear over the course of this week, and my knee on my other leg has been hurting, but it feels much better now. I wanted to learn, and falling off is something I have to learn too.
I think Midnight thought I was stupid... As soon as she realized I wasn't with her anymore, she stopped & turned around. I think she was thinking, "why did you do that....?"
It's mostly my lack of experience that caused the fall. I really had to talk Amanda into leaving the yard, and then after my spill she felt really bad. We had actually turned around to head home at Amanda's suggestion a few minutes before the fall. Sage had seen some trash on the ground that scared him (I told you he is a chicken), and he was nervous, and Midnight was feeding off his agitation.
Amanda wants us to definitely stay in the ring next time. We are going to put Midnight on the lunge line, and I will ride her with Amanda walking with us, and we are going to practice going from walking to a trot and back to walking for awhile, so I get a better feel of both and how to control my own body when the horse is doing each. I think I just got excited & wanted to move too quickly. I've always wanted to do this, and being sick has kind of made me a little more brave- I know I am not knocking on death's door, but I figure I might as well do all the things I've wanted to do before I am physically unable to do them.
So, now I am in the market for some very simple & basic riding gear. I need some boots, jeans that are better for riding (no breeches yet- they are expensive!), possibly some half chaps, and definitely a helmet.
