Across The Universe

Chief and I have been working on more precision stuff. We walk over brightly painted poles, most of which are on the ground, but some of which are a few inches off. Sometimes, we work in the indoor arena, and sometimes in the outdoor one. We also still go for trail rides once in a while.

When not going over poles, we switch between walk/trot/canter. Chief is a gaited horse, so his trot is very smooth.

Last night, I rode one of my instructor's other horses, a white horse named Jesse.
Jesse is 2 years older than Chief (so, Jesse = 20). The other person who rides Jesse is an 11-year-old girl, and as such he has six braids in his mane lol.

When we brought Jesse inside from his pasture, my instructor told me not to be surprised if he fell asleep in the cross-ties while I brushed him, and...THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED! I'm kind of shocked that he's able to fall asleep while I'm doing my thing with him, but I guess it's probably soothing. We had to wake him up a little aggressively so that he could cooperate with putting his bit/bridle on.

Jesse and I rode in a small circular gated thing that I'd never rode in before. With Jesse, I rode on an English style saddle, which so far I don't like at all. There's much less between you and the horse, and I feel less secure.
However, this didn't go as poorly as my previous attempts at English style riding, which was on a different horse (Jake).

We worked on posting, which is difficult for me. I have a hard time finding the rhythm unless I'm actually looking at Jesse's legs to see when the "outside" front leg is moving (aka, when I should stand up). This is super frustrating to me, because I'm used to having good rhythm musically.

We also worked on a position called two-point, which is sort of like the "standing" part of posting, but involves hovering over the saddle. This position is generally used for jumping. It takes a lot of muscles to do it!

Jesse's trot is MUCH more bouncy than Chief's. So far I really dislike English-style riding, I think. The bouncing makes me feel semi-out of control, although Jesse is a good horse & if he feels me losing balance, he'll slow back down to a walk right away.
Jesse is also a legit horse (remember that Chief is technically a pony), so when riding, I'm about seven inches higher off the ground, which feels like A LOT!

I guess one thing I do like about English-style is that the saddle is much less involved & therefore lighter, and I can carry it with no problem. (I struggle a lot with the Western saddle lol.)

I felt as though I had deeply betrayed Chief when I walked Jesse back to the pasture and gave him a cookie, but had none to offer Chief. I'M SORRY, CHIEF!!

Other points of amusement last night included the fucking cats. One cat would sit in the circular pen we were in, right in the path Jesse & I were walking, and even though we kept steadily approaching, the cat would get all, OH SHIT!! when we were right about to step on him, & then run off.

One cat also kept crouching in the weeds, & then when a few birds flew overhead (way overhead), he jumped into the air & swiped, as though he would get one - he must have really poor depth perception, idk.


I'm so grateful for this time, every week.