Sunday, April 24, 2011

30 Day Challenge - Day 23

First horse you rode.

I'm pretty sure that the first horse I rode was my neighbor's horse, Ruby. She is a 20-something QH pasture ornament that I begged my neighbor to be able to ride. I really wanted to ride Jasper, the paint, but had to settle for Ruby as the other horse was supposedly going to be trained in driving (that never happened).

In exchange for riding I cleaned the tack that I used on her. I had no idea how to ride except from what I learned in books, I'm sure it was very interesting to see me ride her though! My dad would take me over and we'd catch her and tack her up, then lunge her in the round pen. Even though she is quite a chunky mare she would never get tired no matter how much she ran. Then I would get on her and walk around for a minute and then my dad would tighten the girth. That horse could blow up like a balloon and then she'd let it all out and there would be a foot of daylight between the girth and her body! I would walk and trot her around, but our attempts at cantering were just crowhopping every. single. stride. Looking back now, I'm sure that she wasn't all that broke, especially since she had just been sitting in the pasture forever. I wish I had pictures of me riding! I don't even think I had boots or a helmet and I'm sure my posture was atrocious. I'm amazed that I only fell off once when after walking her around before tightening the girth she started trotting faster and faster until the saddle slipped under her belly with me in it. Oh, what good memories...!

Other than that my first rides involve being sat on my parent's cousins' draft horses and being led around. Also, my friend KP got horses before me (two actually) and we would ride them all around the neighborhood double. We had so much fun on those horses!

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