Happy Labor Day!
Normally around this time of year, my parents pull us kids out of school for a long weekend spent in Eminence, Missouri. We spend the weekend at a horse-camp, riding our horses through the wooded trails, tubing, crawfishing, and swimming with the horses in the Jack's Fork river, line dancing, listening to live bands, wearing cowboy hats and boots, going to a mess hall to get grub, meeting fun people, and just having a great time in general. When you ask our foreign exchange students what some of their favorite things that they did in America are, I can almost guarantee that all of them who went will say Eminence was one of them.
"Cori, put your hands down, heels down, HANDS!"
Flash forward to the present-day. Instead of a cowgirl hat, I wear a helmet. Where there was once jeans now there are tight English riding pants. Instead of my brown, pointy-toed boots now I wear black English riding boots. I'm still the same girl but I'm sure not in Kansas anymore.
Hilma, the cute Fjord horse I am riding for the year, is a very nice horse. Sweet tempered, she listens, all that good stuff. I'm lucky to be able to ride her for this year.
I guess it's going to take a little time and a lot of habit-breaking for me to develop a somewhat decent technique, but I'm learning. Some of the main things that I have to learn are.. well everything. Even though I've been raised around horses, not everyone has the same way that they do things. In the stable, I have to learn the ropes of what goes where, what happens when, how to clean things, etc. I have to learn how to brush the horse and clean the hooves properly. I have to learn where to place the saddle, how much to tighten the girth, how much to adjust the stirrups, how tight to put the straps on the bridle, how to hold the reins, how to keep my legs, everything. My biggest issues right now are keeping my hands down, keeping my balance with my legs without using my hands, and keeping my heels pointed down and my legs tight against the horse.
"There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse; as I have found in traveling in a stagecoach, that it's often a comfort to shift one's position and be bruised in a new place."
— Washington Irving
If I were to try to compare riding Western, (the cowboy way), to English, (bouncing up and down (also called posting)), I would compare the horses to cars. Driving an automatic car is a lot like riding western- You can get up and go, it's low maintenance, easy to take care of, and you don't have to worry as much about how you ride it's more just to go. Whereas, English riding being compared to a stick shift car- you have to examine every moment, what goes where, what to do when, much more attention being focused on the machine. Both are fun in their different ways. I would most definitely prefer riding western on long hauls, and for fun on the weekend camp-outs. But I think the English style is more showy, and it's sort of fun to think about what you're doing.
That's all for now- Hope everyone had a nice Labor Day Weekend
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