Dear blog...
5 August 2009 21:42![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
glenatronToday I got on my horse.
I got on from the ground and we didn't have a saddle. It was perhaps the most inelegant mount in the history of riding and required herculean tolerance on the part of my charming pony as I tried to work out how to get from bellied across his back into a regular riding position. Luckily one of us is good at our job and so he put up with it, let me know with a swish of the tail or a sidelong look when I wasn't doing terribly well and after a while I managed to swing myself up into a sitting position.
It's not something I like to practice often with a horse for the obvious ergonomic reasons - mostly I try and build it up with walls or appropriately sized branches - but once in a while I do give it a try and today was the first time I have actually managed successfully.
Riding bareback was easier than last time as well, although I find it harder to use my weight as an aid and I have so much feedback from his back that I find it hard to distinguish what each foot is doing at any given time.
I got on from the ground and we didn't have a saddle. It was perhaps the most inelegant mount in the history of riding and required herculean tolerance on the part of my charming pony as I tried to work out how to get from bellied across his back into a regular riding position. Luckily one of us is good at our job and so he put up with it, let me know with a swish of the tail or a sidelong look when I wasn't doing terribly well and after a while I managed to swing myself up into a sitting position.
It's not something I like to practice often with a horse for the obvious ergonomic reasons - mostly I try and build it up with walls or appropriately sized branches - but once in a while I do give it a try and today was the first time I have actually managed successfully.
Riding bareback was easier than last time as well, although I find it harder to use my weight as an aid and I have so much feedback from his back that I find it hard to distinguish what each foot is doing at any given time.
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Date: 5 Aug 2009 20:48 (UTC)no subject
Date: 5 Aug 2009 21:08 (UTC)no subject
Date: 6 Aug 2009 10:26 (UTC)And go you! It's a bit further up onto Zorro than either of my two! I've been taking Saffy for walkies then hopping on to head back up the hill. I just have to step over and ta-da! I'm on. 12.1hh is a GOOD height when you're 5'9" ...
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Date: 6 Aug 2009 17:31 (UTC)I used to regularly swing up bareback from the ground...when I was 14 and my pony was 14.1
I have kinda the opposite experience with bareback...I find it much easier to feel each hoof doing it's thing when I'm bareback, with a saddle it takes me a minute to tune things out.
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Date: 6 Aug 2009 21:51 (UTC)I guess we probably mostly get tuned in to the tools we're used to at any given time. I can totally see why it's easier to feel stuff bareback but for some reason I have so much resolution in the feel I get presented there that it's almost more than I can use...