Horseback Riding lesson today, so the horse did the running for me. Okay so you know that horse that's in the picture of me in my profile? That's Gatsby. His full name is The Great Gatsby. He's almost 33, in fact, his birthday is coming up within the next few weeks. That's really, really, seriously old for a horse. But he's still a great lesson horse, and he's very active. He can canter to the left, but since he has arthritis in his back right leg, he can't canter to the right. I have been riding him for four years, in other words, since I started. We are very good friends and we get along very well together. He's an American Saddlebred, and a formal world champion National Show Horse (but I didn't know him then -- I wasn't even born then). Now he has retired to a quiet life with his girlfriend, Gracie, being a lesson horse. I am hoping to show him later this year, maybe. That's who I rode today. Gatsby was already in the cross ties when I arrived. He was a little hot, but he didn't show it until he was walking to the arena. I rode him English style today, with the Wintec all-purpose saddle (my favorite!) and his normal bridle. I think it may have had the wrong cavason (that's the part of the bridle that goes over the nose), but he responded really well to it and he seemed to like it better than his normal one. Of course, I couldn't have had his normal one if I had wanted to, because I couldn't find it. If you don't understand what I mean, you've never seen the tack room. Cleaning has absolutely no effect on that place, and apparently neither to labels, because you can never find anything in there unless you know it really well. In the arena, I thought I'd be riding with one other girl. But people just kept on showing up. Eventually, including me, there were five other girls on horses in the arena, and two of them were acting up, so that my riding teacher Tom had to get on the horses and get them to behave (which I've never seen him do before). Gatsby was a little bit jumpy, and when I tried to canter him, he went into a perfect (except for the fact that it was extremely bumpy) slow gait, which is *supposed to be* a smooth running walk, about the same speed as a trot. On Gatsby, it's better classified as a roller coaster ride with four legs and a tail. Tom told me to ride him through it, and after about two times around the arena, he went back to a canter. That was about it. I worked on the extended trot for a while, and did some leg exercises (my legs, not the horses'), cooled him down, took him back to the barn, untacked him, and put him back in his stall. I haven't been training a lot, considering that I have a 5K in a few weeks, but I feel like I'm still going to be well trained because of the amount of leg exercises and running I've been doing in gymnastics and horseback riding. I've also been playing in the yard a lot, so I guess that counts. I'll try to get a couple more little runs in before race day, and if I can, at least one on or near the actual course so that I can get a feel for the terrain and stuff. Bye! :-D
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