... uh ... wait...no... that's supposed to be RIDE, not skin :11:
I've been riding horses my whole life... including the part before I was actually born, since my mom rode while she was preggers with me
Most of that riding has been either the "western" style with the big, comfy saddle and a handle to hang on to or with no saddle at all. I have spent probably less than 10 hours TOTAL in one of those dinky little "english" saddles.
Well, since I'm in Seattle, Lynne (TSandM on SB) invited me up to her place north of Seattle today for lunch and to see her 'babies'. I asked if she would give me a 'Dressage' lesson, since I have never ridden that way and that's her preffered riding discipline. For those that don't don't know, dressage is actually a way of training a horse and rider to work together to greater and greater levels of discipline and performance. When watching it at the more advanced levels, it's almost like a dance the horse and rider perform together. The cues from the rider to the horse (once both are trained) are very subtle. At the top levels of training, the horses do the "Aires above the Ground" performance of the Spanish Riding School... spectacular to watch!! And of course, something I have always been intrigued by and have wanted to try.
Anyhow, Lynne agreed to let me rider her baby. So after lunch we went to the stable, I signed a waver, helped brush and saddle "Eisvein," donned a helmet and off we went.
Holy cow :eek_2: I didn't know I was in for such a workout!!! By tomorrow I'm gonna be feeling muscles I forgot I had. It's a lot more work than sitting back in a big ol' western saddle and letting the horse meander down a trail (my preffered riding discipline). But in it's own way, it was actually a lot of fun. Many of the signals to the horse through the rider's legs, feet, butt and hands are similar across the board, so it really wasn't that hard for me to ask the horse to do what I wanted.... The trick was in asking the horse to do what Lynne wanted me to get her to do.... which is way beyond the level of training my own lazy horses are at.
Not a great picture, but this really is me riding a real dressage-trained horse at a trot
I've been riding horses my whole life... including the part before I was actually born, since my mom rode while she was preggers with me
Most of that riding has been either the "western" style with the big, comfy saddle and a handle to hang on to or with no saddle at all. I have spent probably less than 10 hours TOTAL in one of those dinky little "english" saddles.Well, since I'm in Seattle, Lynne (TSandM on SB) invited me up to her place north of Seattle today for lunch and to see her 'babies'. I asked if she would give me a 'Dressage' lesson, since I have never ridden that way and that's her preffered riding discipline. For those that don't don't know, dressage is actually a way of training a horse and rider to work together to greater and greater levels of discipline and performance. When watching it at the more advanced levels, it's almost like a dance the horse and rider perform together. The cues from the rider to the horse (once both are trained) are very subtle. At the top levels of training, the horses do the "Aires above the Ground" performance of the Spanish Riding School... spectacular to watch!! And of course, something I have always been intrigued by and have wanted to try.
Anyhow, Lynne agreed to let me rider her baby. So after lunch we went to the stable, I signed a waver, helped brush and saddle "Eisvein," donned a helmet and off we went.
Holy cow :eek_2: I didn't know I was in for such a workout!!! By tomorrow I'm gonna be feeling muscles I forgot I had. It's a lot more work than sitting back in a big ol' western saddle and letting the horse meander down a trail (my preffered riding discipline
). But in it's own way, it was actually a lot of fun. Many of the signals to the horse through the rider's legs, feet, butt and hands are similar across the board, so it really wasn't that hard for me to ask the horse to do what I wanted.... The trick was in asking the horse to do what Lynne wanted me to get her to do.... which is way beyond the level of training my own lazy horses are at. Not a great picture, but this really is me riding a real dressage-trained horse at a trot
