NaBloPoMo Day 05- Your first fall

Now this... this I remember.

For reasons I still don't understand, my instructor at the time threw me up on a pony that had a) flunked out of a handicapped riding program and b) had only been at the barn for like a week.

The little felon himself.  Pony is a four letter word...

And then, to make it even better, the night I rode him was the first time he'd been in the covered arena with the lights on.

If you're thinking "recipe for disaster," yes.  Yes it was.

Everything was fine until we started to canter.  He was getting a little sticky and breaking to trot when we passed the flower box sitting in the middle of the arena, so my instructor said to kick him the next time he did that.

So I did.

The next thing I knew, I was lying on my back in the dirt, staring up at the roof and wondering what had happened.

According to what I was told, the little jerk reacted to me kicking him on by spinning on a dime, pitching me off into the dirt, and took off.  My helmet hit one of the ground poles with a nice solid clunk, although I don't remember being next to a ground pole when I realized I was lying in the dirt.  I didn't have a concussion or anything; I just legitimately do not remember the time between "kicking the pony" and "why am I in the dirt?"  (Not the only fall where I've had that happen, and the others definitely did not involve hitting my helmet on anything.)

And yes, I got back on.  Granted it was after a cry in the bathroom and like ten minutes of getting the pounds of dirt out of my clothing... lol

NaBloPoMo Day 04- A ride that impacted your life

You know, I can't actually point to a single ride.

Sure, I could probably say, "Oh, the first time I rode," or "The first time I rode at my current barn," but they're not these hugely striking rides.

Instead, I think of things like the time where I finally convinced myself to canter again, which I can't point to a single ride where that happened.  I had lost a ridiculous amount of confidence, and then gained a lot of it back.  And at some point, my college-age self looked at the teenagers around me and started thinking, "What the fuck.  They can all canter.  Why can I not canter?  I've been riding longer than any of them."  And a few weeks later, I finally cantered again - for the first time in like five years.

In the absence of riding photos, which I have very few of, have a shot of one of the two worst pieces of equine artwork I own.  I've lovingly dubbed it the Viagra Unicorn.

NaBloPoMo Day 03- Your best riding

In terms of competition, I don't have much to point to.  In terms of weird, random stuff that I'm proud of?

Still having a good seat after 4 years of not riding.

Not falling off when a 6hh Percheron stopped paying attention to her feet and face-planted.

And the biggest of all: still riding after several huge losses of confidence over the years.

NaBloPoMo Day 02- The last time you rode a horse and what you did

Ouch.  Umm... *whispers* 2014?

There was barn drama, major epic barn drama, and the only horses trained for riding either were sold or - in one memorable case - got injured in a freak accident.  And then when I did buy my own horse(s)... well, genius me, nobody's trained for saddle.  So it's... umm... it's been a while.

Shh.  Pretend you never saw that. Be distracted by a picture of Justice's daddy.

NaBloPoMo Day 01- When and why you started riding

Believe it or not, I know this to the month and year - June 1992.

I'd been bugging my parents for years at that point to be able to take lessons, but I wanted to ride English, and I grew up in the Land of Western Riders.  But in 1992, the local rec center partnered with a local English barn, and I got to take a whole four weeks of lessons.

Yep, there are pictures.

Why?

Horses.  Duh.  Pretty much horse crazy from the start.

Trying out this NaBloPoMo thing

Clover Ledge Farm is doing a National Blog Posting Month thing, and... you know, it's been a week and I need to do something that isn't all the bullshit that's been going on, so what the hell.  Let's see how many of these I can do... and I totally apologize for the mini-flood that's going to happen as I catch up.  :)

Baby butt!

Fall color: still kind of marble cake-ish.

Slowly frosting mane.

Cold weather, rain, and oh, the non-barn-related drama have things moving slowly around here, but there's always time for butt scratches.