laceblade

On Wednesday, I biked for the second half of my commute home from work.
Due to construction, west-to-east evening traffic has been abysmal this summer, whether one is traveling by bus or by car.

The b-cycle station is not really conveniently located for getting on to the bike trail, & I had to back-track a couple blocks.
Still, the bike ride portion took about 18 minutes.

Overall, I only saved 5 minutes. But all of the start-and-stop that riding the bus involves - particularly the evening drivers on my route, ugh - usually leave me feeling sick.
Biking doesn't make me feel sick like that, however it did wipe me out for the rest of the evening.
My mind felt good - it was a great way to let things go after work. But my body was exhausted. I'd previously planned to cook dinner that night, & I had to microwave something instead.

My second ride was this evening. The Boyfriend and I walked took a walk for a few blocks, & then I grabbed a b-cycle & took it to the market to buy a couple food things for the week. It was a nice ride, mostly, but other bikers kept passing really close to me without shouting out, "On your left!" or etc., which made me feel anxious, :/

It's pretty buggy, too.

I'd sort of like my own bike for trips like these. I tried checking out the nearest St. Vincent DePaul's bike sale Saturday morning, but it was a bust.

Crossposts: http://mystickeeper.livejournal.com/702308.html

Last night was my second outdoor ride on Chief - these are referred to as trail rides.
I love riding outside. Beautiful views, and Chief is very much in his element outside. He speeds up going in unfamiliar fields, but slows down in known/well-trod paths, because they are familiar & boring.

On trail rides, we go beyond the property lines. There is etiquette to this - stay on the perimeter of crop fields. When horses spook or you really need them to pay attention, you pull them in a tight circle to regain their focus on you. In new fields, you should only do that in an emergency, lest you trample baby plants trying to establish themselves.

We've had a lot of rain lately. As such, the grass and weeds have gotten pretty high. Thus, Chief was very naughty! He kept lunging forward to rip grass with his teeth & much on it.
This hurt my arms some, due to holding the reins. To scold him, I had to yank the reins to one of my hips. Horse neck muscles are way shorter on the sides, and easier to control by pulling that way. Pulling straight back toward my belly makes him stop walking, but he'll still bend down to take a mouthful of delicious grass.

As Chief continues to lose his winter coat, he becomes more handsome. Last night, my instructor undid his winter tail braid, trimmed the tail, & let it stay unbound for the summer. She also put some kind of varnish/moisturizer on the outside of Chief's and Cheyenne's hooves. This prevents their hooves from cracking.

Crossposts: http://mystickeeper.livejournal.com/699448.html

This Tuesday, I rode inside because it was raining.
Plenty was going on inside, though.

When I arrived, a younger girl was riding my instructor's white-ish horse, Jesse. I'm not sure how old the rider is, but in grade/middle school, for sure.
She was riding English style and doing jumps. I was very impressed! So was her dad, who watched from the gate with me.

After her lesson was finished, I asked my instructor whether the second baby horse had been born since my last lesson, and he had! So we went across the arena to the area in the back where the moms/babies are in their respective stalls, still next to one another.
Apparently even though they each have their own baby now, one of the moms keeps trying to bust into the stall of the other one.
The newest foal is a little less shy than the other one. His mom is a little more protective, though.

We got a wet Chief out of the field & let him drip-dry a little while we stood in the arena and watched the now 1.5-week old Sky run free for a little bit in the arena with his mom, Bayla. Bayla runs in pretty arcs around the arena, rippling muscles, etc. Sky is awkward as fuck, running & then stopping again, not really understanding how to use his legs and sometimes seeming about to trip over himself and wipe out.

Other people who board their horses at the stable are often around in the evenings, brushing/caring for their horses. On Tuesday, one of them stood with my instructor & I to watch Sky and Bayla run around. It's been 5-6 years since the last time this ranch had a baby horse, so everyone's pretty excited.

Of course, all the baby excitement has a consequence - I got out much later, & was super crabby when I got back home. Please pity The Boyfriend.

As for me & Chief, picking the mud out of his hooves is currently DISGUSTING. ugh.

As soon as I got on Chief, he almost decapitated me by booking it through the arena garage door, so I had to duck down so as not to clip my head :( :( :(
My instructor thinks Chief's thought process was, "We went outside last time! This girl is on me again! Let's go outside, yayyyy!"
Not so much.

In the arena, we did precision training. Two sets of 90-degree angled posts were lying flat on the ground, perpendicular to each other. So, like this:
__ | | __

We'd through the middle of each pole like this:
_>_ | > | _v_
^

Then, we'd halt between the two poles that were parallel to one another:
__ | x | __

Finally, they were spaced out more so that I would bring him to a trot between parallel poles:
__ | (trot) | __

For each sequence, I'd go one way & then reverse it.

The last thing we did was work in a giant ring of flat fluorescent cones. I worked to weave in an out, first every-other cone, then in patterns of two inside/one outside & then two outside/one inside. And finally, switching between in & out with every cone.

It was a lot of work! My instructor thinks I'm getting better.

Except for dismounting, :( This time, I didn't get my left foot unhooked after swinging my right over the horse & starting to sink down. My body weight was already too far down & I don't have the arm strength to haul myself back up on to the horse, so I ended in disgrace.

Crossposts: http://mystickeeper.livejournal.com/697165.html

This past week, I didn't ride Chief during my lesson. Instead, I rode a horse named Jake.

Jake's owner had a lesson directly preceding mine, so I think it helps my instructor out from doing parts of our lessons at the same time. It also gave me more riding time, because Jake was already saddled up when I arrived.

However, Jake does English-style, which means that when I ride him, I'm doing English-style.
I really prefer Western style so far. I like being able to hold on to the pommel of the saddle when I want. I like the way one holds the reins Western-style than English-style. I feel much more in control.

Chief and I had been working on turning and stopping, trying to get me better precision.

With Jake, I worked on posting, which involves getting him to trot & then having me try to stand up in the stirrups every time his "outside" front leg hits the ground. So...basically rapid bouncing up & down. I really didn't like this, lol. When Jake is trotting, I feel like I have absolutely no control & I'm about to fall off, because there's nothing to hold on to. I can grasp part of his mane, but that doesn't really make me feel secure.
For whatever reason, I had much better rhythm going clockwise than counter-clockwise.

Later in the lesson, Jake spooked. Unlike Chief's spook, which feels like he just misses a step, Jake pinned his ears down & streaked after another horse who was in the arena. I shouted & almost fell off. Actually, I was positive I was going to fall off, but luckily I didn't!

The other women in the room (my instructor, another student of hers who has much more experience & who owns Jake, & a woman who boards her horses there & was riding them around) were very supportive, praising me for holding on & not falling off, & also bringing Jake to a halt.

STILL, it was pretty scary. I'll be excited to ride Chief again.

Currently, my dream is to someday ride outside. We need to wait for it stay lighter further into the evening before that happens. When I was leaving, a women who boards horses (whose name I can't remember & mentally refer to as "Glory's owner") & my instructor were talking about night rides. Glory's owner said that at the previous place she boarded, the owner-dude took her on a night ride. Glory's owner said she couldn't see her hand in front of her face, so the point is to trust your horse & just let them take you through the woods.

This sounds frightening, but in previous lessons my instructor had been having me take my hands off the reins & close my eyes while letting Chief walk wherever he wanted. This was to help me get a better idea of how Chief moves & to relax in the saddle. I think it'd be scarier to be holding on to the reins, but still unable to see anything, & having the horse be walking on uneven terrain next to branches/etc. ;_;
ANYWAY, this increased my esteem for the other riders, lol.