Sore

On Wednesday, we did some exercises in my lesson to strengthen our lower legs.  At the time, I remember thinking - "hey, I got this.  I must have a strong lower leg."  Nope.  I was wrong.  So wrong.  I am in pain and have been in pain since Thursday morning.

The exercises were pretty interesting actually and aren't rocket science, although I'll be the first to admit that it takes some time to get the rhythm down.  We had to post for four beats, sit for four beats, and do two-point for four beats.  Obviously, our lower leg shouldn't move at all during the transitions.  This is where I learned that my lower leg is pretty steady during the sitting trot, which probably comes from all those months of riding Walker Western.  So when I went to transition from sitting trot to two-point, my leg actually never moved.  This is also where I learned that my leg is most unsteady while posting.  Sigh.  Oh well.  Good to discover that now then.

The other lower leg exercise we did was to post but stay standing in the saddle - it's not two-point; it's like a frozen posting trot.  So we would stand in the saddle for two beats, down one, back up for two, etc.  Then we did the same thing for three beats.  The trick was not to balance ourselves over the pommel of the saddle, which you naturally want to do because it centres your weight.

Even though it was really helpful to ride a horse like Holly who doesn't break pace, it was all still very painful.

On the Walker front, I have no updates other than that he is back to looking normal - the way he was before I rode him the other night and he started shaking.  This has left me in quite the dilemma because I don't really want to ride him again, but I'm going to have to do it sometime.  So for now, I'm giving him Friday off because I am swamped with work and need to get a handle on my classes.  I will take a drive out to see him since I have to give him some meds, but then I'll try riding him again on Saturday - probably this time exclusively at the walk.  I say that, but I know that if he's excited, I won't want to hold him back so I'll just have to play it by ear.

dreaming of Italy...