Winter Walker

Damn you, L. Williams and your No Stirrup November.  My body feels like jello and it hurts to sit/walk/stand/move.  It's not even so much the muscles that hurt, but my hip/pelvis joints - whatever that means.  I now need to take a day off before my lesson on Wednesday so that I have some energy left in my system to actually learn something.

In other news, Walker is transforming quickly into his Winter form.  No, I don't just mean he's getting fuzzy.  He's getting frosty - like a cantankerous beast that packs a punch (as opposed to his summer form which is just a cantankerous beast who can't be bothered).

Tonight was one of those rides that my friend likes to call "Survival Rides".  You know the kind.

One Winter Walker + one stirrupless rider + another fresh horse in the arena = kappow

He was totally threatening to take off like a rocket ship, and I was mentally preparing for my best duck and roll.  All this no stirrup work has taught me that I do seem to have ok balance, but there's only so much a person can take before a pony finally dumps you.  At least it didn't come to that.  Tonight anyway.

Normally my response to his "overzealousness" would be to canter the bejesus out of him, but that's what the other rider was doing with her horse.  My muscles were also super fatigued so I just decided to force him to be a good pony and redirect some of that energy into actual work.

It worked for awhile, and then I thought, "Hey, I haven't fallen off and I'm still alive."  So I chalked that one up for a win and quit while I was ahead.