
Welcome to my online diary, enjoy your stay! I don't usually add diary entries, but you're welcome to post something!
I remember the first time I fell off a horse. I was about 10 or 12, and you can imagine how it shocked and upset me. I'd never had a negative experience around horses before. I was at Kemur camp at the time, riding Chocolat (named after the Johnny Depp movie). He had a very irregular trot and I'd tumbled off. My counsellors told me countless falling stories afterwards, to prove that they'd done worse than I had. One also told me that you have to fall off seven times before you can call yourself a serious rider.
The reason I'm bothering to recount all this is that last Monday I hit seven. While jumping. Don't worry, don't worry, I'm fine. I'm great at falling, I roll and I haven't even gotten a bruise so far! I'm riding at Irish Creek Stables now, and I've reached a level that I'm really proud of. We do lots of jumping. Last Monday we were using the stadium jumps out in the field (they were set up like that for camp). We were jumping three jumps! I ride a dark bay (almost completely black) gelding named BJ. He's a biter, but a great jumper. He'd been doing very well so far, but he half-stopped in front of the first jump one time, then decided against stopping and jumped it. Obviously I was unseated, and came off as he landed. Good thing I didn't come off earlier, or I might have tangled with the jump! I flipped head over heels a few times once I hit the ground, and came to a stop on my head with my body flipped up over top like I was halfway through a somersault. Not comfortable. I got up pretty quickly so everyone knew I was okay. I didn't want them to think I was hurt because then they might not let me go over the jumps again, and I wanted to do it right before the end of the lesson. I got back on BJ, who had been waiting patiently beside me munching grass (OMG now his bit is messy). We went over the three once more, and again my instructor praised my jumping position. I felt kinda bad cuz she kept criticizing the others' hand positions and everything.
This Monday (yesterday) I had another riding lesson, but this time in the rain. I thought it would be lame cuz the arena is pretty small. But there are two lessons at the same time, and the beginners got the arena. So we rode out in the rain. It was actually pretty fun, even though we got soaked! We were trotting and cantering out in the newly-mown field (soon to become a new ring) and we even did some cross-country jumps! It was awesome! We jumped over logs! One log had a hill leading up to it, so that was very different. With the steep grades and tight turns it was hard to go fast, but our instructor says she wants us riding more agressively on cross-country. Maybe she was just referring to the people whose horses refused some of the jumps (two out of four riders) but I wouldn't mind getting some more speed out of BJ. That would be so much fun! I can't wait for next Monday!
Anyhow, that's the update for now! Laters!