mallet's Blog

I have to tell you, it ain't a great name for a horse.  But Richard is a great horse.  I rode the old boy again this morning.  He shows his age in some small ways... when you hold his feet up for a long time while using a hoof pick he sometimes gets tired... but when you ride him, you would think he is seven years old not 23.  This morning, I was working on maintaining the canter with Richard.  I have a tendency to favor my right leg when I'm in the saddle.  As a result, my left leg gets into the horse more than the right.  So then the horse drifts right.  We were cantering along the edges of the ring this morning to the point where my right leg was rubbing against the wood.  That'll make you realize you are doing something wrong.  But old Richard is so good, he just looks back at me as if to say "well if you want to rub against the walls, I can do that."  He just follows orders.  You press him too much with the left leg and he will surely move right.  Today was a good lesson.  We were in the indoor ring and did a lot of cantering and a lot of jumping.  My instructor, Marnie Reynolds, is very good at explaining each step of the jump.  Richard clearly loves to jump.  I know I'm supposed to be paying attention to my leg and my seat,  but it is so much fun to point the old boy toward the jump and just feel him come to life beneath me.  He sails over the jump and canters away perfectly.  I have no idea if I was doing things right, but with Richard it almost doesn't matter.  I may have mentioned in this blog before that Richard has been successful at everything he's tried.  He was a winning racehorse.  Then he was a champion show jumper.  Then he won a Circle of Honor award as the Nation's best lesson horse.  Now he is riding around with a dopey anchorman in the irons and making me look good.   I've moved up in the world.  Richard has not.   But Marnie did pay me a nice compliment today.  She says I don't get discouraged and I always try.  I'll take that.  I may not be a natural athlete on horseback, but I keep trying.  And, the horses like me.