I'm always surprised at my lack of coordination brought on by my lack of not thinking things all the way through or was it both? You decide. It all starts innocently enough. The setup: I was at a full house, rather full-horse show--meaning that there was a good number of riders, horses and spectators. I am most confident and comfortable in western gear, but I also find English riding fun too mostly because I have extremely talented horses. We had this extremely hard pattern to do in the class...like professional type not small, fun show type....so I'm using that as my excuse for my lack of concentration. Kitty and I were all warmed up and ready to go give it our best shot despite it's difficulty....Well at least Kitty was. They were calling our class to head to the gate and my sister was heading that way....I grabbed my crop and lifted my reins to keep Kitty from eating that long yummy spring grass (notice both hands were busy).....I guess I was thinking I had a horn to lean and grab but instead grabbed air (because English saddles have no horn) and landed face first onto Kitty's neck.....it was a classic face plant and I was so embarrassed because I was just sure my neighbor's heard me grunt as my face hit Kitty's neck and they were probably thinking that was my first time mounting a horse......after all it looked pretty BAD!
Kitty took it quite well as she is use to my clumsiness, but I hadn't realized how much I had embarrassed her. She wanted me to look good, bless her heart, so she decided to do the class amazingly, even doing a perfect 180 front end turn which we very rarely if ever practice! She ended up making me look like a great rider and we came out with a second place!!
They say a good rider will take care of their horse and a good horse will take care of their rider....I really think this is such a true saying for Kitty and me.
Below are some pictures of my Kitty girl jumping bridle-less over some of my "fancy" jumps in the yard. She LOVES jumping!!! Alot!
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