Partners

Somehow a year has zipped past already.  Not sure how that happened.  I wandered in for a lesson at a barn and met a lazy draft cross nicknamed the Thigh Master.  I figured I'd ride him for awhile to get in shape, then move on to something fancy and forward.  You know, the type of horse I actually like.  That's not exactly what happened.

Instead, I decided that the Thigh Master had potential.  We started to get along.  He stopped throwing massive temper tantrums, I got back into shape.  I learned to sit, he learned to go forward.  Both of us compromised on some things because we were having a lot more fun together than we were with other partners.  And then I truly lost my mind and bought the lazy, opinionated pony.  

 Today we had what I refer to as a dressage hopping lesson.  This is where Trainer A sets up some jumps to jazz up our dressage exercises.  As we're working on getting Theo to fill in the outside rein, she set up two fences on a 15m turn.  Fences throw it into sharp relief when you don't keep the balance all the way through your half circle.  I sat to my fences and Theo carried me forward with enthusiasm.  We had some trouble when we switched to his sticky right lead, but with a few reps we got it sorted and I had yet another lesson that resulted in aching abs from keeping up with his big, correct effort.

I never would have imagined this when I decided to casually pick up riding again.  I'm really looking forward to our big show in two weeks.  I think mi papi is going to surprise a lot of people that think they know him.  Expect the Unexpected is living up to his name.