Back in the saddle

Yesterday I finally went to Sde Ya'akov and rode horses in the small stable there. A good friend from Yoram's running group has a small riding school there for kids and adults. The horses are not any fantastic, pure-bred wonder animals and all of them are more or less shabby, but very well kept. However, as far as I have seen, also the backyard-bred horses around here mostly contain Arabian and Quarter horse blood, so they surely are decent horses.

Riding school horses that are not regularly ridden by someone who can correct them and loosening them up properly, often develop different irregularities, like stiffness on one side, or general stiffness in the neck and body, as well as a flat and sloppy stride. I was asked to ride three different horses who had different issues, but all of them seemed to be easy fixes if I would only give them some more sessions, or even on a regular basis. They wanted me to come back already today, but domestic issues prevented me, and instead I promised to come next week, as many days as possible.

We rode out in the fields for a while as I had finished the first horse, but the next two I was riding only in the paddock. Before I went there I had no clue as to how much I would ride, and where, so I did not have any hat. I quickly understood that our weekend mission will be to go to any nearby market to find me a light cowboy-style hat. In Sweden I had a nice camel-hair hat from the US, but now I giggle a little bit at that. Western riders in Sweden have cowboy hats as an important attribute, while here it is a necessity.

Hat or not, in the paddock they sprinkle water on the sand when you ride during daytime. Unless you do that, the dust will make it impossible to keep on riding. I was explained that the horses are used to it, and having the sprinkler in the middle of the arena helps the kids keeping the horses riding close to the fence. For me, I instead discovered that I was riding closer and closer to the sprinkler, searching the cooling rain drops. I think that both me and the horses enjoyed it a lot.

I definitely have found a new forum of expression, and I feel very inspired. It is one thing riding top-quality performance horses, but it is also very rewarding to work with these kind of horses, where you can see a lot of progress with little effort. I really hope that I will get the opportunity to do a good deed over there. I cannot wait until Sunday!