Riding!

Yep, two posts in one day. :O

I decided after all to go riding today. It was fairly easy finding the barn, though I walked in the wrong direction for 15 minutes. It's located about 5 minutes out of town, sort of in the "suburbs". After walking past a few fields and a pretty little pond, I asked a stranger who was getting out of her car if I was going in the right direction. I showed her my piece of paper with directions written in German and asked if I was at the right place. She replied in English, "are you looking to horseback ride?" With answering "yes!", she pointed me in the right direction. Turns out she owns a beautiful (and probably super expensive) Friesian-

http://thehorsepedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Friesian.jpg

I was jealous. I AM jealous. I want that horse!

I waited around for about 10 minutes and tried convincing a few horses to come visit with me (I didn't have food, so it didn't work). Maike showed up and instantly I thought of my friend Christine Karras! They could be twins, and personality wise they're both very similar. We introduced ourselves and I started grooming and tacking up my horse, "Fee" (fairy), a plump, lazy looking but overall friendly horse.

We walked up a steep hill to an "indoor arena"... but it really wasn't indoors. It was a large area enclosed by a sort of net/mesh material. Anyways, I jumped on and started walking around.

I rode western today-

http://www.frankenhorse.de/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Reining1.jpg

though it took me a while to get used to neck reining with two hands. :p I was trained in saddle seat-

http://www.horsechannel.com/images/horse-news-article-images/saddle-seat-equitation_200.jpg

which, as you can see, is very different! My posture used to be amazing before I quit riding. I was never as good as that girl, though. :p

I'm going back next Wednesday for another private lesson. We're going to keep working on me getting used to body cues and neck reining with two hands before I go into group lessons. Shouldn't take too long. :) I'm excited! I hope when the weather warms up we can go on trail rides. Also, Isabel Adams (if you're reading this) I hope we can go riding when I visit!

-Side note, I bought a book yesterday from a riding store on my way to class. It was 12,90 so I splurged a bit... but I hope to learn some horse vocab from it.