The clinic was great and Daniel Stewart is such a nice man. He always has encouraging things to say. This best part is that I know I am a very basic beginner and even though he is a coach for the Olympic Team, he still provided individual attention to me. No matter how poorly or how well a rider rides, he always points out a positive. In my case, he complemented my positive attitude. That's me -- Have a coke and a smile!
Anyway, I did learn bunches as did my friend, Donna. She boards and rides at Oakmont with me. She loves saddlebreds. I give her a hard time about those giraffe horses and she accepts that I like big butts. My girl's butt is significantly bigger that her horse's. Anyway....back to the topic.
So, there I was...way, way outside my comfort zone attempting to canter. I've only purposefully asked for a canter maybe three times. And that was about a week ago. So, Daniel Stewart told me to ask for a canter and I did. My sister's horse, Stryder, complied and we were off to the races, so to speak, right directly into the wall. Yikes. I bailed. Ka-Blam!
Dang it. I had really hoped NOT to fall off this time. Every time I have ridden Stryder, I have ended up in the dirt. Luckily, this time was less sever that the previous times. No major bruising and no concussion. Only a wrenched finger and a big time head ache.
All in all, I am tickled to have attended the clinic. It is such a privilege to get to work with a big time horse person. He'll be back in July "08. Even though we will be moving to Missouri around the exact same time, I am going to do my best to move mountains to be able to attend.
My niece, Audrey, did extremely well. That young lady has such a great relationship with her horse. She looked amazing. I asked her when she might be moving to Spain to train with Daniel Stewart full-time. She said she has no desire to do that. All she wants to do is ride and train. Keep it simple and love what your doing.
I can definitely understand that. Right now, my ultimate long term goal is to do a flying lead change. Short term, I just want to saddle my horse and ride her without an issue. She's been doing so well. Vanessa, her trainer, has made major improvements with Kadance. I have progressed from simply wanting to pick up her feet to completing basic ground games without a temper tantrum. By spring, I hope to be doing light saddle work.
On another note...this morning I woke up being able to correctly identify the precise location of all those muscles in my own body that I had to identify on the anatomy learning models for my exam last Friday. I know this based on how sore they are. Trust me when I say the sternocleidomastoid muscle gets a work out when you slam the back of your head to the ground when falling from a horse.
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