I ride. That seems like such a simple statement. However as many women who ride know it is really a complicated matter. It has to do with power and empowerment. Being able to do things you might have once considered out of reach or ability. I have considered this as I shoveled manure, filled water barrels in the cold rain, waited for the vet/farrier/electrician/hay delivery, changed a tire on a horse trailer by the side of the freeway, or cooled a gelding out before getting down to the business of drinking a cold beer after a long ride. The time, the money, the effort it takes to ride calls for dedication. At least I call it dedication. Both my ex-husbands called it 'the sickness'. It's a sickness I've had since I was a small girl bouncing my model horses and dreaming of the day I would ride a real horse. Most of the women I ride with understand the meaning of 'the sickness'. It's not a sport. It's not a hobby. It's what we do and, in some ways, who we are as women and human beings. I ride. I hook up my trailer and load my gelding. I haul...
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Posted at: 10:07 AM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
I went to a Lynn McKenzie clinic about 25 years ago. She turned on a light in my head but used to much rein to the neck, push with inside leg, all these little commands. I asked a girl that won the college finals and then rode for Jackie Jo Perrins dad what I was doing wrong and what she told me in that 15 minutes shaped the way I do everything. In the last 25 years I have made, rode or my girls are riding at least 10 different horses and to this day every time I am having problems I remind myself to go back to the way she told me to ride and it all comes back together. Did it again just by seeing this person last weekend. She makes the light come on for me.
Ride to your pocket, looking were you want to take the set, not at the barrel, easy two hand set, outside hand goes to the horn, inside hand to your pants pocket. Turn and look. It is just about that easy. The pocket is not to big, not to little. The two hand set slows the front end but brings the back...
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Posted at: 10:42 AM | Permalink