Thursday, August 21, 2008

Cowgirl Up! Violet and Laura Ride the Range!


Yesterday morning was just beautiful -- sunny, cool, quiet. And I decided that I'd just about had it with riding English all the time. So, I went up into my attic and pulled out my Western saddle from when I was a girl. I last used it when I was 17 years old! So, this saddle is almost 30 years old. I love it because it doesn't have much tooling. It's very simple, but has a nice silver conch on the saddle horn and the cantle has a silver plate with my name on it -- Laura. Makes me real happy and the saddle fits so well.
So, Violet and I set out for our Western ride and it was great! She thought it was fun. I was having a blast! And this morning, we went Western riding again and it was even more fun. I felt solid in my seat, comfy, cozy and Violet was a big old girl, trotting large and in charge, moving out at the walk, happy in her work. And when we cantered, well, she just cantered big and loose and relaxed and intent. She did it with eagerness and collection without faltering or trying to quit or cheat in any way. We felt like we were flying! We had lots of fun!