Here are some photos from June 29, 2011 when Renny and I were taking our private lesson with Stacey. I love how forward his beautiful ears are. He helped me gain confidence as a rider over the course of this past year. Anyway, I am writing this entry on Saturday, February 11th. We had a snowstorm on Friday night, so I got to wake up to that wonderful pre-dawn sound of snow plows. And so I drove out to the barn early and it was windy and bitterly cold. I was going to ride both Renny and Violet. The snow was cold and sort of icy and not heavy, so with the wind, it skittered across the roof. And we had lots of sunshine, so the indoor arena was a weird eerie bright. The two windows at the doors were just blazing white, kind of like what heaven might be like past them. And snow had blown under the gate into the dark dirt. And so though the ground was dragged and rich and deep and nice for riding, Renny was really up. He's never up, so I took notice. I walked him around the arena and he just was fascinated and concerned by the white backlit windows and he skittered and scooted and danced away from the gate. I got on him and I could feel his neck muscles tight as he lifted his head high and stared with his nostrils flaring and whirring.
But I rode him. Not well. It took a while to get him to go. I only got him about 2/3rds of the way down the arena. We worked serpentines, shallow figure 8s, half-moons, halts, trots from the halt. He wouldn't back because he didn't want to be obedient and submissive while he was scared. And so though it was worrying to me to have such an up powerful pony, here's a good piece of the story. At one point, he did commit to a shy like his mother -- he suddenly ducked his left shoulder out from under me, turned sharp, spun, and then did a rapid circle. And I could feel myself respond. I could feel my butt following his shoulder and back and spin. And I could feel my shoulders falling back and my belly getting soft and jelly-like. And I could feel my soft belly letting my shoulders come springing slowly up to follow my hips. And I didn't come off. I didn't come close to coming off. It was great.
But I sure hope he's not up tomorrow!