To ride dressage is to dance with your horse, equal partners in the delicate and sometimes difficult work of creating harmony and beauty.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Riding in the new year

I have long mandated to myself that each new year start out on the back of my horse, even if it's only a bareback walk up and down the driveway. This year didn't begin that way, but I'm finding that I'm okay with that. I got to ride on Friday (when I zoomed in on Mt. Hood, above) and am going out again this afternoon, have clinics and maybe even a few small shows to look forward to this year, so I didn't have to be horseback on January 1 to symbolize anything to myself.

The clear(ish), cold, dry weather we currently experiencing is limiting Russell and I to walking on the relatively even gravel road; everywhere else is frozen into a broken-concrete-like state. But while walking we work on shoulder-in, renvers, travers, leg yield and half-pass to supply and gymnasticize, so I feel we are still progressing. And it feels good. :-)