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

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Where we've been

Russell and I aren't getting a lot of time to dance - and I must admit that not having a show in our sights takes away the urgency to school, or even get in proper condition to school. But I do ride when I can, and since conditioning is the main name of the game right now (and the sand arena is SO dusty in the summer), most of our riding is out and about on our hill.

This morning we rode through the neighboring vineyard (straight rows make good places to practice shoulder-in, renvers and travers):
and checked on the local peaches (they'll be ready to put in our freezer soon - yum!):
Sometimes we stay on the roads - of course we always watch for traffic:
It has been "the year of the snake" around here!

We have a horse-camping trip coming up the weekend of August 21 & 22. This will likely be our last one of the year, since the next one is scheduled for the same weekend as my grandma's 100th birthday celebration. My grandma and I have always shared a love of horses; her father was a horse trainer and she was quite the horsewoman herself.