Good Things With India

It's been two weeks since I brought India back from her month with Kathleen Lindley and I've ridden her only twice. Such is my fate, because danged if my job doesn't get in the way of what I'd really like to do, which is ride India and build upon the wonderful things we learned. But until I win the MegaMillions, I'm relegated to one day a week, two if I'm lucky.

This morning it was windy and pretty chilly, but I tacked up anyway. One thing I've noticed since India returned is how much quieter she is while I'm grooming and tacking up. I think this is because India spent a fair amount of time tied when Kathleen wasn't working her and she learned to accept it as part of what is normal.

The arena is still full of weanling cows, so I rode around the barn area and also went on a walk around the pond with Elaine, Maurisa, Lady and Emily. Emily is a friend of Maurisa's and this was her first time on a horse, so Maurisa held a long line and led Lady so Emily could enjoy the ride. Since it was going to be low key, I thought this perfect to take India out as we'd get to walk along the pond, across a wooden bridge, and scariest of all (at least for Asia), the narrow strip of land between the pond and Katie's backyard, where the boat house and dock are.

India did really well and we led. When she balked as we got along towards the bridge, I did what Kathleen taught me, which is I tapped her so lightly with my heels and then increased the pressure of the kicks until she moved forward and to my delight, it didn't take much pressure. On a scale of one to ten, with one being where I started, I never got to five. At four, India would move forward again and I would immediately release.

However, when we got very close to the bridge, India started to back and she was about to run over Maurisa and Lady, as well as Emily and Elaine. The track is very narrow and slopes steeply down to the pond on our left and up to the cow pasture on the right. India started backing down into the pond and Elaine jumped forward to grab her rein and I didn't object. We didn't need disaster then, so next time I go out, I'll take India down there and ground drive her all around the pond until we've got it down.

After our jaunt around the pond, we went back to the barn area and I trotted India over two cavaletti. She did pretty well and Elaine took a picture.

And trotting between the round pen and the arena. Love the stripes!

One thing that does bother me has nothing to do with India, but with my new saddle. It's still very comfortable, but dang, the stirrup leathers are so short! The extra barely fits through the keepers and I ended up riding with my stirrups one hole shorter than I like because I'm just ticky enough to be bothered by flapping leathers. ;p I bought these leathers at the same time I bought the saddle and I bought the longer ones that Pessoa makes. I've measured and confirmed this by looking in my Dover's catalogue that I didn't get the children's. But I've pulled my Stubben leathers off of Asia's saddle and they're a good five inches longer. Is it now the fashion to have short, short leathers? I'm so out of the trends in the hunter-jumper world and the Pessoa is obviously not a fox hunting saddle as there are no Ds for hanging a sandwich box from, which bothers me more than it should, especially as I'll probably never fox hunt again, but why can't I have those Ds anyway??

Love my pony!