another saturday, another new horse to ride

it seems like all of our favorites at the riding school are lame at the moment - lizette has been laid up for a couple of weeks (i knew for longer than that there was something up with her left rear) and now felix is on a rest regime. we also saw that coming, because for two weeks in a row he naughtily refused to canter to the right and would do all kinds of alarming evasive maneuvers to avoid it. i was pretty sure there was something more to it than just naughtiness. but, i suppose that's the way of lesson horses, they're used all day long, probably a good 6 days a week by a variety of experienced and inexperienced riders and they will eventually come up lame.

so yesterday, much to sabin's relief, she didn't have to ride snehvide (snow white), she got to ride a new (to her) horse called zidan. he was a little cutie and aside from biting me while i was trying to straighten his halter (i think he thought i was handing him a treat) and then biting the bridle when i went to put it on him (he actually took it in his mouth and "held" it for me, while i unhooked the halter), he was a sweetie. with the help of a stool, she was even able to get on him by herself. sabin really enjoyed the ride. it was a rare sunny day (november is often sunshine-free), so they got to go out on a "tour," in the fields. sabin loved that. in fact, she just whined that they won't be able to do it today because it's raining.

here they are on the distant horizon. look at that green winter wheat and the winter sunshine!

they came back and cantered and she was just a blur as she went by.

we ride again today at 2 p.m., so we'll see which horse she rides this time.

where are the 7 dwarves when you need them?

sabin's riding snow white on saturdays now. last saturday she fell off for the first time. snow white is a bit zippier and a bit more of a handful than the other horses sabin has ridden. but it was inevitable that she would fall off at some point and she had helmet and safety vest on, so all was fine. and it didn't make her too scared to ride snow white again this week.

snow white totally ADORES jumping

but you can see how we come into a situation where we fall off her occasionally.

it happened again today.

and that's ok too.

because it's how we learn.

but we do prefer felix

jens drew some stamps!

hey moneek, i thought you'd like to see the wintery stamps that jens hage drew for the post office. they were released last week and i absolutely love them. they're stickers, rather than ones you lick, so forward-thinking technology as well. :-)

halloween party

scenes from our halloween party this past weekend....

galloping girl

was playing with shutter priority settings on my camera today. as you can see, i'm not there yet (need giant, fast sports zoom lens next), but i loved the motion in these galloping shots...

loving lizette

we learned this weekend that we could buy lizette if we wanted to. apparently all of the lesson horses are for sale at any time, but at 45,000DKK ($8600), for a 12-year-old with a stiff rear left leg she has to warm out of, it seems a bit pricey, to say the least. so we'll continue to enjoy her on saturdays and sundays. but she is lovely.

and in the saturday lesson, sabin learned a bit of jumping. sabin was the only one who could keep the horse pointed at the jump and keep her from avoiding it at the last second. all of the other horses were totally ducking it because they could get away with it. sabin's doing well, but it could also be a testament to how wonderful lizette is. and of course, they were really just trotting over it, since it wasn't that much of a jump.

latest riding lesson pix

because mom wanted to see our latest riding lessons...

she's riding lisette, the danish warmblood, for both lessons on the weekend now.

they seem to have been made for one another.

you can see how good she sits in comparison to others

they were told to lean back at the canter

they're learning balance,

so that's why she's leaning back like that.

far's giving her a leg up.

it was a bit dusty in the arena.

she likes to ride bareback at the end for the warm-down.

she still sits well, even without the saddle.

very concentrated.

riding outdoors for the sunday lesson.

we even went out on a little tour outdoors.

and back again for a few rounds bareback before sunday's lesson ended.

riding lessons resume

we started back to riding again this weekend. on saturday, sabin rode a new horse named lizette. she's a lovely danish warmblood and my favorite of all of the lesson horses sabin has ridden. if we get her a horse, it will be one like lizette.

my attraction for lizette could be due to her reminding me of our old beloved i'ma susie bar (without the hauling back on every halter and breaking it).

isn't she just lovely?

she just had such a quiet, lovely way about her. and she really made sabin look good.

the lessons have gone from 30 minutes to an hour now and i think sabin will make leaps forward in progress.

it's a colorful life

i don't know if we're just surrounded by color this summer or if i'm just drawn to it at the moment, but it seems that color is everywhere...at the amusement park, in the garden, in our stitching. maybe it's just that nikon totally rocks the color.

we're off to singapore tomorrow around noon. catch ya late next week. unless we send in some reports from the road.