Luc and I spend most of our ride in slow motion.
This week was a bit of a gong show. I sent Jen (Luc’s owner and my sister) off to the barn without me as I had a prior commitment and thought I wasn’t going to be able to make it out to ride. As it turns out, that commitment got cut short, so somehow I found myself on the road to the barn, with my hubby in tow. We arrived just in time for me to hijack Jen’s ride. Luc was all tacked up and ready to go. Talk about service!
Now the thing about my hubby is that while he is incredibly supportive of my horsey addiction, he’s not a big fan of English riding. In fact, he grew up riding Western and has been out of the saddle even longer than I have! Putting all that aside, I was thrilled he came out to watch (it was actually his idea to see if we could catch Jen at the barn – yup, this one’s a keeper for sure!), and really wanted to impress him. He hasn’t seen me ride. Ever. But he has heard me talk about it ad nauseam for months.
I hopped on Luc and prepared to strut my stuff. Unfortunately, Luc had other ideas. Instead of being the superstar I know he’s capable of being, he chose now as the time to revert back to his old self. You know, the one I couldn’t get to move forward for the life of me. It also seemed that today was the day the invisible monsters at the scary end of the arena were going to attack. Every time we went down to that end of the ring, his head would fly up, his eyes would bug out, and he would start going even slower – something I didn’t think was possible! A few times he even stopped dead in his tracks halfway down the ring towards it. Not really the impression I was going for.
Despite the difficulties, I managed to work on some lateral work and simple changes. I would categorize my ride as decent. Luc wasn’t really that bad, but he was nowhere near as good as I had hoped for. So much for showing off. It really just wasn’t our day to shine.
I made the hubby promise to come back when it’s warmer out and Luc and I can ride out in the grass field. He loves it out there, and I’m optimistic we’ll be able to perform a little better for our audience. Plus, there will be jumps. And you know how much both of us like those!
It was still a fun ride. I found myself giggling and laughing at the whole situation. I may not have been able to show off the way I wanted to, but it was nice having an audience apart from Jen (who is the best audience a girl could ask for). It’s nice to be able to share your passion with the person you love. And he even said one day, if we’re ever able, I can have a horse of my own again. He just wants to be the one who picks it out so that it actually knows how to go forward!
