Verizon has carried Ride channel for several months that I’ve noticed while channel surfing, but only since March 1, has it appeared without a message “You are not currently subscribed to Ride …” Cool. All I can think is that it’s been downgraded to a tier to which I do subscribe. Now, I get to watch anything from rodeos to horse jumping and dressage events, along with some generally Western themed shows. I used to get so bummed when I’d channel surf, and couldn’t watch the show jumping program that was playing.
I grew up riding English, and still love being around horses. We do have a bunch of horse farms around here. Some of them offer riding lessons, or hourly rentals, but they mostly want beginner to intermediate kids, not adults looking to learn dressage beyond a flying change. Although I have ridden bareback, and Western, a handful of times, it’s not much of a challenge. Dressage would be a challenge. Nobody rides Western around here. All our saddlery shops have English style tack, riding apparel, and stable supplies.
As much as I’d love to go riding again, I fear that it would be like the time I rented a horse from a stable in some Mews in London, adjacent to Hyde Park, at which a friend stabled her horse. We were led out to Hyde Park, by a stable worker, who sort of was a “trail guide.” She realized I could ride a whole lot better than anyone else she was leading, but I was still restricted to cantering a block ahead, then pulling over by a tree to wait for everyone else to catch up. Hyde Park rules, for cantering, not hers.
I miss galloping, and jumping. The only thing I found “interesting” about riding English was the one day I had to ride sidesaddle. It’s easy enough to clamp your knees and thighs on the saddle, but when your ass has no padding, it’s a bumpy, slippery ride at a trot.
It’d be really cool if Ride would show some driving competitions. Those four-in-hand ones could be interesting. I’ve never learned how to drive more than two-in-hand, and those were in-line.
Back to the Longines jumping competition, which is on right now! Yay!
Other than a handful of English riding lessons many many years ago I’ve only ridden Western. No real instruction, just throw on saddles and go! I miss it sometimes. Most of what I did was those guided trail rides. I would go every weekend when I lived near Des Moines. Once I got enough confidence that I wasn’t terrified of falling off they started putting me on the more spirited horses. Two of my favorites were a big, black, mustang gelding and a paint that was used for barrel racing in the off season. Both lovely horses to ride very responsive to signals from whoever was riding them, and absolute sweet hearts personality wise.
I love going to draft horse shows and watching the driving competitions. There’s a big one in Britt, Iowa every labor day weekend with some of the top hitches from all over the USA and sometimes a hitch of two from Canada. I’m always impressed by the last class of the weekend when they get 18 or more 6 horse hitches in the arena at the same time.
I’ve fallen off a couple of times. Once was when my horse balked at a mere 3′ jump. The other time was when the 17-hand horse I was riding on a fake fox hunt refused to jump over a 4′ fence at the end of one field. I went ass over teakettle. My fault, really. Both times, it knocked the wind out of me. It was a long way down from the tall horse. I got right back on both times, though, after i caught my breath.
I’ve fallen off once. A friend was leading her horse in from the pasture and I was riding her bareback with just a loose grip on her mane. She decided to hop over a hole in a bridge instead of stepping over it. I wasn’t expecting it so down I went. Got a lovely bruise, but otherwise was unharmed and had no problem getting back up on her back.