As I mentioned last Fall, I’ve been trading graphic design work for horseback riding lessons. The lessons started up again earlier this Spring and I discovered that, much to my dismay, my body forgot pretty much every single thing I learned last Fall. It was distressing to me, my instructor, and the poor horses who ended up stuck with me for a rider.
My first lesson this season was a few weeks ago. I rode Merlin, a really pretty Arabian. Unfortunately, Merlin and I did not bond. I kept making him go backwards, which was definitely not my intent.
For the second lesson, my instructor suggested that I ride a different horse named Teddy and that I ride him bareback in the small inside arena. Her theory was that I really needed to get the "feel" of riding again. Riding bareback was quite freaky. You don’t realize how comforting a saddle is until there isn’t one.
My third lesson was much better. I did the bareback riding thing again and even went into the (large) outside arena. I also managed to convince Teddy that we were going to go where *I* wanted to go even when he didn’t want to go there. He has issues with the gate. Basically, he doesn’t want to go through it to get into the arena, and he wants to stand next to it to leave. So getting by the gate can be a project.
Anyway, I keep trying to tell myself that riding is like skiing…you sort of have to train your body what to do. Once your body "gets it" and you don’t have to think about every single thing you’re doing and then it will be fun. In the meantime, I need to be patient because I’m still in the learning phase, and my body is totally and completely clueless. Ouch.
In far, far more nerdy musings, we were recently accepted into the Microsoft Empower Program for ISVs (Independent Software Vendors). We just got our welcome package today. In between planting a bunch of plants in my garden, I think I’ll be installing a lot of software over this long weekend 😉