Not too much to say about today’s lesson, since it turned out to be the once-per-semester obligatory trail ride. Not what I had hoped for.
First of all, I am often less than comfortable on trail rides, due to an accident when I was 10 that I still haven’t gotten over. Though, If I get to ride a smaller horse or a pony, I am usually okay. Today, I fortunately got Murphy again, so that was very nice. However, trail rides around the riding school still feel like a waste of time because a) 45 minutes isn’t long enough and b) there’s virtually nowhere to ride any longer. So, instead of 45 minutes of instruction, you get 45 minutes of walking or, at most, trotting. For someone who rides just once a week, it can feel very frustrating.
But the horses (not the least Murphy) do love it, so its still worth it. And like last week, Murphy was in a very pleasant mood (except when I got near his right shoulder to check that hoof—for some reason he is often touchy about that, perhaps due to an old injury), so we got to spend some quality time together. I also got to turn him out after we finished, and once more he proved what a reliable horse he is when some idiot kids drove past on some noisy two- and four-wheeled contraptions, clearly trying to see if they could scare the horsie a bit. He didn’t even blink. Makes me want to take him home even more, but the garden is a bit small for a horse.
Oh, and I didn’t get a chance to bring up the whole anatomy issue with my instructor, though, so I’ll have to try to remember to do that next week.