Josie's riding lesson

Hi everybody! It's Josie writing about my horse riding lesson with Meghan and Elska! (Elska is the horse:)

Meghan is the next door neighbor who owns three other horses named (and I'm probably spelling these wrong) Litley, Dakota, and Cocoa. Every morning this week, I looked out the window to see Meghan riding Cocoa down the road. I thought it was so funny that people ride scooters and bikes in my neighborhood and here is Meghan with her beautiful, tall, dark brown horse trotting down the gravel path. :)

Above, Meghan is walking around and showing me how nice and relaxed Elska is. Meghan is an excellent rider and taught me some of the basics yesterday.

Uncle Rory pointed out that as I was brushing her, her lip hung in the air and was wiggling around. Meghan said that that was a sign of relaxation; along with the droopy eyelids and the bent back leg.

Getting on the horse wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I've rode only one other time and that was 3 years ago when I was a lot shorter. As my weight climbed up on one side, the saddle slipped, but was soon adjusted.

Meghan was adjusting the foot strap so it matched my leg length. I was paying attention when Uncle Rory suddenly said, "Smile!" and quickly took the picture.

Meghan wanted me to get used to the feeling of the horse moving under me. She grabbed the reigns and gently walked Elska around while teaching me the proper turn signals and how to make her start walking. I simply had to say "walk on" and squeeze my legs together a little bit. That was the easy part. Elska, being so relaxed earlier, wanted to stop more than go. I would get her to walk, but about 3/4 through the track, she would say, "no, I don't want to walk anymore. why don't you try wearing a giant coat in hot, sunny weather with someone sitting on your back and see how long you can last!"

You can clearly see the droopy eyelids in this shot. It was very important to sit with your shoulders, hips, and heels all lined up as you ride. (I tried my best.) It almost looks like Elska has her shoulders slumped with a sad look on her face.

The cones were one of the three exercises Meghan had me walk through. I had to start at the right side, walk through the cones, go right around the first, left around the second, and walk over a small white bar at the end. (You can barely see it in this picture.)

This is the second track. I tried it starting from both directions. I had to walk over the white bar, weave through the cones, and over the thick white bar at the end. Earlier, Elska and I were walking around the rim (called the rail) when she took 2 steps and stopped. Then 2 more, and stopped. This went on for a little more when finally Elska wouldn't move anymore. Megan was behind us and discovered the problem. Let me put it this way: the little brown chucks by the last white pole aren't any chew toys.

Meghan also wanted me to get used to a horse's trot. This is a different kind of horse where instead of a trot it is called... something else that I can't remember. Give me a break, it was almost 24 hours ago:) Because of the different way Elska trots, instead of bouncing up and down, you bounce side to side. Megan said it's an unusual way to move and always makes her laugh.

The whole time I have been typing this, Ivar has come up about three times saying "I wanna see you ride Elska!"

I've had sooooo much fun these past couple days here at The Grovestead! My visit ranged from John Denver, to John Deere to John the deer! I remember two stories I told Ivar at bedtime last night about Jake the Horse, who met a red ladybug named Friend, and about Phil the cow, who needed to listen to his mom who told him not to eat too much grass. :)

I hope to come back real soon!