However, I've ridden a wide variety of horses. Somehow I've ended up as a sort of "guinea pig rider" (or kind-of-apprentice-trainer, if you want to make it sound good) under both experienced instructors I've had, and that's led to my riding a wide variety of young and old, green and well-broke horses of many breeds. I've enjoyed riding Thoroughbreds, mustangs, Egyptian and Polish/French Arabians, half-Arabs, half-Saddlebreds, Tennessee Walking Horses, Morgans, appendix Quarter Horses, champion Paint and Quarter Horses, and grade horses, just to name a few. I've also ridden in the styles of (though not shown) Western Pleasure, hunter, and dressage. Plus the ever-enticing "just" trails, of course! :)
This page, though, is dedicated to four horses that were influential in getting me to where I am now.
BO
When I first met him, Bo-bo was a 20-odd-year-old National Show Horse that I'm not sure ever showed a day in his life. He was the "second step up" lesson horse in the barn and I loved him from the moment I laid eyes on him. He would go English or Western and only occasionally looked sidewise at anything. My poor instructor took great pains to instill in me the concept that Arabians were crazy and that Bo had only become sane late in life. . . I do remember hearing something like that. . .
Bo was my introduction to being more than a simple passenger. He introduced me to canter, to hunt seat, and to my first cavaletti (and then to my first riding-related injury, a broken tailbone!). He's still up in Michigan, but age has made him the "first lesson horse" for the kids now. I couldn't have asked for a better one.
DOC
I don't have any pictures of Doc because I only rode him two or three times. He was a stunning, big (I remember him as big, but that could mean anything above 15 hands!) Paint horse that my instructor had in for basic training. She let me ride him in lessons while he was at the barn. Except for Bo (who was a sort-of Western/trail horse anyway), I'd only ridden Western Pleasure horses up to this point. Doc introduced me to big gaits. HOLY COW BIG GAITS!! I loved it. LOVED it. Decided I was most definitely going in for English and jumping and dressage. My dear instructor, I think she mildly panicked. Lucky for her Doc sold soon!
LASS
"My" Lassie girl belongs to my current trainer (Coach), and I met her a couple months after starting lessons with Coach. Getting on Lass was an instant flashback to Doc, even though I'd probably ridden two or three dozen horses in the interim. Another case of love at first ride. Lass has taught and continues to teach me precision, lightness, feel, and patience. "You ride her with your mind," Coach describes it--and it's true. She also has given me a passionate love for Thoroughbreds. :)
RHAPSODY
Rhapsody was my second project baby, a (then) four-year-old Polish/French Arabian ex-racehorse. I started trying to work with her around August of 2012, only to discover shortly that not only was she insanely spooky in and around the barn and arena, but she was nearly impossible to catch. In the fall, I started seriously trying to catch her, and succeeded once or twice in November. But it wasn't till a sleety, rainy, horridly cold day just after Christmas that I finally got a catch halter on her and started being able to work with her regularly.
After that, she blossomed. She had the catch halter on perhaps a month; then we took it off. She ran away from other people sometimes, but she would nicker when she saw me coming and meet me at the gate. Her spookies didn't disappear, but she learned to look to me for guidance and support, so her reactions were much less dramatic. I could trail ride her bareback. She taught me patience, confidence, sensitivity, horse body language, trust, and so much about training. In an ideal world, I would buy her back someday and she would become my trail/lovebug pony. Oh, and probably endurance, too. :)
