A Luke Appearance

I managed to take a few breaks from writing this weekend. I rode Luke with a few other riding friends in the indoor arena. The previous ride I’d had on Luke a week ago was terrible. Totally my fault.

I had this idea that riding to music would help me work on Luke’s rhythm and add a level of fun to the ride. I had visions of Musical Kur in my head with variations between collected and extended trot, canter, leg yields out and in from the wall, and so on. I became frustrated when Luke did not perform the movements I saw in my head, in other words, when he didn’t manage to magically turn into a warmblood.

Yesterday’s ride went much better when I just worked on general warm ups and flexibility. Trotting over poles was also lots of fun as Luke really lifts up over them and it’s good for getting him to bring his back up.

The biggest frustration on my last ride was coming down to the walk without having Luke gait. I had him so jazzed up and stressed out last week from my demands he didn’t know what to do and when he doesn’t know what to do, he gets nervous and gaits.

So yesterday I worked on smooth, relaxed downward transitions. It was a much more successful ride.

The ride was followed by skiing around the woods and field surrounding the barn. Nice.

I haven’t posted any photos of Luke for awhile so here’s a few taken yesterday. I suppose I should do something about those whiskers…

I saw True Grit later in the evening. I loved the movie but hated it whenever a horse ended up dying, which happened at least three times.

I saw the movie at the old Heights theatre. Going to that theatre is an experience in itself. It’s where my parents often dropped off my brother and I to see a movie when we were kids. A nice break for Mom and Dad as we often stayed to watch the movie a couple times and then would go to the Dairy Queen next to the theatre afterwards for dip cones.

I wish I would have had my camera along to take photos of the organ that comes out of the floor and is played before the movie starts, the gaudy chandeliers, and the ornate, red curtain that opens when the movie starts.

I know, it doesn’t sound like I spent so much time writing this weekend but like I said, sometimes girls just wanna have fun. But I have to get back to work now. No Super Bowl for me.