Wizard Ride 158; Fall 1

“Legends of the Fall”
“Falling for You”
“Falling to Pieces”
“If I Fell”
“My World Fell Down”
“Down with the Ship”

Oh, the possibilities of a silly blog post title are endless; but in the end, I kept it simple. The reason I number every ride/session is because I always wondered just how many times I rode Alibar from 1989 to 2008. A zillion is the only possible answer. And falls? I did not fall off him very often and can remember most of them, but I surely don’t have a number. But with Wizard, I do.

Thursday, 7/15/10

It rained for several days, so the outdoor arenas were both too damp for much serious riding. The indoor arena was also damp since it was watered, but had not yet been harrowed. We hacked in the small dressage arena. The footing was a little slick and deep, so I kept the ride to a walk and trot in large figures, no small circles. Wizard is a little tight in this photo:

So after about 15 minutes outside, we moved into the indoor arena. We kept the ride low-impact indoors as well. We did a little working trot and forward trot. I closed out the ride with some loose-rein long-and-low work at the trot. As we trotted, I encouraged him to strrrretch… dowwwwwwn… and then PFFFFT! Poor Wizard stumbled down almost to his knees and dipped his nose in the dirt. In what may be the most adroit physical effort of my 32-year life, I slipped my leg over his side, kicked my stirrups free, and landed on my feet. Wizard was back up in a flash, and was fine. I was fine as well, and really excited that I avoided eating dirt. Mom was there for the whole thing. She had photographed the earlier part of the ride but I did not bother to swap lenses for the indoor ride so there is no photographic evidence. And that may be better, so I can brag on our graceful stumble.