Dec 26th: Back in the Saddle

I can not remember a time I did not enjoy horses. They are my hobby, and I try to ride as much as I can. I have 2 riding horses, both of whom I trained under saddle. I rode from age 7 to 15, but quit when we moved to the USA. I had to leave my horse behind, and the move was kind of tough on me, so I kind of gave up but never lost the interest and desire to ride again at some point in my life. It was not until I was 30 that I went back to it (earlier in this blog I mentioned someone - my freidn EC- kind of 'dragged' me back into the horse world.)
On this day, it was kind of overcast. I rode my Standardbred mare Genie. She had not been ridden for about a year and a half, because before I became pregnant with Annelies I was too busy to ride 2 horses. I retired Genie from showing (she is 16) and casually trail ride her, and continued to ride my young horse to get him show-ready. I chose to ride Genie that day because I felt more comfortable with the idea of riding her at my Mom and Leif's place, they have some property in Lincoln. Genie gave me kind of a WTF??? look when I started brushing and tacking her up. When I got on, she kind of wanted to jump straight up but I got her going forward and we had a nice ride. It amazes me that you can put a horse away for a lonmg time, then get on and for the most part they still remember all the things they have been taught. I guess there are differences from horse to horse, and this mare just happens to be pretty smart. She was a joy to ride, very responsive. It felt good to be back in the saddle. I rode Genie 4 times before I rode the young horse (PG), he was fun to ride also. It was my goal to get on him new year's eve day, and I did.