Memory Monday: Riding Aside

I have had the luck of meeting some cool people on the internet.  When I was in university, I took a leap and packed my bags and headed to Nova Scotia to visit some horsewomen I had just known online.

It was pretty cool.

Up until that point, I had solely been exposed to western riding, riding bareback, and generally, I could stay on pretty much anything with four legs.  Through this group of savvy, helpful women I began learning about other disciplines and cool horsey things they did, like driving, barrel racing, dressage, hunter/jumper, and riding sidesaddle.

One beautiful farm I visited had some wonderful Morgans.

My photo doesn't do this handsome fellow justice

In typical Morgan fashion, these plucky little equines did a lot of everything.  I was offered and had the chance to ride sidesaddle.  

This was a big leap for me.  I didn't ride any sort of English discipline, but I was game.

Look at that look of intensity.  

OK, much less intense here.  Much more clueless.

What a fun experience.  It made me far more acutely aware of balance.  I also realized why people often carry a whip in the offside hand too.  This poor sweet little gelding kept drifting right.  Oops, guess I should be more aware of that left leg, but with the crop and some instruction we figured things out.

I would love to own a sidesaddle horse someday! 

How about everyone else?  Anyone ever try riding sidesaddle?  Or what's the most "different" discipline that you've done?

As for the rest of the trip, I had a great time.  So great, that I went back and would love to go back again.  Too bad, I have more of a clue this time around how to ride some of these great horses properly this time.

I also blame this trip for bringing the idea of switching to English up in my brain.  Definitely not a negative thing and I have no regrets!