One in particular is Senara who is owned by my friend, Bev. When my son was born, Bev promised me that when I lost the baby weight, that I could ride her Arabian, Senara (or Sen for short). Well, I lost the weight and ended up helping Bev take care of Sen and her other horses.
Sen was 17 when I started riding and taking care of her and when I got my old Champion & Wilton side saddle, well, she took to that with ease! The first time I rode her in the side saddle, I hadn't expected it to fit so only brought it down to the stables to see how it fit. As soon as I plopped it on her back and saw what a good fit it was, I thought "hey, let's go riding!". Unfortunately, Bev does not leave tack down at her stable due to thefts in the area and my own bridle was at home so I put two lead ropes on her halter and rode her down the lane like that!
The next day, I brought my bridle and we went out for a little hack down the lane and back again, this was us on Sen's 2nd attempt at side saddle...
Over the year, we went from a hairy Arab lacking topline and condition to a slick beast.
We hacked everywhere side saddle and eventually did the Miss Blaby Procession.
After a while, I noticed the saddle started to roll and ride uphill. Because of all the work and the conditioning feed I had been giving her, my C&W became too narrow...
I had planned on buying her a wider saddle but that fell through when another friend offered me her cob on loan.
Bev still owns Senara and although I don't ride her any more, she is stabled near to Hattie's stable so I still get to see her everyday.
This is her doing her head twirling thing whenever she REALLY wanted something whether it was food, to be turned out or going for a gallop. I had to ride her with a martingale as she would do this while galloping and nearly broke my nose once! LOL!
Sometimes it can be hard to see at the time what a terrific opportunity riding some of these horses can be. It's amazing what graceful swans hide beneath all that winter fluff and mud.
ReplyDelete