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News from the equestrian front.

This week, Zelda fell off of her horse…in slow motion, twice. She’s quite good at it. She and Zoe were working on their trotting and then moved on to a little shumping. Zelda looked awesome, holding the right form, getting her horse to trot right over. When the fence was moved up just a bit, her pony would make a pretty exaggerated jump for the height, and would really slow down post jump, which caused Zelda to slide onto the horse’s neck.

Her fall would involve sliding up the neck, clinging with both arms and legs, and then slowly rotating so that she was upside down, still hanging on with her limbs. The first time it happened, Zelda managed to time it so that she dropped into her teachers arms. Later, she and Zoe worked on “how to fall off of a horse.”

Keep in mind, Zelda is riding a largish pony, so it’s not that far to the ground!

Meanwhile, Tom and I were working on what our instructor called galloping, but what the girls were quick to point out was actually cantering. We worked on it in a tight circle with the horse on a long lead with our teacher in the center. While it was nice not having to negotiate the ring and following/leading while cantering, it was quite challenging to hold our balance while traveling quickly in a tight circle

We’re just glad we didn’t fall off! Good times.