Paige's first riding lesson.
The 10th of September finally got here after Paige x-ed off each day for the past three weeks. We arrived to class about 10 minutes early so she could have a few extra minutes for her first lesson on grooming her horse. When I say "her horse" it is in the context of the horse she is riding not that we have purchased a horse, two dogs are plenty! Her teacher Miss. Ginette got Calliope out of her stall and showed Paige where her bucket of brushes are kept. Each horse has their own brush bucket and it matches the color of their harness. Calliope's are pink, I thought that was fitting for Paige. After grooming and saddling her horse Paige was instructed to walk her around the inside of the large barn. That way Calliope would relax and not puff out her belly, making it easier to cinch her saddle before riding. It also gives the kids some practice leading the horse. It takes some time to feel comfortable leading such a large animal around. Miss. G had to remind her to look forward, where you are walking. If you keep turning to look at the horse it may loose confidance in you and think that you don't know what you are doing, and you may end up walking yourself into a corner or wall. At one point Callipe tried to veer towards the open end of the barn, but Paige had it under controll and got her back on course. She did a great job for her first time.


Here Paige is above leading Calliope out to the riding pen, Miss. Ginette is walking ahead. There is one other girl taking lessons at the same time (they only have 2 riders at each lesson). The other student is Lindsay a very sweet 4th grader. She is not at the same school as Paige but in the same district so they will end up at the same middle school and high school. Lindsay has already taken lessons so she will be a good example for Paige.

Here Paige is getting up in the saddle with the help of a nice sturdy plastic step stool. Hey where were those when I used to ride? I used to have to find a rock, tree stump or even the high side of an embankment back in the day. It's not fair being a short girl when it comes to riding, because your stirrups have to be shorter so it's just not fair!
At first she just rode around while Miss. Ginette walke ahead giving her instrution on reinging the horse and getting her to walk if she stopped.
After a while Miss. Ginette had Paige guide her horse around the obsticles in the center of the pen. She also walked her through some cones. I asked Paige if she was going to learn to parralel park too?
She had a great first lesson. I'm very pleased with how well she did. When we got in the car afterward Paige said "I forgot how BIG horses are". She said she was a little nervous at first. I told her that she did great and I couldn't even tell she was nervous and more importantly neither could her horse.