My brick, Kincaid

[breakinglight11]

Had my first riding lesson since I've been back today. It was good to be back at my old barn. I ride a big chestnut ex-racehorse named Kincaid. He needs a lot of retraining; he doesn't carry himself properly at all, so I've been putting him through a rigorous dressage regimine to teach him to use himself like he should. Dressage is a style of riding, named for the French word for training, that encourages both horse and rider to carry their bodies and use their muscles for optimum balance and performance. Kincaid's a difficult horse to ride, and there's nobody really good enough for him who's around full time, so every time I go back to school, all my hard work with him undoes itself. It's kind of frustrating, but at least during the summer I can ride regularly and give him the kind of work he needs. And I hated the riding instructor I had to go to when I was riding with the equestrian team at school. Her knowledge was unbelievably limited; she knew how to throw us over jumps, and that was about it. Now, I do jump, I have for all the ten years I've been riding, but the fact that she had absolutely nothing to tell us about getting our horses using themselves properly was just unacceptable. She didn't know a lick of dressage. And dressage is what gets both you and your mount to do this. A horse should be encouraged to support his back with the muscles of his stomach and rock as much of his weight back onto his hind end as possible-- this is called "going round." No matter what you're doing, whether jumping or reining or eventing or cutting, this is how your horse should carry himself. When I'm told to stop trying to accomplish this because "these horses don't go round"? Something is VERY, VERY WRONG. Dressage makes EVERY RIDER AND EVERY HORSE OF EVERY KIND BETTER AT THE THING THEY DO. I don't care if you're a goddamn barrel racer-- dressage makes you a better rider and your horse a better mount. HELL, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU'RE JUMPING.

Gee, I didn't mean to turn this into a rant, but getting actual instruction today reminded me just how infuriated I've been with the riding situation at Brandeis. I didn't have a choice up till now because, without transportation of my own, I could either ride through the school or not ride at all. But next semester, since I'll have my car up at school with me, I'm going to find a barn of my own and an instructor that teaches dressage-- as in, one who won't yell at me for riding my horse properly. And in the meantime, it's good to be back at my old barn, working with my big dumb brick Kincaid. He's not very smart, but he tries hard.