A quick update on Maggie's riding...

Maggie has being doing wonderfully in riding. She is jumping higher and higher and is not to the point where I think I might have a heart attack watching her each week! She has ridden the same horse, Rioja, for almost a year now, but her teacher just changed her to a different horse. This was a big deal to her because the horse she rides now, Jalisco, is from the upper barns. What does that mean? Well, there are two barns, the lower and the upper. The lower barn has all the horses in stalls that are just divided by small logs as fences. Those horses are used for all of the general classes. The upper barns, however, are like nice little individual stalls, kind of like a three star versus a one star hotel! The upper barns also hold all of the competitive horses and privately owned horses. So the upper barn horses are seen, at least to Maggie, as having a lot more prestige and are much more special! So now she is riding Jalisco and along with riding a "fancier" horse she gets more responsibility. After class she takes him for a walk, guided without his saddle, to the pasture to get a snack and cooling down time. Maggie is very proud of the responsibility she has been given!
~Tona

Here's her thoughts on her recent changes...
Maggie says, "Horseback riding gets tougher every week…well, depending on what’s going on. Sometimes it’s getting tough and sometimes it’s like usual. Sometimes we jump. Sometimes we just work on usual things like if my feet are in the right position, if everything is in the right position and that I’m doing everything right. When I changed horses it felt unusual because I got used to riding a certain horse. The horse I rode on felt more comfortable because it was a horse that teachers would usually use. Sometimes it’s difficult to use the horse if you don’t really know it and you’re not ready to ride on a new horse."