Guest Rider

Yuki on the ground and Sumi on Hudson.

My niece’s five years of weekly dressage lessons definitely showed as she rode Hudson these last two days. 

I’m so happy she can ride!

You just never know.  Sumi is a Japanese teenager whom I see only every few years, so her experience level has been communicated to me, mostly through email, from my non-horsey brother.

She has been taught everything in Japanese.  She speaks English, but I imagine it’s hard for her to explain what she knows to him in a way that he can then explain it to me.   Sum it up to say, until I saw her on Hudson, I wasn’t exactly sure what she would be able to do.

Big sister Yuki also got a short ride.

And, Hudson’s not a packer by any means.  It takes some know-how to maneuver her.  My fear was that Sumi would not be able to control her and/or that Hudson would be particularly difficult.  Well, Hudson has been difficult only in that she has been a total brute about dropping her head to graze on the ride, yanking my niece forward each time.  It’s a hard trick to combat, considering Hudson’s huge and powerful neck and the lack of a bit.  I might have to get on her tomorrow to do some fine-tuning on this point.  But otherwise, we have had two successful rides.

OK, OK, there was that moment when we asked for a gentle canter across a field and got a horse race, with both horses careening at high speed, basically out of control, until we hit the edge of the woods and stopped.  But we stayed on board and didn’t crash into anything, so I’m calling that success.   Otherwise, our rides have been pretty and fun, scaring up deer, crossing creeks and tromping up and down wooded trails and grassy fields.

Sumi on Hudson, I on Starlight, before the ride.

We’ll have a couple more days of riding ahead of us before meeting up with the rest of the family in my hometown, so happy trails to us and, if you’re riding, happy trails to you.

Sweaty ponies.