Back in the saddle again

Tonight I rode Lark. Such a simple declarative sentence. And yet for me, at least, there has never been anything simple about riding Lark. (Actually, come to think of it, that is probably true for most of the people who have ridden him.) It's been about a year and a half since I rode at all, and then the horse was my sweet, steady Athena. I figure it's probably 5 years since I was last on Lark.

He was still out in the pasture when we got there (Rae and I - and we met Crystal there). He was actually the closest horse in his pasture, and he stayed where he was calmly grazing as I walked up to him, looking up occasionally when I whistled or called his name. He walked to the barn like a gentleman, only once attempting to nibble more grass on the way.

In the arena, he wasn't terribly good at standing still while I mounted, and even worse while I tried to get my right foot in the stirrup - somehow that is always difficult for me. I know that part was my fault, as I could not seem to keep my leg off him while hunting for the stirrup. He set off at a very fast walk and seemed to be wondering who in the world was on his back. We walked in circles for quite a while before I asked him to trot. Then we didn't trot very long at all, because he was at his bounciest. We walked a lot, and trotted a little, and did some circles to try to get him to bend more. (I figured circling in the middle of the ring would be ok at this point in his career - but I'll try not to do it too much.) I figure we were probably out there about half an hour. And three or four times, I got him to set his head and do a nice sitting trot - for about 5 seconds at a time. Once or twice I must have inadvertently cued the canter, but each time he took a couple of very nice slow canter steps and then settled back to the walk or trot.

All in all, I thought it went very well. I wasn't even really nervous. I was wary of the times when we passed the open door, but though he looked that way, he did not really move to leave the arena. So I was pleased. And oh yes- it's his birthday today! Happy birthday Lark! I took him an apple to celebrate.

So today, instead of a fortune cookie, I offer the slogan from the t-shirt I bought to give myself courage after the accident:
I do not intend to tiptoe through life only to arrive safely at death.