Friday, August 20, 2010

Horseback riding lesson for new field trialer


Last night, I got my first true horsemanship lesson from Deanna Beals (D.J.).

I have ridden horses before but never really understood the horse and how they communicate to us and we to them.

At the next level of field trialing with Bailey, I needed to get better at my horsemanship skills.  I will need to be able to ride the horse while paying attention to handling Bailey and his actions during a brace.

D.J. is shown above in this video riding Patch. 
(click the four arrows pointing out in the lower right corner to make video full screen)

Patch is a wonder five-year-old Tennessee Walker that I have had the pleasure of borrowing from Gordon at a field trial last year.

This is the same horse I am learning on. 


D.J. and I have set up weekly two-hour lessons.  Good times.

2 comments:

Andrew Campbell said...

Rod: this is one of the next best investments in your dog if you're serious about going forward with trialing. I'm not talking about the horse, but the lessons. There'll be times you have to rent a wrangler's horse -- some of which are angels, some of which are the devil incarnate, and most in between. I took lessons when I realized I was being far outmatched by my dog -- and have come to enjoy riding horses following dogs almost as much as the dogs themselves. This is going to be time well-spent!

best
Andrew

John Connelly said...

Well I could say how much once again I envy your chosen activity and what a great thing it will be to ride out Bailey boy on a hunt and be able to keep up. But instead, because it's Wednesday and I'm on a ship in Peterhead in Scotland - I;m just gonna say "shouldn't that horse be standing up?" Och aye! JohnC