But, in all honesty, I might as well suck it up and play now while I can, because there isn't snow on the ground yet, and no negative temperatures, so it can't be that bad.
Another thing I'm finding is that I still wish I was further along with Moose. I've inquired about a few apprenticeships recently, to further my horsey education, and have come short on both checklists for future applicants by a "Time in the Saddle" requirement. So, I thought about how how long I've been riding, and I figured out that I have somewhere between 60-80 hours of riding experience. Okay, so do you think that's enough for me to ride/start young horses? Sorry, but no. 60-80 hours, by my standards, isn't even intermediate level.
Also, apprenticeships seem so easy, but it's so hard to go out and play with Moose recently. I feel like I need someone watching me to tell me if I'm doing things right, because I over-analyze him so much. Apprenticing with someone would be easier to find out if I'm doing things right, because they'd let me know. So, when they say "oh, just ride more and we'll talk some other time" I'm like "yes, ma'am" in theory, but actually going outside and applying that is like "*sigh* here we go again" because I never never really know if I'm right or not. But heck, there's a 50-50 chance, right?
So, I've come up with 4 solutions to get me back in the saddle. New Goals to add to my sidebar.
- Get my saddle looked over
- Buy a Western Theraflex Pad
- Get Moose comfortable with wearing the saddle
- Get better balance
- Take lessons
The first thing is to make sure the saddle I have will work for Moose. It's a saddle just to get the job done, not to get it done prettily, so I'm not expecting it to be the most perfect saddle for him, but I want to make sure it will suffice. I've thought about sitting on him with the saddle on before, but I'm nervous he's going to buck or something if the saddle doesn't fit right (been there, done that). I admit this is somewhat of a good fear, because it'll help Moose be comfortable, but the sooner I get the fit checked out, the better, so then we can move on. I just hope it gets a thumbs up, though, because I don't like saddle-shopping.
And then, once my saddle gets the okay (being optimistic here), I need a pad. The Western Theraflex Pad has gotten good reviews by quite a few people, so I think that's the way to go. So, selling my old saddle will help with buying this one. . . . Anyone interested in a 16" black Abetta saddle, weighs about 20 lbs, 8" gullet, excellent conditions? Comment with your e-mail and I'll tell you more about it. I haven't bought the pad yet is because I don't have the money for it, so the sooner I sell my saddle the better!
Thirldy, get better balance. This is another thing I've been playing around with and noticed a pattern with myself. (Talk about the pattern first, then what balance)I found out that I learn tasks by individual details, not just by doing the task.
I found this out by atempting to ride a unicycle and shooting a bow and arrow today. I do archery every once and a while. Although I'm still a beginner, I can consistently get the arrow on the target. I am left-eye dominant, so I shoot lefty. Storytime: well, today there were no lefty bows available to use for 1 round, so my choices were to skip or shoot righty. I never tried righty before, so I decided to give it a shot. Um, yeah, I didn't even get NEAR the target! It was pathetic, really. But when I analyzed why I shot so bad, I realized I had forgot all about my stance. I guess the sensation of shooting right-handed was so overwhelming to me that I forgot about my position. If you really want to know how you're supposed to stand, that's what Google's for. I'm not an expert, as I said, but suffice it to say that your supposed to stand with your feet perpendicular to the target, shoulder-width apart. Well, in my confusion, I was standing almost facing the target, which is clearly going to affect my shooting ability.
I thought about this today, and realized that this is a pattern of mine, through Guitar Hero and riding a unicycle. I've experienced the same overwhelmed/confused feeling here as I did when trying to ride a unicycle yesterday. Like I said, my goal is to improve balance. That's one of the ways I'm trying to do that is by riding the unicycle. Well, yesterday was my 3rd day on it, and I noticed my balance was a lot better. It was easier to sit on it without practically tipping the thing. My set-up is in my garage. There's a table on my right for support, and I get up by putting the weight in the right pedal first (which is the same way I pedal a bike and hop on a pogo-stick, "how interesting") and then getting on. For some reason, I tried to get on it by putting my weight on the left pedal. Couldn't do it. I almost fell over: it was hard.
Useless Side Info: The same pattern is in Guitar Hero for PS2. I'm pretty good at it on Hard, but on Expert I'm not so great. I use the controller instead of the guitar (can't switch between the green and orange keys fast enough), so in Expert I can't tap the buttons that fast. My solution to pass a song is to cheat, and whenever scales come up use the controller, and whenever they play the same note over and over, I pause it and switch to guitar. Cheating I know, but hey, whatever works! So, since my preferred way to play is on controller, I use that one most often and am best with it.
Well, my friend has Guitar Hero, but for Wii. On first glance, they look pretty much the same, but if you compared them side-by-side, you'd find a difference between the two. I know so, or I'm going crazy, because I fail at GH on Wii for almost the first 10 songs until I can finally get my act together. So, the difference between the two? Wii uses a remote system, so there is maybe a half-a-second delay between the time you press a button on the guitar and the time that Wii recognizes that. PS2 is instant. You press a button, bam, it's there. So, my timing is completely screwed up just because of that half-second.
So, from this all, I've realized that I think in terms of processes and details instead of concepts. I already knew this, but now it has re-affirmed its place in my mind. In order for me to learn to play Guitar Hero on Wii, I have to almost start all over again, because I learned it differently on PS2. To shoot righty, I have to learn it all over again. I guess what I'm saying is that when I learn things like kinesthetic/body type stuff, it doesn't apply from situation to situation like other things might. It's like a horse and right side, left side stuff. You have to teach both sides, so they both understand it. I guess I'm the same way. "How interesting!"
Wow, that was a long side-trail. But back to balance. I'm trying to pratice every day for like 10 minutes to improve it. Balance helps riding, and I realized I have bad balance. More about that later.
Lastly, taking lessons. I have a few instructors in mind, but haven't picked out quite who I want to use yet. But my tentative plan is to start up soon with someone to learn to ride naturally, and go from there.
