Today’s riding class was one of the most enjoyable yet.

Due to scheduling and what not there is only one other person in my Thursday western team riding class. Today however the other girl who is usually in my class was not there, so I had the class to myself.

Since it was only me and there were horses in the barn that would not be used today, my coach Mrs. Jennifer and the riding instructor for the class, Allie, decided they would ride with me. The objective for our class was to ride efficiently - to learn and demonstrate a pattern.

It was not a hard pattern, but it was LONG. Most patterns that we get when we go to shows are 3 to 5 steps long, this one was like 14. I was able to remember it, though, and got it right on my first try. Well, I got the,concept right at least. I was riding one of the more stubborn horses here at,Judson and we had a few issues traveling in a straight line, but overall, it went ok. I was happy with my ride though because I was able to fix several things in my riding that I have been having problems with.

On our way back to the barn we crossed paths with the 2 girls riding in the next class. They informed Mrs. Jennifer that they had not yet ridden the horses that she, Allie, and I were riding and since we didn’t have anywhere else to be, Mrs. Jennifer thought that it would be a good idea for the 3 of us to take our horses back to the arena with the other two, so that we could play "fruit basket turn over" - a game where you ride the horse you are on at all 3 gaits in both directions, then switch horses. This gave us a chance to ride 5 of the Judson horses in one class. This will prepare us in case we draw one of them at the show we will be hosting here in a couple of weeks.

So it was a very productive class, very relaxed and enjoyable. I wish every class could be like that.