Friday, September 23, 2011

The Riding Clinic with Buck... Day 1

I haven't written any clarifying information in a long time, so I thought I would this time. First off, thanks to everyone for the birthday well wishes. I always feel a little weird about it; like I'm getting a pat on the back for being born... didn't do much of the work there, or for not dying... for which, I too am grateful. But still, I appreciate the thoughts and the gifts.

For Sarah's birthday we are in New Jersey... now wait, I know what you're thinking, and no, this isn't a joke. It just happens to be the closest that Buck Brannaman is coming to our little town. For those of you that don't know anything about him, having a chance to ride with him is akin to learning to play basketball from Michael Jordan. (I know he's like dead now or whatever, but I haven't been following sport in awhile and don't know any current players' names) We took two days off each and are here for the whole weekend with no dogs and no responsibilities (besides the stack of papers I have to grade and the lesson plans I have to write and the fact that Sarah's getting like 30 e-mails and 100 texts a day from work). Sarah is getting to ride in the clinic with Buck and a few other students, I am watching, and then there is another class in the afternoon that we are both auditing. Today was the first day and there was so much going on that I filled three pages in my notebook, and my head aches from thinking.

The lighting is terrible, but I present a few photos for documentation sake anyway.



Buck Brannaman rode his new filly for the morning class. He's only been working with her for 4 weeks. He considers her to be green broke, though I've seen people riding horses they've had for years that are more poorly trained than this little girl.

Artsy tack shot. This is the bridle that Sarah is using with Cassandra, her loaner horse while we're here. On a related note, if anyone has a three horse, goose neck trailer with included tack and bedroom that they're looking to unload on somebody, we're open to offers.

Buck riding his horse in figure eights at various speeds without the reins.


Big frickin' horse. That lady is about as tall as Sarah.

One good shot. If the light's not workin' for ya... silhouette.

2 comments:

Ian said...

hey man, it has been forever, i hope you got my phone call. looks like a wonderful experience, you should learn a lot. oh . . . michael jordan is not dead, he is retired, and your analogy still tands as for as i can tell, ask dad. miss you both so much, try to get on skype sometime.

happy birthday again, and to sarah a pre birthday congrats for being born and still being alive.

Karen and Pat said...

Was so glad to see pictures and a post! We've wondered 20 (give or take) times today how things were going. So glad it has been good! It will be fun to see you in a couple of weekds and hear your stories and what you learned.

That grey hourse is beautiful! and that big one is really, really big!

Love you:-)