First ride

Sunday afternoon, I decided I was strong enough to try riding. I have an old pair of Side Step western safety stirrups that are on the saddle Daniel usually uses. So we pulled off the western fender and stirrup for the left and put that on my saddle for the trial ride to see how that would go.

So I got all dressed in my riding tights and favorite Yellowhammer completion t-shirt (from 2006).


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I decided I didn't want to wear the cast liner for my brace, so I put my regular shoe on, wrapped my leg in an ace bandage for compression support and strapped the brace on without the liner.


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The first thing I did was go catch my horse. Daniel had him confined to the small paddock so I wouldn't have to chase him down much. He didn't put up a fight.


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Sugar cubes really help!! But he only gets one after he's haltered.


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I did a lot of the prep myself, but Daniel did help with the saddle and the girth. We also discovered that a clip had broken on Tanna's breast collar. Must have happened during the accident.


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Serts wasn't the happiest that he had to wait in the paddock.


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Isn't Tanna handsome? Who says weeds don't make a good back drop?


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I used the lawn mower to lead Tanna, fully saddled, down to the round pen.


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But when we got there, I parked the mower and led him into the pen on my own two feet (plus one crutch).


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I asked Tanna to trot without me for about 12 minutes to warm him up and get him used to the jiggle of the saddle again.


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From this side, you can see the side step stirrup.


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Then it was time to get on using the 19" mounting block.


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I only kept him to a walk for 10 minutes.


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After 10 minutes, I safely dismounted with the very graceful stomach descent.


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Originally uploaded by jdj150.

My left stirrup was a little too long. Next time I'll try with my 2" biothane stirrup leather instead of the western fender to see if I can shorten it up.

It was very nice being on my horse again. He did great, too! He did get a little fussy, but nothing dangerous. My leg was pretty swollen by the time I was done. I need to tighten the compression next time to help with that.