Baby Boomer Dreams - Dandy's Story Part 6

Part 1

Not long into the dressage lessons, Betty Chapman (who by then owned GS Khochise, Dandy's dad) decided to come by during our lesson at the Tacoma Unit to get a good look at the Arabian horse. Betty had heard about how big Dandy was and wanted to see for herself.

My dressage lesson with Tom had not started yet as Betty came walking into the arena. I could see from her expression as she walked our way that she was not believing that Dandy was 16 hands tall. From a distance no one believed the horse was that tall because he was so refined. As Betty got closer and closer the realization dawned, the horse was much bigger than she expected. By the time she stood next to him her mouth was wide open and she could hardly speak taken back by the size of this Arabian horse.

It kind of tickled me to see her reaction. She's been in this business a long time. She was convinced I didn't know what I was talking about on the size of this horse. So to be able to "prove" something to her was a big deal to the little old beginner at the time me. Having a 16 hand purebred Arabian as refined as Dandy was an accomplishment, let alone having him be the first horse I ever bred.

I didn't take time to visit with Betty however, because Tom was there for my lesson. He gave me a leg up and we went straight to work. Betty watched a while from the sidelines wanting to see how the horse moved.

By this time Dandy was getting the hang of moving out. His trot was getting to be very fluid and fun to ride. Tipping his head slightly to the inside or the outside was working great to push the horse up underneath himself. He was also picking up his leads correctly.

I was feeling pretty comfortable with the hunt saddle. About the time I started to get off the horse, Betty hollered at me. It seems my girth was loose and Betty didn't want me to fall as I got off. Tom held an iron for me so I could get safely off.

The first thing I did was look at the girth. How did Betty know from the rail that the thing was loose. On my girth was loose all right ......very loose...............so loose in fact you could see about 4 inches of air between it and my horse. I looked at Tom disbelieving that he would let me ride that way. He grinned this little english grin of his and said "I was really enjoying watching the great balance you ride."

I have to say that I wasn't impressed with his answer. When I looked at the gap between that girth and the horse, I was scared. All of the things that could have happened to me had I fallen raced through my head. After that experience I had a bit of trouble trusting Tom.

Six weeks into my dressage lessons, Tom decided that Dandy and I should participate in a dressage schooling show that was to be help at the Tacoma Unit. I didn't think I was ready to be riding in any kind of dressage show....even a schooling show but the man twisted my arm. He had been trying to talk them into doing a dressage schooling show for a while and I think he wanted help getting the numbers up so I was just a patsy.

To be continued............

Dressage


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