New Riding School

B Troop typically holds two riding schools each year.  One in the winter and one in the summer.  We just began a new class on 6 February.  We usually have trouble finding enough recruits to fill out the class, but this year we actually had to turn some people away.  We are really only able to handle four students at a time, but we went ahead and took six (although one of them had to quit already due to a job schedule change).

The students with instructors Pete (left end of line) and Jay (right end of line) .

 We are in the first phase of training where we teach riding basics.  Most recruits have little or no riding experience, so we give them a crash course in basic riding.  Of course, they aren't riding your typical school horse, but an Army war horse, which makes it all much more challenging.

We have school three times per week on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.  I always like the Saturday classes because there is plenty of daylight and it is warm.  At night, I have to rig up some work lights to illuminate the arena.

Today, we worked on riding bareback in column and in a circle.  The students are asked to control their horse at a walk, trot, and gallop.  I have to keep an eye on all of them simultaneously to look for someone losing control or losing balance and adjust the gait before someone comes off.  I had a student take a spill on Thursday night and sprain her wrist.  Thus, she had to watch the lesson from the ground today.

Riding in a column of twos while bareback.

Today, everyone managed to stay on their horses, although a few got close to coming off.  They did a pretty good job considering that two weeks ago they didn't know anything about riding and now they are galloping bareback.

After the lesson, a few of the experienced riders rode over to Wren arena to practice for the opening ceremonies of the Cochise College rodeo.  We gallop around the arena with the colors while one of our Ladies Auxiliary members sings the anthem.  Our First Sergeant, Pete, thought he'd try Ruger, one of our young and wild horses. There were people working on the arena fence, so it was a good chance to expose the horses to the distractions of things going on around the arena.  I tried to keep my horse parallel to Ruger as we galloped around the arena, but Ruger was doing all kinds of strange things with his head and legs, so I kept a little bit of a distance.  We eventually decided that Ruger wasn't quite ready for the rodeo and needed more training in galloping in formation. It was a fun practice, though, and it has been ages since we rode in the arena.

Ruger--1,300 pounds of love and joy.