{"id":2593,"date":"2013-06-29T21:04:15","date_gmt":"2013-06-30T02:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/?p=2593"},"modified":"2018-07-03T16:28:26","modified_gmt":"2018-07-03T21:28:26","slug":"bless-thecantle-and-pommel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/bless-thecantle-and-pommel\/","title":{"rendered":"Bless the Cantle and Pommel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dressage Lucky Star<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Western saddles have a seat defined by the cantle and the pommel. \u00a0The cantle is the owner of the saddle horn. \u00a0The pommel is the owner of the back of the seat. \u00a0When you swing a leg over your horse to sit on a western saddle, the pommel and cantle gently guide your seat into the correct position on the saddle. \u00a0“Plop” and you are seated where you are meant to be.<\/p>\n

Today, Lucky Star and I borrowed a dressage saddle. \u00a0Dressage saddles have no saddle horn. \u00a0That’s what I was worried about. \u00a0I don’t hang onto the saddle horn when I ride, but I really love the horn to be there if I need it. I might be diagnosed with saddle horn anxiety!<\/p>\n

Now it was time to mount the cute and handsome Lucky Star wearing the dressage saddle so nicely.<\/p>\n

I swung my leg over and sat down. \u00a0Horrors and horror came over me. \u00a0Have you ever rode a ferris wheel in those wooden seats? \u00a0Remember how the ferris wheel has to unload and load new people and you go up, stop and up. \u00a0Remember how it feels when your ferris wheel seat stops at the top. \u00a0Your body freezes and tries to stay balanced. \u00a0Otherwise, the ferris wheel seat will swing too far and spill you out to the ground. \u00a0That’s the feeling I had. \u00a0I was out of balance on top of the ferris wheel waiting for it to move and spill me out.<\/p>\n

I was unbalanced, unsteady and had Lucky moved, I might have fallen off. \u00a0I screamed the acceptable horse screams. \u00a0The acceptable scream is more like alarm moanings. \u00a0I moaned in fear. \u00a0I moaned a couple of times. \u00a0I drew the attention of the wonderful instructor, Jenny Vaught. \u00a0She raised her voice across the arena and told me I was sitting on the end of the saddle. \u00a0“Move forward”, she instructed. \u00a0“Move my body I thought in alarm?” If I move my body, it will tumble to the ground. \u00a0Another instruction, “You are sitting too far back on the saddle. \u00a0You need to move forward,” \u00a0Jenny said. \u00a0Jenny always knows when one of her students is in trouble.<\/p>\n

I moved forward about a half inch. \u00a0I was proud of my body that it was able to move. \u00a0“More, move forward more,” Jenny instructed. \u00a0This time, I was able to move forward in the saddle about an inch. \u00a0I was starting to believe that I could successfully inch forward on the seat.<\/p>\n

Now Jenny was getting really close to where I was frozen in the saddle. \u00a0“Move forward more,” she instructed. \u00a0Jenny got to my side and pointed at the front of the place where my legs were supposed to be. \u00a0See this pad? \u00a0This is where your legs are supposed to be. \u00a0Your legs are to be nestled next to these pads.<\/p>\n

I was able to inch forward, feeling more and more in balance. Finally, my legs made it to the required position and my seat was situated in the spot meant for it to be in. \u00a0I felt a calm come over me as I realized, my balance had returned.<\/p>\n

Thank you Lucky Star for your “I’m not moving” dominant attitude. \u00a0Lucky Star stood steadfast and brave while I was completely off balance and moaning in fear.<\/p>\n

Thank you Jenny for rescuing me. \u00a0Whew!<\/p>\n

Lucky managed to keep me on top of him rather than being smashed to the ground during the remainder of the lesson. \u00a0We even went medium fast for short spurts.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow I return to a saddle with a pommel, a cantle and a horn. \u00a0Bless the western saddle!<\/p>\n

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Cowboy Lucky Star<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Western saddles have a seat defined by the cantle and the pommel. \u00a0The cantle is the owner of the saddle horn. \u00a0The pommel is the owner of the back of the seat. \u00a0When you swing a leg over your horse to sit on a western saddle, the pommel and cantle gently guide your seat into the correct position on the saddle. \u00a0“Plop” and you are seated where you are meant to be. Today, Lucky Star and I borrowed a dressage saddle. \u00a0Dressage saddles have no saddle horn. \u00a0That’s what I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[89,125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-country-franks-lucky-star","category-missouri-fox-trotter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2593"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2603,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2593\/revisions\/2603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}