Isabella started riding lessons earlier this fall. She goes every other weekend to Outback Stables in Ledyard for a one hour lesson. It is a lot for her to focus on (and for a whole hour at a time). She needs to watch the position of her hands, make sure the horse keeps moving at the right pace, pay attention to where the horse is going, and not be distracted by the dogs wandering about. Plus probably a bunch of other stuff that I have know idea about since I have no clue how to ride a horse.

Not surprisingly she has wound up with the horse stopped facing a wall. Luckily there are lots of years left before she tries it with a car – at least a horse stops before running into the wall. She is making progress, and can usually get the horse out of a corner without help. I can tell it is getting a little easier for her. The first lesson she was pretty tired after 10-15 minutes and needed the teacher to walk the horse with her on it. Last lesson she almost made it the entire time on her own.