I have been demoted.

Well folks, I think my quest for Olympic fame took a leap backwards at my riding lesson on Friday. I am pretty bummed-out about it. As you may (!!) know, I am trying, as an adult, to learn to ride horses...Dressage specifically. As you may also know, I am a big wimp. Further, my body usually does not respond properly when I try to move my various limbs into the proper position for Dressage. My riding lesson last Friday started out brilliantly...I was working away on my trusty schoolhorse and El Instructor was, well, he was instructing. I am now able to get the horse in proper position and moving along nicely. That is, until we canter. The moment I tell the horse to canter, all hell breaks loose and I end up looking very similar to a person on a horse, in a very expensive saddle, in the fetal position. Horses, I have found, do not like this. When their rider is all bunched up in fear, they wonder "Hey, what the hell is going on? Where is the lion/tiger/bear/shadow/whatever that is going to kill us. We should RUN AWAY!" Lucky for me, we are schooling in an arena so when we "RUN", we simply take off around the arena at a very fast pace until we decide. after several go-rounds, nothing is going to kill us and we can gear down to a slower pace. To Instructor's credit, he has tried everything to get me to relax and enjoy the ride. He has been very patient in doing so; however, I think he was getting upset with me last week as I flew at top speed around the arena. I was in a sweat and without several vertebrae in place after the lesson when he said, "How about next week you try riding Immy?" Immy? No way! Immy is not an olympic horse...Immy is a horse who barely has a pulse! I hate riding Immy. Immy is for beginners! Ok, so I was kind of whining to myself. Instructor thinks since Immy has barely a pulse, he will be much less likely to take off out of the starting gate, so to speak, when we go to canter. I am mad at myself for getting to this point. Actually, I am mad at my body. Stupid body. However, this riding stuff is a process so perhaps this will make me try harder! I can't be seen in the Olympic arena with Immy...people might think I can't ride! If things don't improve soon, I'll have to change my blog name to WalkTrotCan'tCanterBecauseIAmACompleteWimpWhoHasABodyThatDoesn'tListenToMe.