You can't brace as well if you don't have stirrups and bracing isn't good.
Tosca did what she does best this morning and took one of her Peruvian Paso cousins out for a trail ride. He's actually a very nice and honest horse, but his older rider has a lot of fear. She started riding late in life and was telling me she fell off him so many times when she first started riding him that she finally laid down in the arena at his feet and kicked her feet and legs around so he could get used to seeing her on the ground. Anyway, when we returned to the barn after a very VERY sedate three mile ride, she said she was quite sore and I had to realize how tense and braced she must have been. She's actually quite brave and determined in oversoming her fears, but I wished I had been more sensitive to just how much of a stretch that little ride was for her. Nancy
