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He is large and in charge, that's for sure. He's a lovely, balanced, very sweet horse. At 5' I look even smaller when I'm around him, and I get teased a lot for it, everyone always asks me if I get a nose bleed. I think that picture was the 1st time I had ever ridden him, hence the chair seat and awful position. (Things have greatly improved since then. We now look like a real horse/rider team) I knew that my stirrups were too short, but it was impossible to try to guess the correct height from the ground because of his height, and by the time that I got on him, I thought "the heck with it"! He's not so broad, but he does take up all the slack in my leg quite easily. When I first started with him, my legs felt so ineffective- I couldn't get them around him enough to actually use them!

We have another dressage clinic this Saturday, and a show in October.

AAM: Yikes that's hot. Humidity is what kills you. It is always humid up here.

Yeah, your stirrups did look a bit short. But after assembling your Alpine Assault Team to get up ON that big old boy, I could see you saying, "The heck with it!"

Somebody gave my trainer a big old Palomino who is a nice horse but VERY large, very round, and very forward. He's sort of an oversized Quarter Horse type - big barrel and a big butt, and 17.1 I think. I rode him and everybody laughed at me -- my trainer said, "You look like a peanut up there!" He really is a sweet boy and although he's very strong he came back to me as soon as I asked, but he's just way too big for me. And Gracie and I are just right together - she knows what I'm thinking almost before I think it. If it ain't broke, why fix it?

I took my daughter and a friend who came with her out shopping this afternoon, and it was TOO HOT TO SHOP! You'd open the car door and get hit in the face by a blast of steam! We would have sprinted for the mall doors, but it was too hot to run -- you break a sweat just standing there.

The dogs are well out of this mess!