Okay, so it's not exactly puppy love… It's "horsey" love. But how can you not love this cute face?

His name is Rae and he is so much fun! I've been riding him since my second time trotting, and I think I fall more in love every week (even if he does sometimes try to get away with what he wants because he knows I'm new at this!)

He also loves acting like a tired old man. We were all done, so I took my feet of my stirrups to stretch down, and he was falling asleep in seconds. Goofball.

At least he pretends like he's my friend.

As far as riding actually goes, I'm making some progress. I've got good posture and today my leg was really good, too! I want to keep going till I get it right, but that might take awhile.

Sinking into my old recliner chair never felt so good as it did last night. In fact, it still feels pretty good, considering that muscles I barely knew existed seem to get sorer by the hour.

But I love it!

I had my first real riding lesson yesterday evening. It's almost surreal that one of my longtime dreams is slowly but surely becoming real.

I've definitely got a lot of learning ahead of me. When I get my legs doing the right thing, my hands do it all wrong. Shoulders back, belly forward, heels down, thumbs up. I know I've got it wrong in these pictures… but don't be too hard on me. I'm trying and hopefully next time I will do better!

By the way, this handsome boy is Jake. I love him!

My instructor had me stay at a walk and just work on focusing on where I wanted to go (without looking at the ground), and doing circles and figure eights. We also did some backing up, which, for some reason, seems so fun to me!