Horse Riding

This morning I felt great after about 10 hours sleep (by the way the Dali Lama says sleep is the best meditation and I absolutely agree - particularly on my desk at lunch time - but I digress). So after cleaning up my apartment, doing laundry, talking to my parents, few friends , lunch, I decided to check out a fairly local riding school. I used to ride in England and was always a little scared. Firstly because horse riding is scary, secondly because I would ride with my mother who would work me up into a terrified frenzy on the drive to the stables and lastly - well because riding horses is dangerous. I think the only sport more dangerous statistically is formula 1 (forget where I read that but it stuck). Hell look at poor Chrisotpher Reeves. Anyway I went out to Rockleigh Equestrian Center. The drive was spectacular as fall has been late this year and the roads were lined with trees in burning oranges and reds. The class I was able to watch was two young girls, and although it was English style, the instructor was a bit basic. They were doing jumping and cantering and the horses looked nice. I really wanted to give it a go. Had a little chat with the instructor afterwards and she didn't really understand dressage. Another downside of this place was that it does not have an indoor school which means riding in the winter is out. Next time I have some free time I am going to check out Bergen Equestrian Center (40 Fort Lee Rd, Leonia, 201 242 1920). Not sure if this place has an indoor school but the Columbia University Equestrian team practice there. OK so for those of you who don't know what dressage is here is a cool clip from utube. Obviously I am not quite up to this standard yet - after a few weeks of training though who knows!!!