This is what we will be doing again come October. If there's anyone in the Santa Fe area who'd like to join us, send me an email. You can check out Free Spirit Vaulters as well, and contact information is on that site. Equestrian vaulting is a tremendous way to develop the rider's seat.

Our coach is excellent--a retired ballerina and a classical dressage rider. My daughter is chomping at the bit to begin again. (My son isn't going to, despite my best attempts and stories about how the knights probably vaulted as did the cavalry. Which is OK.) J.'s still young enough to not mind if I vault with her. I suppose she's also thinking that I'll be her longer and horse handler once we get Toby up and running as a vaulting horse, so she's kind of stuck with me anyway in this sport. I never really intended to do this. I started taking the kids to practice, and pretty soon I was longing the vaulting horse for equestrian vaulting practices (A pretty good experience in and of itself. Th longer must to keep the vaulting horse cantering beautifully, consistently, rhymically around the circle while kids are standing on her back, Doing handstands, etc.), and then before you know it -- I'm vaulting.

I've been riding my other steed--my bicycle, that is--every day at lunch this summer to try and stay in some modicum of shape. I don't know if I will mount at a canter ever again because my left knee is still messed up from slipping on the shale on the Cave Creek trail in the Pecos last summer. I don't seem to have a lot of spring in my knees these days, the stuff required to vault yourself up onto that horse's back at canter, and need to work on it. That means lots of ballet jumps, whatever those are officially called, I'm no ballerina. I am definitely going to give equestrian vaulting a go this fall.

Woo. Hoo.