And today, Saturday, is the first time I rode him there. It's the Paddock in Los Angeles, a barn that I rode at in my teens and late 20's. I really like the trainer, Karen Perlo. She's very good and training a lot of super green people, so, while I'm not super green, I feel more comfortable working through some of the impasses I'm dealing with.

I seriously hurt my back in early February when I had to ride in, shall we say, an extremely substandard saddle for a couple weeks, while waiting for my new saddle to arrive from France. (It's an Antares.) I tried to ride through the injury but it got so bad, I was forced to just walk for a couple months while I waited for it to get better. I had x-rays and physical therapy and while the physical therapy is only working so, so, I have started trotting and cantering and working over cavaletti again. But the great thing about the Paddock, as I learned today, is their footing. It's like butter. Cooper is unbelievably smooth at all gaits anyway, and on this footing it was like riding on velvet. The only thing not great about the Paddock is they have a bit of a gnat problem due to their proximity to the L.A. river, but, I'm gonna get a bonnet to put over my helmet and if I have to wrap fly screen around my helmet, so be it. They are right next to all these great trails and theres no pressure to show.

Finding this barn was almost predestined. I had realized that I really needed to cut expenses for the time being and everyone at my previous barn has their own horses, so I couldn't half lease him out there. Karen Perlo's barn is called Grandview and it's the home of the USC Equestrian Team. In mid May, when I realized changing barns was imminent, I went over to the Paddock one day and saw someone getting a lesson riding this large grey pony/small horse, that looked an awful lot like a large pony I had ridden at Griffith Park Farms named Paisley. This mare even had side reins like Paisley, but it seemed like too much of a coincidence to be possible. (Paisley was and is my favorite horse to course on.) In fact, she's the first horse I coursed on after not riding for 20 years and it was so easy on her! She's 14.2, is super easy to see distances on and just plugs around cuz she LOVES it. Well, imagine my surprise to find out that not only was this mare in-fact Paisley, but that another friend of mine, Caroline, who I also knew at Griffith Park Farms, was riding in the same lesson!

So, I got the thumbs up from my current trainer that Karen is very, very good and now Cooper's at the Paddock.

Tomorrow I'm going to flat him and then I have another lesson with Karen on Tuesday. I can't wait!