My lesson horse and trainer

Some of my followers have written me about my horses and asked questions.  Well, now I'm taking horsemanship lessons myself!  This is my wonderful trainer, Annette Garcia, of the Coachella Valley Mounted Rangers, and this is my lesson horse, Riley.  He is a Missouri Foxtrotter and he lets kids from the recreation district brush and groom him, as well as pick up his feet!  Man, I wish MY horses were like that!!!  He is a wonderful, responsive, well-mannered horse and he is helping me to overcome my confidence issues.  So is Annette, who is VERY patient with me.  She gives private lessons and I'm going to take one now every Saturday morning.  I took 3 lessons with her on my 3rd week off for winter break vacation and I had one lesson yesterday.  Yesterday, after I did my compulsory exercises with Riley...head down, flexing, releasing the front and hindquarters, I got to lunge him in the round pen.  I do lunge my own horses, but now I have other things to work on with them...like "head down" to get the halter on.  I've just been reaching up..."DUH"...so, I need to work with all of them on this.  I haven't had any real horse lessons myself since I was a kid, except for a few with my cousin, Valerie.  So, for me, it's like learning all this basic horsemanship all over again.  I hope to ride Riley soon and Annette wants me to ride him...GASP...bareback so that I can get my balance.  YIKES!  My hands are sweating just thinking about that!!!  But, for me, it will be a first step back to riding after my fall nearly 3 years ago.  I told her that I do now have balance issues (I think she saw that while I was lunging him...I stumble about the round pen like a drunken sailor!)  (No offense to drunken sailors!)...It's just that I can't feel where my feet are and that isn't good.  So, I'll do my best with patient Riley.  By the way, hubby and I and my friend Barb and her partner went to see "War Horse" last night.  Some mother took her young daughter to see it and I noticed that they ran out about halfway through the movie.  No, it ISN'T a kids' movie.  It's PG-13.  There are some gruesome battle scenes which young kids really shouldn't see.  I DID enjoy the movie, but...warning...take some tissues with you.  And, please, if you can, donate to a horse rescue.  There are 2 thoroughbreds who need funds right now to purchase them from a killer buyer from last night's Mike's Auction and the Southern California Thoroughbred Rescue is trying to find homes for them.  Here is the link to them:  http://www.sctbrescue.org/howyoucanhelp.htm    One is a barely-three year old thoroughbred, Smooth in Public, who just didn't make it at the track.  The other one is a nine year old gelding, Red Beach.  Here's the link to their facebook page:  http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Southern-California-Thoroughbred-Rescue/155169894561912.  They only have until 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time today to purchase these two gelding from the killer buyer, or they will go to slaughter in Mexico...