As Birdie takes off trotting down to the center of the arena, I smack her with the whip. She starts going faster, then starts cantering. She brings her head down, ready to buck, the next thing I know I’m falling off her neck. This is an example of one of the many times a horse has done something that teaches me how hard hbr (horseback riding) really is.
Horses and ponies have a mind of their own, they won’t listen to you sometimes even if you ask nicely, they’re not as easy to ride as you think. In this instance, this horse decided to use his little pony brain to get out of work. This horse’s name is Blue because he has blue eyes and that is extraordinarily rare for a horse. One day in October 2018, I had the option to ride any horse I pleased. I chose Blue because he is one of my favorite horses. After I got on, the gate blew open. My instructor Julie told me to just add outside leg (A.K.A the leg that is closer to the rail,) in that section in order to keep him in the arena. I added the leg and he still left the arena. I had almost gotten him back in the arena but he left again, this repeated 3 times. On the fourth time, he got sick of going back in. He rooted,(A.K.A, yanked his head down,) Then took off running down the hill and away from the arena. I was so paralyzed with fear that I couldn’t stop him. Then someone stepped in front of him and stopped him in his tracks.
I ended that lesson early from anxiety. I was afraid of riding for the next two months. I don’t know to this day whether that was a spook where he was running away from something, or he was just being a brat. If that isn’t something that makes hbr difficult, I don’t know what is.
Another example of a problematic ride, is the time that I was riding Birdie. Birdie can be a horse that will say no if it suits her. It was a rainy day with lots of wind. Birdie LOATHES wind and rain. So I got on and started walking around the arena. Then all of a sudden she decides to run to the center of the arena. Julie yells; “Smack, smack, SMACK!” (Smack means to use the whip behind my leg, it doesn’t hurt the horse. ) So I do. I come around again and she does the same thing. I smack and she starts running/cantering. She yanked her head down, ready to throw those back legs up and buck. That manuever yanks me forward to the point where I’m clinging to her neck and sliding off. She halts after a few steps, then my arms give away and I fall to the ground. One of my major goals is to not get scared after a fall and get right back on that horse, so I get back on that horse and we start trotting again. Then some bicyclists come by she canters forward and bucks from a spook, a spook is where a horse runs away/shys, away from what it’s afraid of. Somehow I stay on. As you can see, horses are NOT the easy and obedient animals people think they are, and you will regret not taking my advice to not underestimate horses. They can hurt you and people underestimate the difficulty of riding.
Though I can see why people think riding is easy because you can’t see how much the rider is doing, we are doing a lot by thinking of many factors. This is another example of a horse doing something annoying and bad making my experience difficult:
I was riding a horse named Rugby on a sunny afternoon. We had been having a peaceful and easy ride, lots of transitions from the halt, walk, trot, and canter. I was doing a course with poles and I was on the last one. It had to be done on a small circle that I would have to cut a corner on because there was another horse in that section of the arena. I was going up to the pole and all of a sudden he took off. A take off is when a horse runs forward very quickly. That’s exactly what he did. And I took it as I would take any take off, I didn’t stop him, I just came around and went over the pole again. I did this because I wasn’t afraid to tell him what’s what and who’s who. That’s what you gotta do with horses, you can’t let them get the best of you.
Now finally, picture this: you on your dream horses back, galloping through a field of daisies in a sunset, you get off in the field. Your horse is gently nuzzling you and you gently gallop back home. Now jump back to reality, this probably won’t ever happen for these reasons:
- Your horse would probably eat the grass and daisies.
- There would probably be holes/ ruts in the field, therefore you would have to walk through the field.
- Instead of nuzzling you, they’ll probably bite you.
- Dream horses usually have silver eyelashes, pink streaked manes, completely clean and white coats……etc
Sources:
Ron Meredith