October 12, 2010

I had my 10th riding lesson today- the lessons are roughly 45 minutes. That equates to 7.5 hours of English style riding I've done. I did some Western riding in the past, but not much more than sitting on the horse's back while she walked around for an hour or so- least that's what I remember of it. :) Somehow despite my lack of experience I consistently give my lesson teachers the impression that I have way more experience that I really have, and that I therefore know what I'm doing. It always makes me laugh when someone asks, because I'm still very much a newbie and I don't know where that impression is coming from. :)

I was thinking about it today in particular after my lesson, because I had a feisty horse today who was a wee bit impish I'd say- she definitely preferred to do her own thing to listening to me. I wouldn't say that I have trotting completely under my belt yet- I can make the horse trot, direct it, and make it stop, but not as clearly as I see others doing and there's always some confusion on my part. To date I've not gotten a horse to canter on my own as I don't know how to start or stop. Cantering being a good deal faster it's the next stage up.

At some point in the lesson today Bridie decided she was going to do her own thing, resulting in her full out cantering without any warning or signal on my part. It's funny how our minds work under pressure- when she started cantering I definitely felt a "Hmm I might wish I had bought that fall protector in about 30 seconds" moment, but for the most part I just kept thinking "I am in charge of this animal, and I will make her stop." I could distantly hear the girl giving lessons shouting some how to make her stop instructions, and I remembered somewhere that squeezing= more cantering so armed with that I did manage to stop her. I'm sure my mom is thinking "phew!" :) But I did make Bridie stop- that was a huge confidence booster to me, because I felt like I didn't have a clue what I was doing or what to do. And then our lesson carried on, and we did some cantering but this time under my direction. I learned a lot from the experience.

I was really surprised to hear someone say after all this that I looked quite calm and in control of a slightly wayward horse. That didn't reflect how I felt one bit! But as I thought about it, it didn't matter how I felt so long as I held my nerve and didn't panic. My parents are both brilliant under pressure, and I am grateful to them both for seeing their example of calmly taking control in situations where most people would panic. Riding a horse has to be one of those sorts of things where there's potential for things to go crazy, but there's no need to panic. :)

So far I am really loving riding- it's been a real blessing to me, and I look forward to riding more.