English riding for dummies

After the saga of my horse-ownership (see "Horsin' around"), I decided that I can't own a horse AND take lessons. Too dang pricey. So, now that I have no horse, I'm taking some lessons. Which I most likely needed BEFORE said horse ownership, but I digress. And just to spice it up a bit, I'm taking English riding lessons, after being a die-hard western rider as a child, and later as an adult rider.

What I've discovered about English riding:

• there is no saddle horn
• when the horse gets frisky, you fall off (see the first bullet point)
• it requires a lot more concentration than western (for me anyhow)
• you don't ride English "casually" with reins flopping about; you ride purposefully
• it's challenging, in a good way
• I'm rather clumsy at it

My instructor, Lisa, is a really great teacher. She's a young woman who was raised in a home which had a horse facility on the property. This woman knows horses, and best of all for me, she knows people and I swear she can read my mind as I'm riding around her in circles. She can read horse body language like nobody's business. She trains people and horses to work together.

My other instructor is a 20-year-old mare named Jackie. Jackie can also read my mind. If Jackie thinks you're a wimp, she'll take advantage of you, which is really great training for a novice rider. How does a horse take advantage? By moving around when you're trying to get into the saddle, walking wherever the heck she pleases, tugging on the reins, and completely ignoring your commands unless you "show her who's boss". Lucky for me, it only takes gentle, firm reminding to bring Jackie around. (OK, it did take me a little while to get her to go where I wanted to go). She still thinks I'm a wimp, but she's figured out that I will in fact continuously use training aids until she gives in. Also, she's so smart it's scary. She knows in her head what people want of her, but she's too smart to just give in: you have to ask correctly.

Jackie sent me to the ground with an embarrassing thud a few weeks back, another reminder that I'm not the great rider I thought I was. Lucky for me, my human instructor was there and helped me back into the saddle and to work through my fear of riding Jackie any further on that day. I'm happy to say I made it through that lesson, and have since gone back for more lessons, although now I am a bit more careful about easing Jackie into our lesson. (For you horse pros, I lunge her).

Weekly, I am reminded that I have much to learn. For some reason, I can't seem to remember to put the billet (the thingy that holds the saddle on the horse) on the correct way. I struggle with it until Lisa comes over and reminds me. Furious blushing ensues. I can't remember to put the stirrups up when I'm leading Jackie around. (Many horses will bolt if the stirrups bang them in the sides). More blushing as the coach reminds me. Today I couldn't tell "outside rein" from "inside rein", and I seem to have forgotten everything that Lisa taught me about leg position in the saddle. I can't see her face, but I think that Jackie is rolling her eyes as we stop and correct Yet Another Thing Letitia Has Forgotten.

So why do I do something that makes me look stupid at best? It's the most fun I've had at any sport in years. I love skiing, but it takes a bit of effort to get me packed and up to the hills. I love bowling, but I think one just gets fat sitting around a bowling alley eating fries and drinking root beer. I love roller skating, but seriously, how many middle-aged women do you see skating in your neighborhood? You'd call the cops, I bet.

With English riding, I'm learning something new every week (sometimes re-learning) and I love how working with a horse is so different from anything else I do in my life. You need to be patient, kind and firm with a horse, and also know that you can't always do the perfect thing and be the perfect rider. If you can't get a partnership with your horse, you're not going to have a successful ride that day, no matter how perfect your horsemanship looks. Which is a really great lesson for working with people too. Gee, thanks Jackie (and Lisa).

Horsin' around

I waited all of my life for my first horse, literally! I've been a huge fan of horses and riding since I was about 2. Thanks to the kindness of my aunt and uncle, I spent my summers at their house, petting, brushing, cleaning up after, dreaming about, and riding their horses. This photo below is of me and my cousin Kim, on an unnamed horse (simply because I can't remember its name) in my aunt & uncle's pasture. This is about when the love affair started.

My mother was a single parent. She sometimes worked 2 (once even 3) jobs so that we could have things that others had. So that I could have some semblance of a normal childhood. I have so much respect for the single moms I know.

Anyhow, this extra money went mostly for groceries and necessities, but it also went for riding lessons, horse camp, and making sure I had access to the furry love(s) of my life, even though it was impossible for me to own one.

When I moved away from access to my aunt's horses and to riding, I sort of gave up. We lived in what was a small town in the high desert of California, and if there were horses around, I wasn't aware of them. And when it came time for me to pay for college, horses weren't even on my list of priorities. I was just trying to survive; to grow up, educate myself, and find a job that would pay a living wage.

Fast forward 22 years: I'm married to a great guy, with 2 super kids and a job. I'm at work one day, when my friend comes in to the office where I work and proceeds to tell me how she's in the process of purchasing her first horse. She had no experience with horses, other than a childhood love for them, as I had. Bells went off in my head. I followed my friend's progress with her horses (yes, plural). I started thinking maybe this was something I could do also. Heck, I was employed, why not?

Zips Crimson Whiskey needed a home. No, it's not a new brand of hooch, "it" was a handsome sorrel gelding, who needed a home. His family had 3 other horses, and no time for him. He was a wonderful, horse, spending his life as a pasture pet. Here's a picture of him:


I adopted him, and was absolutely in heaven being a horse owner, until the reality of owning one of these intelligent, emotional creatures hit home. I had no time for him. two teenagers keep two parents very busy. Not to mention work, and any other thing I might want to do. I was only riding him one or 2 times a week. It was a problem of distance to the stable (45 minutes from home) and the fact that no one else in my family is interested in horses. My daughter loved "Whiskey" as a pet, but thinks that horses require too much work (which they do; I love horse-work). I kept him for about 1-1/2 years, and sadly, had to give him up for adoption. He now lives in a great home, with people I trust, and is a lesson horse who gets ridden daily. Also, he's learning a new job: team penning. (google it).

What does the future hold for me and horses? I'm not sure. I'd love to own horse property, or at least live very close to someone else's horse property. I'm in the process of reinventing what I do for a  living, so who knows? I really hope that horses are in my future. Right now, I don't want a future without them.