I have a friend who acquired one of my horses. He’s a good soul and had a fair amount of basic training. He’s been ridden English & Western, done some basic dressage, jumped around 2’6″, been roped off of and been on tons of trail rides.
When she got him she was afraid to try anything more advanced, like a leg yield, because she didn’t want to “do it wrong.”
When she said that I had to chuckle. He’s an OTTB & her horse now. So what if she does it “wrong”? He won’t know the difference.
I tried to give her a pep talk and share my confidence that she won’t “mess anything up” trying something new.
Then……………… I acquired the Velociraptor.
Have you ever flown a plane?
Or a flight simulator?
Frightening as this will be to most of you I’ve flown a plane.
no not that one, a full size one, really…..
& a variety of simulators. The number of buttons, levers and dials would intimidate anyone with some sense.
When I acquired my newest pony rock star…………he came with an awful lot of buttons.
And initially, I was afraid to push any of them.
I was sure there was an “eject” button hidden there somewhere….
or even a self destruct lever.
And after a couple weeks of pussy footing around and failing miserably to ride my horse successfully……..
I remembered my own advice.
It’s my horse. So what if I do it wrong? All his buttons now belong to me and I can rearrange them if I want to!
With my new found determination, and <cough> dropping down several levels <cough>………we headed out to our first show.
Where we had a few speed faults but successfully jumped all the jumps!
Don’t be afraid to ride your horse!
Yay!!
yay congrats! i need to give myself that pep talk all the time, i'm always worried of somehow 'screwing up' the horse lol
Yay – remembering our own advice to others can be hard ☺
I think we all struggle with that one some times. Good on you!