When I returned to riding after a seven year hiatus I was 40 years old and had definite ideas about how I wanted to ride and work on the ground with horses.
It was important to me to...
It was important to me to...
- ride everyday.
- not use a bit.
- be able to ride bareback anytime of the year.
- keep the horses barefoot if my farrier said it was ok.
- NEVER lunge or use a round pen. Ever. Not even in the beginning.
- ride at the walk, and if I wanted to trot, canter, or jump, I could add that in later.
- not have to "work a horse down" in anyway before heading out on the trail.
- ride outside of the ring primarily.
- not die attempting the above!
My riding goals were unusual, so they were never written down or uttered to anyone. They were my "perfect" riding experience; a grand synthesis of my favorite parts of riding and my philosophy about what I believe horses enjoy. I spent many years, under the well-intentioned guidance of various trainers, asking horses to do things they didn't seem too keen on doing.
My most important goal was to have daily rides that a horse might enjoy as much as me.
I am 45 years old now and, unbelievably, found a way to achieve these dreams with horses!
I am able to ride everyday in all weather without a bit, without lunging and mostly outside of the ring on trails and through the fields. My horses are barefoot and have healthy feet and are sound. I ride bareback anytime, including in winter and in wind - although with so many clothes it doesn't seem like I am bareback or in wind! I rattle off this list of achievements with serious gratitude. My pride is in the horses and their amazing acceptance of my desires. In fact, it is my belief that the reason we can do all this together is because they actually like our rides too!
I am so grateful that I am able to ride them this way. Hacking out, cross-country, trail riding, whatever you want to call it is the way I love to ride, I live to ride. I do not like bits and I don't believe in round pens or lunging. I really don't even like rings at all. I like walking best when I ride. I try to ride every day of the year. These are MY loves, and I am incredibly lucky to have convinced, not only my three young off-track-Thoroughbreds to allow me to ride this way everyday, but I have also used this system with horses that I have leased and horses that I ride for friends.
Skeptical? I would be too given what I had been taught and experienced in my early riding days. But, read on. Far away from the combined fog of all my previous training and that of the current popular milieu of clinicians, I found a simple method that works for me. Now there is only one word to describe my daily rides. Magical.
I am so grateful that I am able to ride them this way. Hacking out, cross-country, trail riding, whatever you want to call it is the way I love to ride, I live to ride. I do not like bits and I don't believe in round pens or lunging. I really don't even like rings at all. I like walking best when I ride. I try to ride every day of the year. These are MY loves, and I am incredibly lucky to have convinced, not only my three young off-track-Thoroughbreds to allow me to ride this way everyday, but I have also used this system with horses that I have leased and horses that I ride for friends.
Skeptical? I would be too given what I had been taught and experienced in my early riding days. But, read on. Far away from the combined fog of all my previous training and that of the current popular milieu of clinicians, I found a simple method that works for me. Now there is only one word to describe my daily rides. Magical.
