Faking It

Anyone that has ever met me would probably say "Yeah, she rides horses. Or something."
I've decided to do something about "or something".

Lately, the holes in my riding skill set are becoming more and more apparent. While I grew up riding a lot of horses and learned the basics - walk/trot/canter, jump little jumps, riding out - I feel like I never really learned how to RIDE. I learned how to not fall off. There is a difference.

When you grow up in a riding school and do not have your own horse, you ride whatever you can get your hands on. Loosely translated: Whatever no one else wants to ride. I learned to be sticky. I learned that some horses are good at some things, while other horses are good at other things. Trying to make those two horses switch places is next to impossible, and leaves you with a sour, pissed off horse. 1000lbs of pissed off is never fun.

While most of my riding friends had their own horse by age 12, I purchased my first horse at the ripe old age of 22. I've had a few since then. Most were very green. I feel like we often define a good rider as one who can ride a lot of horses, not fall off, and theoretically get the horse to do something it doesnt want to do, or doesnt do well. In that sense, I am a good rider. Sort of. I can ride a lot of personalities and I adapt well, but I dont feel like I really know how to do anything. Most of what I know is self taught, and conclusions that I arrived at via trial and error. In short, I've learned what will and will not get me bucked off.

It occurred to me last weekend that I do not know how to ask for the canter. I cant feel my diaganols, see a distance, or ask for a shoulder-in. I dont know how to ask for a flying canter, or how to balance a horse through a corner. I could TELL you how to do these things, but actually doing them would be purely the luck of the draw. I'm just faking it. I ride just well enough to make you think I know what I'm doing, without really knowing anything.

So, from this point forward, I'm considering myself a beginner. I had a discussion with my trainer, and asked her to not assume that I know anything. I want to go back to the beginning and work forward. Luckily, trainer is very understanding and didnt hang up on me or run away screaming. :)

I'm dropping all the excuses. My horse isnt too green to be ridden properly. I have the time, and the finances. I have a good trainer and an indoor arena. Cant blame my horse, trainer, time or the weather. Its time to either go on pretending I know what I'm doing, or actually learn something. I'm (trying to be) prepared for the fact that I will probably look stupid. There will be times that I will screw up, fall off, and get frustrated. But I'm tired of pretending to know things that I dont. I'm tired of people thinking they wont say anything to me, because I wont listen. I dont want to go on being that person that people think talked big, but never did anything.

On another note, Penny and Sky got massages today. Both girls were excellent. Penny has a lot of soreness down her left side, which is perplexing, although not surprising. She tends to start off just *eversoslightly* stiff on that side, and we've been struggling with that canter lead. My instinct is to have her checked out by the vet - but I suppose that is on hold until she actually belongs to me. Haha.

Sky, the pasture puff princess, got a clean bill of health. Almost zero soreness and no swelling, bumps, etc. One touchy spot in her back, but it was right by the Very Bad Bite spot, so I'm assuming that is the culprit. Quite a change from the tense and sore mare of a few months ago.