random horse thoughts

I am pretty sore today, after riding a slightly nutty horse for two hours yesterday afternoon. She wants to run really, really fast, so it took me an hour to get her to canter at a nice, even speed. And the way I did that was to keep her moving in tight little circles (at the full-out gallop she wanted to do) over and over and over again until she decided that A.) she was tired and B.) she couldn't stop going in circles and down the line until she pulled herself together. I was literally dizzy by the time we stopped doing these circles.

Such is the life of a catch-rider, which is what I am. All my horse dollars go toward my children's equestrian activities, so I get to ride the green horses, the ones people need schooled, and the ones no one else WANTS to ride.

But I realized last night after I was thinking over how the ride went, that this is actually a good thing. I can ride almost any horse passably, and unlike riders who are always able to ride a "made" horse, I am adaptable. It feels good to work through a problem, or to see a green horse make progress.

When I was growing up, riding and training other people's problem animals was often how I paid for showing my own horse. I never had a real trainer and I barely even had any lessons. My daughter is a really great little rider, and has ridden many ponies, but she is having a very different equestrian childhood than I had. She has a really nice show pony and a great trainer coaching her three times a week. She's only nine, but when she gets bigger, I am going to encourage her to work at the barn schooling other people's ponies, and offering to ride the problem animals. I think that's really important.