Read Online Horse Crazy by Susan Kiernan-Lewis - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Susan Kiernan-Lewis
Tags: England, Horses, UK, Royal, New Zealand, Riding, horseback riding, equine, hunter jumper, nz, princess anne, kiwi, equestrienne
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horse. It's what keeps you on.
Not vise-like grips from your knees or legs, not firmly suctioned
fingers on reins, not suede kneepads against suede knee rolls or
spray-on stick-um available in aerosol cans in any tack shop.
Balance.
Which is not to say you stop with balance.
Balance is the beginning. The price of admission. The thing you
must have before you can play the game. What comes after would make
a chess master gasp and a baseball statistician stammer.
The catch-22 of riding instruction is that
you will no doubt be taught by a horseperson and although they can
be excellent teachers, they often have less patience than Mother
Theresa.
Once, I overheard a lesson in progress where
the instructor was trying to coax her charge into relaxing by
assuring her that nothing bad was going to happen. The student, a
young woman on a rather excitable mare, clutched at her reins and
tried to take deep breaths as her teacher continued her
instruction.
"You'll be fine, Melissa. Just remember to
breathe."
"But, what if I fall off?" The perfectly
rational girl whimpered.
"Don't be stupid. You will not fall off. I'm
right here, aren't I? You're attached to a lunge line, aren't you?
You are not going to fall off."
"But, what if I lose my balance?"
With a snap of the lunge whip, the instructor
barked out:
"You'll fall off. Now let's pick up a trot,
shall we?"
Typical of most horse people, (which is where
you're bound to get your instruction, whether from books or in
person) there are several thousand ways to learn to ride.
One book will tell you it's vital you sit up
straight as if a line were attached to the top of your head like a
puppet, while another will tell you that you must lean
ever-so-slightly forward.
One school will have you grip with your knees
while another will gasp and clutch its throat at the very idea.
One school will insist that your heels be
down at all times while many insist that your toes point downward
and conform to the horse's belly when bareback or riding without
stirrups.
When you're past the age of thirty, it's
interesting how important safety becomes to the mix of riding clues
and tips. Securing that seat and perfecting that trot comes long
before dreams of jumping and cantering through the pasture, hair
flowing behind you.
In fact, the difference between being a kid
and riding and being an adult and learning to ride, is that when
you're a kid and galloping across an open field, you're thinking
purely of how wonderful the air feels, how thrillingly fast you're
going, and how much it feels like flying.
When you're an adult and galloping across the
open field, you're thinking of how wonderful the air feels, how
thrillingly fast you're going, how much it feels like flying and
that, with just one pothole, it's wheelchair city...for life.
To learn to ride, it's pretty important to
have a horse to ride, at least occasionally. But booklearning has
its place. You can read and imagine and fantasize the exercises
over and over in your head until, when you finally do them for
real, you honestly feel you've done them before.
In many ways, this can be the best way to
learn. You can't get hurt in your mind so you approach the actual
contest with more confidence. After all, you've done it so many
times in your head.
The bookstores, and most particularly the
tack shops, are full of good how-to books that are well worth
investing.
This book will only touch briefly on the
how-to's of sitting astride a horse. You can read a lot and you
should, but proper instruction and a horse to ride are the ways to
master riding.
Talking while you're riding is often good
because it tends to help your breathing and it's also very calming.
As we all know how insanely telepathic horses are, talking can also
help to calm them.
In fact, singing tends to relax both parties
too. I find "Shenandoah" is a good song choice. So is "Yesterday."
Heavy metal tunes, however, will do little to nothing to induce
your horse to be
Not vise-like grips from your knees or legs, not firmly suctioned
fingers on reins, not suede kneepads against suede knee rolls or
spray-on stick-um available in aerosol cans in any tack shop.
Balance.
Which is not to say you stop with balance.
Balance is the beginning. The price of admission. The thing you
must have before you can play the game. What comes after would make
a chess master gasp and a baseball statistician stammer.
The catch-22 of riding instruction is that
you will no doubt be taught by a horseperson and although they can
be excellent teachers, they often have less patience than Mother
Theresa.
Once, I overheard a lesson in progress where
the instructor was trying to coax her charge into relaxing by
assuring her that nothing bad was going to happen. The student, a
young woman on a rather excitable mare, clutched at her reins and
tried to take deep breaths as her teacher continued her
instruction.
"You'll be fine, Melissa. Just remember to
breathe."
"But, what if I fall off?" The perfectly
rational girl whimpered.
"Don't be stupid. You will not fall off. I'm
right here, aren't I? You're attached to a lunge line, aren't you?
You are not going to fall off."
"But, what if I lose my balance?"
With a snap of the lunge whip, the instructor
barked out:
"You'll fall off. Now let's pick up a trot,
shall we?"
Typical of most horse people, (which is where
you're bound to get your instruction, whether from books or in
person) there are several thousand ways to learn to ride.
One book will tell you it's vital you sit up
straight as if a line were attached to the top of your head like a
puppet, while another will tell you that you must lean
ever-so-slightly forward.
One school will have you grip with your knees
while another will gasp and clutch its throat at the very idea.
One school will insist that your heels be
down at all times while many insist that your toes point downward
and conform to the horse's belly when bareback or riding without
stirrups.
When you're past the age of thirty, it's
interesting how important safety becomes to the mix of riding clues
and tips. Securing that seat and perfecting that trot comes long
before dreams of jumping and cantering through the pasture, hair
flowing behind you.
In fact, the difference between being a kid
and riding and being an adult and learning to ride, is that when
you're a kid and galloping across an open field, you're thinking
purely of how wonderful the air feels, how thrillingly fast you're
going, and how much it feels like flying.
When you're an adult and galloping across the
open field, you're thinking of how wonderful the air feels, how
thrillingly fast you're going, how much it feels like flying and
that, with just one pothole, it's wheelchair city...for life.
To learn to ride, it's pretty important to
have a horse to ride, at least occasionally. But booklearning has
its place. You can read and imagine and fantasize the exercises
over and over in your head until, when you finally do them for
real, you honestly feel you've done them before.
In many ways, this can be the best way to
learn. You can't get hurt in your mind so you approach the actual
contest with more confidence. After all, you've done it so many
times in your head.
The bookstores, and most particularly the
tack shops, are full of good how-to books that are well worth
investing.
This book will only touch briefly on the
how-to's of sitting astride a horse. You can read a lot and you
should, but proper instruction and a horse to ride are the ways to
master riding.
Talking while you're riding is often good
because it tends to help your breathing and it's also very calming.
As we all know how insanely telepathic horses are, talking can also
help to calm them.
In fact, singing tends to relax both parties
too. I find "Shenandoah" is a good song choice. So is "Yesterday."
Heavy metal tunes, however, will do little to nothing to induce
your horse to be
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