I rode horses when I was younger. My Dad still talks about this one horse I would ride that was PSYCHOTIC. Really, you couldn’t turn your back on him or he’d bite you. I’d make my Dad help me saddle him because he’d whip around and snap his teeth at me like an angry dog. I was terrified of him.
To this day I don’t know what my instructor was thinking letting kids ride a horse like that. My Dad thinks that it was an important life lesson, like life isn’t all nice ponies and easy riding. Sometimes you get a psycho that wants to eat you and if you are committed to learning to ride and care for horses you’ve got to learn to cope with both.
The pony my niece met for her birthday lesson was much nicer. Her name was Bonita and my niece learned to brush her, clean her hooves, lead her around the ring, and put her back in her stall.
On the way to the lesson we got lost and both nieces got incredibly nervous. (I asked the older one later what she was so worried about and she said she thought a polar bear or a snake might come after us but she might have made that up on the spot.) This made me think about the importance of doing things outside your comfort zone. If getting lost and doing new things becomes commonplace then what doesn’t become easier?
After the horses we went to the park and played on a playground. I honestly think they liked doing that better than the horses. But back at home, playing with all her new toys I wondered if 27 years from now when she’s my age if she’ll remember the toys she got or if she’ll remember meeting Bonita and learning how to clean out horse hooves.
