Tag: horseback riding

The Deadly Truth About Love

maydaygaskarthLeave a comment

I’m not necessarily a person who trusts easily. It takes me a long time to open up to someone, to let them know what goes through my mind or what makes me tick, what makes me happy or sad. But somehow, I manage to put all my trust into a creature who could kill me if they truly wanted to.

I don’t consider myself a daredevil. In fact, I have irrational fears of even the smallest spiders in my room. People question how I manage to be brave enough to get on a 1500 pound horse and ride around an arena galloping over jumps with no anxiety, and honestly I don’t know. The sport is dangerous. Just last year, my roommate had broken her back falling off a horse, and I’ve been close to falling onto a boulder when my horse bucked me out of the dressage arena.

Even then, this didn’t phase me at all. I brushed off the dust, laughed it off, and got back on with no problems. My trust with my horse was still secure even though my luck could’ve been way worse.

Photo Credit: Pinterest

For the past year, since my back surgery, I was constantly warned that one wrong fall would potentially break my back and leave me hospitalized for weeks with the chance I wouldn’t be allowed to ride for a long time.

But I still took the risk, and it’s because my love for the sport was stronger than my fear of pain and injury. Every day I still ride, and every day the fact that horseback riding is considered one of the most dangerous sports in the world barely passes through my mind as I work with my horse.

But that’s the thing about anything everyone loves. Everything is deadly to us in some way and form, and that same exact thing gives some of us life. So horseback riding may be dangerous, but I feel like others can agree with me when I say a rider’s love for their horse is worth devoting their time and trust into these animals despite the threat that floats through the air every day someone steps into an arena.

Have you tried it?

thericemuncherLeave a comment

Some people believe that horseback riding is easy, that all you do is sit on the horse and it works for you.

Let me tell you from experience that horseback riding is not an easy thing to do.

Now, before I continue on why horseback riding is so difficult – let me explain my interest.

As a junior, I decided to try something different.

So I enrolled in my schools equestrian program; specifically the Western riding program.

Being that there was just one other male in equestrian before I joined – many students thought that it was a more feminine sport.

Now, let me prove that thought wrong.

First of all, riding is based on the idea that a rider, who weighs no more than 300 pounds, is trusting his 1000 plus pounds of pure mass to carry him.

Granted, most riders do trust their horses – accidents happen and riders fall. It’s basically guaranteed in horseback riding.

Photo Credit: “www.dauphinhorsemanship.com”

It also requires skill and patience. According to The Top Tens, horseback riding is definitely one of the hardest sports.

Like most sports, horseback riding can’t just be learned form a video or from books. Where horseback riding differs from other sports is that the rider needs to feel and understand every movement the horse makes underneath him.

If you’re riding Western like I am then the rider has to control his horse with the shift of body weight, leg positioning, and precise touches to the reigns. One wrong move and you can end up on the ground.

Photo Credit: “static1.squarespace.com”

There are so many details to horseback riding, not including all the other styles, that I just can’t get into it in this blog.

Point being, don’t judge a sport by what is looks like, find out for yourself and you might just enjoy it.