Most kids bring their sports bag to school, put it in the locker room in the morning, and after school go to practice or a game. Not that I played team sports in high school; I did in middle school, but most of my friends did, so I had an idea of what the schedule consisted of throughout the school year. It took up a lot of time for them. They had practice from 3-6pm usually.
Before I began competitively riding I thought a 3hour practice was unreasonable, but it was very short compared to my riding schedule. My after school schedule was quite different from the average. I would go home, and ride my horse every day. Whether I would ride then clean the barn, or drive 2-3hrs to a lesson one way, it was never a short 3 hours. On average I was in the barn, lessoning, and training from 3-10pm earliest. Nothing was convenient. But it was very worth it.
My favorite weekly lessons were cross-country schooling. Sometimes I would leave school 30min early, trailer 2hours to Bucks County Horse Park with my mom and sister. I would unload my horse, tack him up, and meet my trainer out in the open field. After 6hours of school I was ready to gallop, jump in the water, over ditches, over solid logs, and run through the woods. Each day of riding brought up new challenges, which kept it exciting. Each day I walked in with an open-mind. My trainer would make fun of me sometimes because she would say, “Is Archie having a good or bad day today?” My horse was unpredictable, hard to read. I never knew what to expect. Although, he was very honest and genuine, sometimes he had very cranky and moody days that would trigger his rudeness. His attitude kept me fully entertained.
What I love about Archie is he illustrates life in a perfect way. Life is unpredictable. I often wake up, write a schedule out, expecting to follow the time slots that I put aside, but then things get in the way.
Archie’s moods were never easy to read. Which I liked. This part of him taught me to expect the unexpected. Cope with the unexpected. Find balance in my life. My mom often told me that I learned the word “balance” early on in life. We stress this in life, but often never find it. I have not found it, and probably will never master it, but I have an understanding of what it means to be balanced. Be happy. Happiness is a choice. This statement is cliché…but my mom always told me wherever you are that’s where you will be. You cannot escape yourself. Therefore, it is important to love yourself, and be happy with yourself. Horses influenced and taught me this lesson. In my blog I like to share what horses have taught me, because I think it really gives the reader an idea of what horses do to impact a person’s life, especially mine.
I love that with every single post, you relate horses to something deeper in life. I think it is really interesting that with horseback riding, not only do you have to perform well, but you hope that your horse is in a good mood that day. With most sports, you only have yourself to depend on, but horseback riding requires the most of yourself and another being. This must make it a lot harder to have a successful practice or to do well in a competition. As always, I really liked your post!
This was really cool how you tied three different thins into one post. I have a friend who rode in high school and I never could fully understand her schedule because I felt like she was always at the barn. Relating your horse to life was really interesting and I was not expecting you to link his personality to life advice. I think our hobbies and passions often show us things about the world and you did a great job of showing that with this post. I like the idea of this blog applying your experiences with horses to life lessons and giving them greater meanings than something you do for fun.