As I’ve written in a previous blog post, I’ve been riding horses for a little over a year now. A few days ago, I started to think about how it all started and this blog post is about the start of that journey. 

The first time I rode on a horse was when I was 4 years old. My dad’s company had a corporate event, and they thought of inviting families. To entertain little kids, they got a horse and a trainer.  I remember sitting on a large chestnut horse and walking around an open area. I don’t remember too much of what I did while on the horse, the feeling of being exhilarated remained with me. I was maybe 50 pounds and 3 ft tall, and I was riding on a 1500-pound, 7 ft. tall animal. The horse could have done anything that it wanted but it was very gentle and followed every direction of its trainer. I felt an immediate connection with this breath-taking animal, and I decided to ride on a horse anytime I got a chance to.

The next time I rode on a horse was when I was 6 years old, and this time it was for a friend’s birthday party. I remember this experience a little better. I was sitting on a large brown horse and we walked across a large plot of grass. It was remarkable how nice these animals were and I kept on researching about them. I read about their loyalty, hard work, gentle demeanor, and their deep connections with riders.

My sister also played a large role in terms of starting horse-riding lessons. She brought it up to my mom one day, talking about how she has always wanted to ride a horse (she had never ridden a horse previously) and I loved the idea as well. My mother researched different horse riding places and she ultimately landed at a well-respected farm nearby. 

We started our trial class, and it was a great experience. We only walked the horse during the trial class, but we also learned how to steer and turn a horse around. In the weekly classes that followed, we learned how to trot, equivalent to a human jog, and learned how to post – a series of sitting and not sitting on the saddle on a certain rhythm. We have also learned to canter (almost the equivalent of galloping a horse) and going to our lesson is something I look forward to weekly!

Now we’ve been coming to classes for more than a year and we’ve learned lots more about horses than I ever knew existed. I’ve enjoyed it so much that I became a trainee at the farm and that’s been a great experience as well. I’m still learning new things everyday in terms of saddling and bridling horses. My sister, being the animal-lover she is wants to become a trainee as soon as she is old enough. It’s been a great experience and I still learn new things every time I meet these majestic animals.