Saying Yes

I’ve never had any real interest in horses.  As a kid I went horse back riding a few times and I had two imaginary horses.  One was a white box that I pretended was a horse named Whitey.  The other was an invisible horse named Star who I would take with  me on walks one summer.  When Rocky came along I felt my connection to him wasn’t because he was a horse, but because he was Rocky.   But when Stacey offered to treat me to a  horseback riding lesson a few weeks ago, I found I didn’t hesitate to say yes.

The strange thing is that I don’t know Stacey that well and although riding has recently become a passion for her, I’m not sure why she thought I’d be interested in taking a lesson.  But the really strange thing is that I was interested.  It’s not something I even would have considered before she asked me.

So today, in between gardening and having dinner with Stacey and her husband Ed, I found myself taking a horseback riding lesson.

Denise was putting a meatloaf in the oven when we got to her house.  She asked me what I wanted to learn and how much experience I had riding.  I told her I was there because Stacey had invited me (Denise seemed to understand this completely)  and that the last time I was on a horse was for a 3 hour tour of Canyon De Chelly which was extremely painful on the butt.   Denise promised there would be no pain in today’s lesson and I immediately felt comfortable with her and trusted her.

We started by grooming the horse I would ride whose name is Chester,  then Denise showed me how to put a saddle on him.  She told me a bunch of other things too, like the best way  to walk around a horse so I wouldn’t get kicked, and how to tell what was going on with a horse by watching his ears, mouth and tail.  And how we are constantly communicating with a horse by what we are doing and what we aren’t doing.

Once I was on Chester, I found  that I wasn’t a bit nervous or uncomfortable.  That it all seemed very natural.  I’m sure this had a lot to do with Denise and  the way she teaches and that Chester is a really good horse.  But I also felt something in me that was different.  I knew that it was important that  I let this very large animal know that he was going to do what I wanted him to do, not what he wanted to do.   That I had to be confident and give very direct and clear messages through my actions and my intentions.  And mostly, I was able to do that.  I was also aware of my body and what it was doing, trying not to send a confusing signal by telling the horse one thing with my legs and another with my hands which were controlling the reins.

When the lesson was over I had enjoyed it enough to want to try it again.  And I also realized that if Denise asked me again what I wanted to learn, I would say that I would like to learn enough to feel confident to ride a horse by myself.  I’m not sure if this will ever happen and it’s not something that at this point I have a great desire or yearning for, but I’m finding the whole experience all very interesting and finding myself saying yes to it instead of no.