Riding with No (Time) Limits

Today's post is about freeing up extra time to do things we can't necessarily do in our lessons and taking away the preconceptions we have about "what counts" when we ride.  We'll talk about making the most of time in the saddle and also taking the time to be around and communicate with horses when you're not in the saddle.  One-hour, concentrated lessons are one way to learn and create equine partnerships; short, casual rides are another; taking time to care for our horse companions, or to simply spend time with them on the ground, is another still.  All of these things are important aspects of establishing a working partnership between horse and rider.

Since I started this blog I've had three lessons; this doesn't sound like much at all.  In each lesson, I've tried hard to rehabilitate the muscles which have atrophied during my break from riding, regain my balance, strength, and confidence, and to learn as much as I can about how my aids affect my horse.  In some ways the lessons have been too few to really come any great distance, in other ways they have brought me much further, at a pace that I can't maintain by sitting on the couch.  The answer lies completely in practicing outside of lessons.

After a "bad" lesson in which I realized I was mentally and physically in different places, I came to the conclusion that an hour a week or every-other-week was not going to be enough.  You might remember how I sucked up all my courage and went out for (what surprised me as being) a pretty fantastic ride on my old friend, Thunder.  I also added one night a week volunteering to do stable chores at the non-profit equestrian program I have worked with in the past.  This again, doesn't seem like much, but is much more than I had been doing for years.

When you take the time to care for horses, rather than "ride and return to stall," the lessons you learn offer great insight into how horses naturally react, behave, and how these things can work for you as you ride.  You learn how a horse might move when a sudden noise or movement spooks him.  You also might learn how your casual touch affects his body language-- which can be a major help when you try to collect him in the saddle later.  You learn to take your time around horses, knowing that you have much more time to learn than just the one hour you have while your trainer is watching.

This phenomenon of "taking one's time" also applies to the time you practice in the saddle.  You have as much or as little time as you ever need.  You may casually ride for longer, or you may ride intensively for a shorter amount of time.  I went out for a visit to Thunder on Thursday evening, and I literally spent twice as much time brushing him as I did in the saddle.  I pet him, I brushed, tacked, led him around on a lead rope through the arena, rode for a mentally intense and focused twenty minutes, then led him around some more, untacked, brushed, pet him, and put him away. Some riders would think this was a waste of time, driving all the way out there to only ride for a few minutes, but I feel as though I have no reason to rush around to ride for hours all in one day.  As he worked hard in those twenty minutes, including a mentally focused but physically effective warm-up and cool-down period, I don't see that I have to push him for hours to "make it count."  There's no minimum requirement of ride time unless I make it so.

Furthermore, I think he appreciates that I come out to visit with him.  He likes that some days, we only get to the "hard work" in small amounts, while spending most of our time getting to know each other and establishing trust.  Will every visit be so short and so devoid all that hard stuff that I make him do?  Certainly not.  But why not let your horse know how it feels to enter into the arena without fear of being run into the ground; of being there to play, work, and then play again?  Most importantly, he can learn to associate you with pleasant experiences, trust, a teammate that wants to work together rather than boss him around with no reward.  This isn't to say that perhaps the next time I visit I won't expect a longer working session, it's to say "we can have fun together while we work."

We can learn about horses and riding in so many ways, I think we cheat ourselves if we only stick to one, full-of-rules approach to learning.  The trainers I've spoken to would certainly agree that a lot of learning to ride and being a good student comes from the work we do outside of our lessons.  Just like in music and sports, we have to practice outside of our formal lessons to make the most of our trainer's time (and the time we pay for) during  lessons.