More Than a Hobby: The Joy of Horseback Riding

I didn’t really have a hobby until I discovered the joy of horseback riding. Anyone would love riding horses if they enjoy:

• Feeling the wind whistling in your ears.
• The adrenaline rushing through you.
• Being absolutely and utterly animal crazy.

Yep. I love all those things. I can’t really explain it; you kind of have to feel it to understand exactly what I mean, but when I’m riding, I’ve just got that wonderful feeling where I can’t help but think the horse I’m riding is in a way a part of me.

I do a style of riding called ‘English’. The other style is called ‘Western’. The difference that I noticed first is that the saddle is different. In western riding, the saddle is heavy and large, providing comfort and stability when riding over rough terrains. Western saddles have utility items, like the horn on the pommel of the saddle (the pommel is the front of a saddle) that was designed to hold a cowboy’s ropes. The English saddle is much lighter and smaller so that the rider could both be able to feel the horse’s movement and be more nimble.

The riding is different too. Western riding has events and tournaments all to do with barrel racing and roping, while English riding has more to do with jumping, dressage, and racing.

I can’t say I’ve ever had a ride that I was disappointed with. Just like other sports, you make mistakes and then learn from them. So far, I have fallen off a horse only once, but I’m sure if I want to make a riding career when I’m older, plenty more falls are to come. From that fall and watching others fall, I discovered something quite interesting. Between the ages of 7-12, you’ll receive lots of sympathy and soothing voices asking if you are ok. Then your instructor will come and ask you whether you would like to continue your riding lesson. If you say no, your instructor will probably nod and say he or she understands. But secretly, he or she is likely thinking, ‘what an absolute wimp.’ If you are older than twelve and you fall, you’ll probably only get sympathy from a nervous parent who is scared their child will fall as well. However, your instructor is likely to glare at you, and tell you to hurry up and get back on the horse! My advice is as long as you don’t have an injury, you should get back on the horse. It is actually not a good thing for the horse to end on a bad note.

One of my biggest goals in life is to become a famous professional horse trainer or rider. Horses are such gentle giants with their deep, soulful eyes that seem to look right inside of you and see your values, I can’t understand why anybody would ever, ever mistreat a horse.

A very important part of horse-riding is confidence and trusting yourself and the creature underneath you. Horses are sensitive beings, and when they were in herds in the wild, they looked up to a leader for support, who is normally a stallion (male horse) or the lead mare (a female horse who guides the rest of the herd to fertile grazing lands). When the horse in your hands, he will look up to you for support. If you are nervous or scared, your horse can feel it. After all, you are sitting on his back and holding reins connecting to his mouth. When your horse detects you are scared, he will think he should be scared too! Then you have a skittish and scared horse on your hands, and that’s never a good thing. So even if you are nervous, make sure to keep it together for the sake of your horse.

Horses have a funny way of showing love. They do have tails, but unlike dogs, horses most certainly do not wag them! Horses like having someone they can lean on, trust, and rely on. So their way of showing that they trust you is to place that giant head of theirs onto your shoulder and if the horse really likes you, he might even gently nibble or lick your neck, hands, and shoulders!

There’s a special way to let a horse adore you, and that’s to give him treats! Instead of feeding the horses carrots and apples, why not make a little cake for him, completely edible to horses? Here’s a good recipe which I have tried recently and the horses love them.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 1 cup diced apples
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoon sugar
• 2 teaspoon corn oil

 

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 177 celsius (350 fahrenheit)
2. Mix the oats, flour, salt , sugar, oil and molasses in a bowl.
3. Stir in the apples and carrots.
4. Flour your hands to stop the batter from sticking to them and form balls of batter no bigger than a golf ball with your hands.
5. Grease a cookie sheet with butter.
6. Place the balls of batter on the cookie sheet.
7. Bake for about 12 minutes or until the cookies turn gold.
8. Let cool.
9. Serve to horses with a flat hand so they can easily take it from you.

This wonderful recipe is in an excellent book I recommend, For Horse Crazy Girls Only by Christina Wilsdon.

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Images: Isla Bruce-Tong, Unsplash

This article is part of beijingkids’ Teen Correspondents program. If you or a teen you know want to write for us, email editor@beijing-kids.com.