Of children and horses!

Our first riding lesson of the year happened on Saturday January 28th! It was a beautiful 9am lesson! I love giving lessons to children who are so thirsty for horse knowledge! And not just the typical, show up and ride kind of children. This little gal in particular is just yearning for some learning! At just 7 years old, she is fearless, but not in the sense where she would put herself in danger. She is fearless, but cautious! Something many riders, especially that age never achieve! It took me years to actually realize that "Hey, that horse your aboard can potentially kill you!" I think I was 18 when I actually started to develop more of a respect for horses. I was the person that everyone would call when they needed a horse "bucked-out," "first rides" all the stuff no one of there right mind wanted to do! They knew I would jump at the opportunity to get on a new horse. Now, I'm not the one to call! Sure, I do first rides very often! But now I actually do it correctly! No one wants to get tossed off a horse, I sure don't! And don't for a second think that I'm "scared." Far from it! Everyone who rides will hit the ground. Your not a true rider unless you've received wings from your trusty steed, or a mouthful of dirt from your clients "dog-gentle" gelding. LOL

Your not scared, your smart! You know what this horse can do to you, but you love what you do so much that you want to get that horse where anyone can ride it. Where you don't have to worry about it bucking someone off, or flipping over back-wards. Lets not get started on that! Rearing horses! Oh boy, I've had my share of pain caused by a horse going backwards. I deal with a lot of problem horses. Animals that people have cause to now have "people problems." So they were brought to me to be fixed.
I think the worst one was actually a young colt of my own. Actually it was my sisters colt. A young 3 year old. He had maybe 5 rides on him, but had a tendency (that I was in-aware about) and he was quite light in the front end. He figured that when he didn't want to do something, he would go upward. Boy was that fun! (NOT!) Did I mention that he was a Shetland/welsh pony that mirrored the image of a gorgeous Friesian! He was beautiful, his mind was not. He was spoiled from day 1. So when she bought him (we were 11 and 12 years old) we new we had a project. I had my own project pony so I didn't pay much attention to hers. But I decided to jump on him one day! Boy was he acting like a fresh stud!
So there we were, 11 year old girl, 3 year old pony trotting around the pasture when all of a sudden BOLT! He was done, and headed for home. I one rein him to stop, nope not working, pull back on both reins, Hey, he does a sliding stop! Cool! As we're standing there, he gets light in the front end, wanting to go back to the bar. So I pull his head around and go in circles. Trying to calm him down. He's not having it. Anxiety kicks in and up he goes. Ok naughty. More circles, I'll wear you out. Nope! Up again, this time all the way and over!
As we're going over backwards, I didn't think to try to escape. I just took this colt down with me. A large pasture water pipe just happened to be between my spine and the ground. Lovely!
So, ground, pipe, my spine, saddle horse in the gut and 12.3hh pony on top of me. It was fabulous. My dad had to rescue me. I laid on the living room floor for a few days. A friend of ours who is a massage therapist came over once a day and did some work on my back. Soon after I was feeling well enough to ride again! I got back on that pony and boy, we had some great rides after that. Apparently because he flipped over, he didn't want to rear anymore. Great! So we fixed a problem, even though I had a bit of an injury! But that's ok, because we fixed the problem! Right?!

I laugh at that memory now. I was so young and didn't know a lot. I definitely didn't know what I do now. We all have those learning moments!

Thank you for sticking around to read my boring memory! ;)
Now a picture of Miss Maddison during her first lesson!