What's Inside

It seems somehow time has allowed me to forgot that at one point my summers consisted of gathering up the gang, rounding up those sorry school horses and swinging on bareback for an onslaught of games from “cops and robbers” to “tag” and racing each other across the arena. Riding was simple then. It was merely to borrow the freedom of a patient school horse.

Recently though I was reminded of a particular day during one of those summers. That day we had somewhere around 8 horses in the ring. We were having a blast, racing back and forth from one end of the ring to the other. Not apart of our havoc, but quietly among it, was one of the boarders. She owned a lovely second or third level dressage horse. I recall envying her knowledge. I wondered what kind of magic must she be performing to get her mare to do flying lead changes, half passes, and shoulder-ins? How could I ever learn to ride like that? How could I ever learn to speak to a horse like that?

That particular day though I noticed her slight discomfort with ponies running into and out of her serpentines and spiral ins. I shouted out, pointing to the boarder, “she gets the right away!” It was nothing significant but we stayed out of her way and everyone's rides ended well.

Now fast forward to just a month or so ago. I was riding my dressage horse through serpentines and spiral ins. Then, from the end of the ring, I hear giggling and laughing coming from two girls, riding bareback and double on one of the very same school horses who had been a victim of my games years ago. As we pass each other one of the girls points at me and says “she has the right away!”. Then the other girl grins and says “nooo she has the ride away!”

Suddenly I am shot back to that day where I had been on the other end of that comment. I am reminded of who I was, the rider I was. Not a serious rider, but simply a kid. I thought about all of the choices I have had to make to get to this point in my equestrian career. All of the horses who have had to be patient with me and all of the hours of riding and lessons, trying vainly to answer the questions I had asked while watching that boarder. I realized that at some point riding became more than borrowed freedom. Somewhere along the way it had become a passion and a fascination with the unity of horse and rider. At some point I had decided that riding would not be a mere phase of my life or a simple game. Yet at that simple insignificant moment I was allowed to reflect on the years it has taken me to earn the “ride away”.

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