Riding Lessons

My daughters recently began taking horse riding lessons. I don’t quite understand the draw of riding a large, stinky animal around in circles – especially now that they have invented the car – but my girls love it, so I’ve tried to be supportive. Anyway, my little seven-year-old, Brooklynn, is only about two months into lessons and is just starting to build her confidence in controlling such a massive animal. Brook is maybe 50lbs when soaking wet and wearing a Flavor Flav style gold chain, so this horse is quite literally 20 times her size if not more.

Yesterday she was learning how to modulate the horse’s gait from standing, to walking, to a trot (which is kind of like a horse jog, I think) then back down to a walk and to standing again. Sometimes this horse required a bit more motivation to move than my tiny and (sometimes) soft-spoken daughter would provide, so the instructor was trying to get Brook to assert herself a little more as she rode. Something clicked inside my daughter, and I heard a very commanding “TROT” come out of my girl’s mouth as she firmly dug her heels into the horse’s side. This horse wasn’t sure what was going on but didn’t want to mess with the young, newly-appointed dictator on her back, so she skipped right through “walk” and “trot” and went straight to “canter” (which is faster than a trot but not a full out gallop – maybe like a horse version of a run but less than a sprint – I’m not quite sure, I am more of a “motorized vehicle” guy). As Brooklynn realized she got more than she bargained for, her eyes got huge. I could tell she was a bit nervous as she had never been on a horse moving this fast and the instructor was a good 50 ft away – Brook was all on her own with this giant beast. Then, her training kicked in. She fought her instinct to panic, sat up straight in her saddle, and began to gently pull back on the reigns. Then she calmly reminded the horse, “trot, trot” in a soft but firm voice and relaxed her heel pressure on the beast’s side. Amazingly, this giant equine responded almost immediately and slowed back down to a trot as instructed. I was so impressed with the command my little girl had over this tremendously large and powerful animal.

Life can sometimes feel like this, as if we are perched atop a beast much larger and more powerful than us. And just like my girl on the horse, sometimes we get more than we bargained for and life just takes off on us. It can feel overwhelming, as if we are a small child being carried by the powerful forces of life. We feel out of control. And while it’s true, we cannot “control” life – just as that horse could have done whatever it wanted, and my little girl could have done little to stop her – we do certainly have some influence. We must remember what we can control; and seek to maximize the small influences we do have. We can sit up straight, with confidence and resolve. We can remain calm and be both intentional and specific about what we are seeking (“trot, trot”). Also, we should relax, knowing that tensing up just adds more pressure and drives the beast underneath us to move even more frantically.

My daughter didn’t think of all the things that could go wrong, nor did she dwell on her relative helplessness atop a thousand-pound horse. She simply focused on the few but impactful actions she could control, then continued to ride on with a smile.

*The horse in the picture is not the same one she was riding during the story. The picture shown was selected to portray the cuteness of my daughter rather than the enormity of the horse in the story (the thing is huge! The horse in the picture looks miniature by comparison).