Yesterday we had some new visitors drop in to our Giddyup! riding program. While in the arena they (husband, wife and teen age daughter) watched several of our children and teens ride. The husband was particularly interested in my big Percheron, saying that he was looking for just such a horse for himself. As the family was leaving he turned to one of my instructors and asked, “Are there any real people that ride these horses?
You can’t help but notice an eighteen hundred pound Percheron. It was obviously easy, however, not to notice the thirteen-year-old girl riding that horse independently, with enough talent, skill, and patience to completely engage the horse’s cooperation. It was also easy to ignore the fairly sophisticated moves that she was asking the horse to perform successfully. This family came in with the expectation of watching a therapeutic riding program and so the skills and accomplishments they observed were not “real” to them.
Here at Giddyup everyone rides using the same system and techniques. That includes my neurotypical students, my students with disabilities, my instructors and myself. We all utilize the same theories of horse behaviour and horse psychology to engage our horse’s cooperation. Everyone is working towards the same goal – to become effective leaders to our horses.
There is a lot more to riding a horse than kick to go and pull to whoa. Riding requires many life and leadership skills. You must communicate through non-verbal body language while managing your energy level. You must focus on your horse while being aware of everything going on around you. You must be able to establish clear boundaries while making polite requests and rewarding your horse’s responses. And when things aren’t going so well you must be able to make decisions and problem solve.
We believe that everyone who rides at Giddyup has the potential to develop these skills and it is a realistic goal for everyone to successfully ride their horse. The only thing that is not real here is the attitude of people such as our visitors who are too blind to see past the labels.
