In my last blog, What does progress look like?, I touched on how riders define progress and why it’s often an inaccurate representation of what is actually happening when they are in the saddle; how the checklists in our heads get rewritten and rewritten for every new stage in riding. I want, this time, to further explore and explain this idea because it relates directly to so many riders who ask the question, “What’s next?” Progress in riding is very unique to each rider and dependent on many factors. We tend to look at riding like this: Walk (check) Halt (check) Steer (check) Trot (check) Canter (check) Jump (check) Jump higher (check) If this were the case, my job as...
I have just returned home from having a very enjoyable, and admittedly much needed, visit with my sisters. We packed as much fun into our brief time together as we possibly could: hiking, skiing, walks together along the frozen shoreline of the ocean. But for me, the best time of each day was near its close, in the evening, when, with glasses of wine in hand, we shared stories of our growing up years and then of our times apart as grown women, and the connections between the two. This recent visit got me thinking, however, about how our personal histories are so intimately intertwined with the histories and origins of our families. To my mind, our understanding of the...
Maybe it was the expression of wonder on the faces of small children that best captures the fun of the visit of the Horse Simulators to the Georgian Mall in Barrie, Ontario last week. In that moment when they first spotted them, eyes grew wide, little arms pointed, and mother or father were almost invariably asked if they could have a ride. Or, perhaps the fun was captured best by the look of curiosity as these same children came a little closer, the awe of discovering something new, that looked so entrancing, sketched on their faces? Or was it the smile that would simply not go away when they rode as far as their “mechanical horse” would take them? Or,...
Immersing yourself in the artistry of Ellen Cameron is a little like walking into a room and finding a magic window that allows you to peer into a world at the same time both strange and familiar. You feel as though it is somewhere you have been, sure enough, but not a place that you have explored so as to know it intimately. Ellen has in her work in effect allowed you to tag along with her, from the farmhouse to the barn, or to the field, with both halter and camera in tow, to capture the gentle, intuitive, generous nature of the animal she both loves and is in awe of. It does not take long while standing contemplating...
Progress in riding feels very lateral. I explain this often when I’m teaching, especially when my students want to know how they are doing. Is their riding getting better? Are they meeting expectations and goals? Riding, and learning how to ride properly, is a long, slow climb. There are no shortcuts. Often you feel like you are treading water, repeating exercises and seeing no changes. Improvement does not show itself until you’ve grinded in hours of development. We are all human, and as humans we want to check things off of our list. This is how riding starts - you want to learn to master the walk, trot, and then the canter. Depending on your discipline, you may want to...
