Riding Atticus

Today I took my horseback riding lesson with the ladies from North Carolina. I rode Atticus. My teacher's name was Michael, a funny name for a woman, I thought.

She was a great teacher.

The first thing we did was to make sure that the saddle fit the horse properly. She determined that it was riding on the horse's shoulders and so we fit a white cushioned pad in between the saddle and the horse's skin. Then we lengthened the stirrups for me so that my legs fell around the horse's girth and not so that I was perched on top with my legs bent. It felt funny. While I liked having more of me in contact with the horse, I felt less secure than I did with my legs pressing against the top of the horse's back.

So, onto the lesson...I learned so many things. I learned that I could hold the reins more comfortably, widened my grip so that it was easier to pull on the reins to communicate with Atticus. I learned that in order to signal to Atticus that I wanted to turn right I could push down slightly in the right stirrup, give it more weight, so that he would know that I wanted to turn to the right, and not have to rely so much on pulling the reins.

With horses, it's all about communication and about building trust. Horses are pack animals and live in constant fear that they are prey. The horse wants to be led, but needs to know that he can trust you, and if you are going to be perched on top of a horse that weighs 1,200 lbs, you need to know that you can trust him. So, it's all about mutual trust and communication -- and two-way communication. I am learning that there is a difference between having the horse want to follow you and imposing yourself on the horse. That's what my instructor Jim tells me, and I understand the concept, even if I am still learning how to translate it into action.

As my friend Barbara tells me, riding horses is about staying present. You have to stay completely in the moment. Riding is about finding that exquisite attunement between the rider and the horse, finding that balance between reading the horse and communicating your own needs so that you are reading and responding to each other in one fluid motion within an environment of trust. Horses are intuitive. They can read people. The challenge for the rider is to be able to read the horse.