30 Day Equestrian Challenge
Day 13 - Your worst ride ever
My worst ride ever has to be in winter 2011 when I'd just started riding Vallu after mum didn't want to ride him anymore. It was late in the evening, freezing temperatures, and I can still remember feeling how tired I was. Vallu wasn't feeling too good either, it was one of those days where he was constantly spooking at everything and anything. This was before I had gotten used to his spooking, and I was still pretty scared/nervous when riding him. Even though I knew I wouldn't fall off, his spooks were huge (leaps to the side + taking off suddenly with no warning were Vallu's specialty) and constantly having to try to hang on and contain him was just too much for me...
The feeling of desperation and failure just broke through and I just sat on Vallu crying hysterically because I felt like such a loser. I kept thinking, "here I've got an amazingly talented horse that I can't ride because I'm too scared and don't have the balls to actually ride him."
I'd hit rock bottom with him.
But luckily hitting rock bottom means that it can't get any worse, and the only way is up! After some encouraging words from mother ("either get off and lunge him or stop crying and start riding") I got on with riding - I was too embarrassed to stop riding - and from then on, have never looked back. Even nowadays if we have a bad day, I remind myself that it wasn't as bad as my worst ride ever.
My worst ride ever has to be in winter 2011 when I'd just started riding Vallu after mum didn't want to ride him anymore. It was late in the evening, freezing temperatures, and I can still remember feeling how tired I was. Vallu wasn't feeling too good either, it was one of those days where he was constantly spooking at everything and anything. This was before I had gotten used to his spooking, and I was still pretty scared/nervous when riding him. Even though I knew I wouldn't fall off, his spooks were huge (leaps to the side + taking off suddenly with no warning were Vallu's specialty) and constantly having to try to hang on and contain him was just too much for me...
The feeling of desperation and failure just broke through and I just sat on Vallu crying hysterically because I felt like such a loser. I kept thinking, "here I've got an amazingly talented horse that I can't ride because I'm too scared and don't have the balls to actually ride him."
I'd hit rock bottom with him.
No comments:
Post a Comment