Do you remember your first time on a horse? Depending on how long you’ve been riding, you’ve probably forgotten the feeling of first being on a horse and how alien it all felt, but also how magical it felt at the same time!
This week, I’m sharing the first lesson of Jose, one of the kids at my barn. Teaching children is a very special and humbling experience. They’re taking the world in differently to us adults and they often notice or ask things that make you think differently about something you see every day.
Jose was paired up with Jaques, a steady and reliable horse at the barn, and we began with some in-hand walking. Next Jose mounted and I familiarized him with how to hold the bucking strap and sit back if anything went wrong, and also helped him to find the correct alignment from ear, shoulder, hip to heel.
Jose was super keen and took on board everything I said with gusto. I was really impressed with how he always remembered to breathe! I reminded him once to breathe and then throughout the lesson, I kept hearing him take nice deep breaths! (You’d be surprised how many adults I have to remind to do that, myself included!)
He then learned how to stop Jaques by tightening his tummy and sitting back. He happily negotiated some in-hand trot transitions and then we popped the side reins on and did a small amount of work on the lunge.
Working with Jose brought me back to when I first started and just how wonderful it is to start on a journey of learning with horses. I thought I’d share this with you all this week just to remind us that no matter where we are on our equestrian journey, we all were Jose once, and whether we’re having a good day or a bad day with our horses, we’ve all come such a long way that we should be proud of that!
I hope you get as much joy out of Jose as I do!
Thanks for watching, happy ridinghttps://youtu.be/ofVxhtqd78U
