Meeting Charly

There is just something about being on a horse. There is really no comparison. You get this feeling that you just can’t quite explain to your non-horsey friends. It is just something about being on a horse that uplifts your spirits and makes you automatically smile. I will admit, not every ride is like this. If you let your worries or frustrations leak into your thoughts while riding, it ruins the whole experience. To truly enjoy horseback riding, you just simply have to let go and live in the moment – appreciate the little things. It has only been a week or two since I was last on a horse, but it feels like forever. Now that I am moved in and settled it is time for me to find a horse to ride –stat!

Stopping by to see my old horseback riding trainer and mentor (for the amount of time I spent at the barn in high school, I should really just call her my second mother), she immediately suggested a few horses she had that I could ride. It is a win – win, she needed her horses to get exercised and I needed horses to ride. Although my heart says it would be nice one day to have a horse that I can call my very own, my brain says that exercise riding horses is so much more economical. No unexpected vet visits, no board fee, no farrier bills, just whatever money I want to put towards important things like treats and pink saddle pads.

Anyway, that very same day I went out to visit she introduced me to her horse, Charly, and let me get on and see how he felt. There is nothing like riding a horse, it doesn’t even matter what horse either. Just sitting in the saddle and walking around the outdoor arena had a big grin plastered on my face. The sunny sky was sprinkled with a few clouds drifting in the gentle wind, making the weather pleasantly sunny, yet breezy enough to not be uncomfortable. The bright sand contrasted with the deep green of the grass on the other side of the bright white fence sectioning off the arena. It felt like heaven.

It was interesting getting to know Charly. He is a big warmblood gelding that is training in dressage. At one point, he was a big fancy jumper until he decided that he did not really like it that much and stopped going over the fences. My first take of him was that he didn’t really like dressage much either. Getting him to go faster than a western jog had me huffing and puffing like I had just run a marathon. Halfway through the ride when my legs were burning and starting to feel a bit like jelly, I realized how out of riding shape I was. Yes, I had been training and riding horses while working at the horse rescue, but training a horse from the ground up involves a lot of groundwork and very little actual ride time. When I did ride, it went something like this:

Step 1: Get on horse, horse moves, get off horse, wait until horse stands patiently, get on horse again. Repeat until horse stands still while I get on.

Step 2: Ask horse to walk forward. Sigh with relief – so far so good.

Step 3: Walk around a bit, work on steering. Decide if I ask for the trot if I will get bucked off and die.

Step 4: Ask for the trot. Keep fingers crossed.

Step 5: Trot around a few times each direction.

Step 6: Get off, gives lots of praise. Call your health insurance and tell them there is no need just yet to raise your deductable.

If a horse was far along enough in its training, sometimes we would go on light trail rides – mostly walking – and sometimes we would canter. Canter usually went like, “I’m just going to ask and then hang on and see what happens.” Once I had been working with a horse long enough to have the walk, trot, and canter well trained and was finally ready to move on to more exciting things than the basics, it was also about the time that the horse started to get a lot more interest from potential adopters. Finding the perfect home for a rescue horse is the best thing in the world, but it also meant I was back to square one with the next horse in the barn.

The point I am trying to make is that there is a big, big different between walk/trotting a few laps in the arena or on the trail versus riding dressage, and my body was making that very clear to me. If you have ever watched a dressage test, it may look like the horse is doing all the work, which is exactly how you know the horse and rider are a good team. The key to good dressage is making it look like the rider is doing nothing, because in reality, the rider is working very hard to constantly communicate to the horse what he or she wants by leg or rein pressure and shifts in body weight and positioning. Dressage is a French term that means training. Dressage has its origins in the training of horses for battle. If you ever have heard of the Lipizzaner horses or airs above grounds – this is where it all stemmed from. Riders would train their horses to rear up or leap in the air as maneuvers to fight enemies successfully. These horses had to keep a cool head in the heat of battle and remain attentive to the slightest signal from their rider in order to stay alive. From there, dressage grew into almost a sort of art form and today is a widely competitive sport with judges to score specific movements based off of how attentive, calm, and precise the horse and rider pair are.

A good place to get more information about dressage is from the United States Dressage Federation (USDF) at:

http://www.usdf.org/about/about-dressage/

I could go on and on about dressage until your ears bleed, so for this blogs sake, I will keep it short. Competitive dressage focuses on judges and scores as they perform a series of movements in a test. This is what you are watching when you see dressage horse and rider teams at the Olympics. Sometimes, their tests are ridden to music in what is called Kur or simply, Dressage to Music. Classical dressage has similar training techniques to that of competitive dressage, but also includes the Airs Above Grounds or Haute Ecole movements. This is what you often see in special performances or demonstrations at fairs and other events. Although my teachers always told me not to use Wikipedia, I still think this article is a good brief overview of the Haute Ecole movements:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airs_above_the_ground 

The Capriole 

The horse is trained to leap into the air and kick out with its hind feet

The Levade

Unlike rearing, the levade is a trained maneuver that requires much strength and control

Pictures from:

http://www.hostau.org/html_en/lipizzaners.html

This picture I have painted for you of a horse and rider pair in perfect, beautiful harmony with each other is not exactly what me and Charly looked like on this first ride. Instead, think of a big horse that is shuffling along through the sand with his ears flopping while this little middle school girl (what I feel I look like when I am on him because he is so big) is flopping along on his back with a big stupid grin on her face. But that is the joy of horseback riding! You might look like the biggest idiot ever – but you are having the time of your life!

But just like any good conversation, if you take the time to learn about whom you are talking to and really try to listen, a bond of mutual understanding soon forms. Near the end of the ride, Charly was picking up on my signals and I was starting to learn how to ask him for what I wanted to do properly, in a way he could understand. My stupid grin got even bigger when he actually started to give me what I was asking for and started moving out with a bigger stride and rounding his back and neck into a nice frame. And just like that, we had finally clicked. What was what I’m sure looked like a disaster, turned into a beautiful ride in just a stride or two. Just shifting my weight had him flying sideways in a perfect leg yield across the ring. Transitioning into a canter had me almost giggling with joy and I threw in a sloppy lead change just for grins. He was unsure if he should really put the energy into an extended trot, but after some cajoling with my legs he decided to give it to me. It is just amazing that such large creatures are patient and kind enough to let us ride them and share some of their power and glory that they all just seem to naturally possess.

I was exhilarated for the rest of the day. I have been riding for nearly 20 years, but I am still that happy after a good ride.