Horseback Riding

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Kamyle Whisenant
Mr. Hamilton
English
23 September, 2014

Horseback Riding
Two summers ago, my mom had been working at the Highland House. After about the

first two weeks of summer my mom had meet this lady who owned about 10 horses and she gave free horseback riding lessons to people or kids who were interested in learning how to ride a horse. Her and my mom got to talking, the lady asked my mom if I would like to have lessons every Sunday and some Saturdays over the summer, and I always wanted to learn how to ride a horse because I personally love the old west and the idea of riding a horse everywhere I go. My mother agreed happily and after she got home from work she excitedly told me that I would be taking free horseback riding lessons, of course I was really excited, although I don’t really show much emotion on the outside my heart was pounding with excitement and I had a hard time sleeping that night because I thought it was too good to be true. A week later my mother and I drove over to their farm (I don’t know where at anymore because it’s been about 1 ½ to 2 years since I’ve been there) and three of the ten horses came to greet us as we got out of our car and that’s when I met Lora, the girl who would be teaching me how to ride a horse and she was about my age too.

The first day Lora taught me about all the tools that I would use to clean a horse (brushes,

hoof picks, etc.) and she taught me the proper way to brush a horse, how to clean a horses hooves, and. She also had picked one of the horses for me to start with, the horses name was

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Charlie and he was an older and taller horse (about 12 hands high from hoof to shoulder) but he was really sweet and gentle, although he could be stubborn and hardheaded at times. The most important part to me about learning how to ride a horse was that it gave me a deeper connection with animals and learning to ride a horse helped me better understand a horses way of thinking and helped me better understand their anatomy which helps me quite a bit, due to me wanting to be a veterinarian.

Learning to ride a horse was a hands on experience for me. The second day (the next

Sunday) I actually got on Charlie and Lora showed me the basic steps, such as how to hold the reins, my posture, and how my feet should be. After showing me how to do it Lora stood in the middle of the corral, me still being on the horse, and she told me what I had to do to get the horse to move forward, how to make him back up, how to make him turn, and how to make him stop.
The whole time I was on the horse I had to make sure to keep all my weight in my heels (I had to keep my heels down and keep weight in them). I also had to keep my hands a certain way and couldn’t just let them lazily lay there otherwise the horse won’t listen.

Although it may sound like I had no problems what so ever, I did. One of the major

problems I had was keeping my weight in my heels. I believe I had trouble with this because while riding a horse you have to pay attention to a lot of things, such as paying attention to your surroundings, paying attention to your posture, making sure your hands are held up correctly, etc.
But over that summer I got better at keeping my heels down.

I had trouble getting the hang of keeping my heels down but I did get better at it. To help

me get better I would practice at home (sitting on a bar stool and practiced keeping my heels pointed down). I did also have trouble with my hands having to be a certain way but I got better

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at that very quickly. It took me a while to get better at keeping my heels right but even then I noticed my heels out of place, though I don’t own a horse, I like that I know how to ride a horse cause my mother and stepfather plan on buying a house with property to be able to have a horse or maybe a few. I hope that will be soon.