Life lesson & Carrots (Part 3)

There is something very important to remember while riding. A horse that is moving forward has much less power to buck. A horse that is moving forward can't rear. Forward is not always what our instinct tells us is safe, and yet there is nothing (mounted) that is safer.

Image planted four hooves, dropped her head and spun. We shot backward. She tossed her head and I could feel her front end coming light, her front hooves threatening to come up off the hard packed dirt of the road. "Forward!" Trees behind us, a ditch, danger. I slammed heels into her sides with all the might and enthusiasm of a pony clubber. Image snorted, head coming up and we took two steps forward. But whatever she feared was still ahead. We spun again, scrambling backward.

I sat deep, reins in one hand and fly whisk, held like a crop, in the other. I smacked and kicked, my concentration focused on a single instant in time. In dressage you work for effortless joining. For aids and cues so subtle an audience would never see how horse and rider communicate. Stillness, unity, effortlessness. But here on the trail those things can fail and subtlety must yield to necessity and survival. I kick her bay flanks and bring my open hand down hard against her sweating neck. Crack. She stops backing, surprised. I squeeze, sending her forward. Two steps, pause, breath. Two steps, pause, breath. Always forward. The panic evaporates, the imagined danger forgotten. I feel her uncoil and send her forward with gentle pressure, the tension running out of both our bodies, the battle over for the moment.

There is very little as dangerous as a backing horse. Or one who stands still in panic and may explode in hysterical bucks at any moment. And yet instinct still screams at us to stop when we should instead be urging, forward! Always forward!

My instructor says it this way: I don't care if its ugly, get her forward! It doesn't matter if she jigs or jogs. It doesn't matter if we walk or trot or canter around with our head pointed at the sky. In those moments when Image's brain shakes loose it is only forward that matters.

In life our instinct is to stop as well. Stop and regroup. Take time to catch our breath and pause. But it is in standing still that we are most vulnerable. It is in standing still that we can loose sight of which direction is forward, that we can begin to slide backward into danger. It does not have to be pretty, but keep moving. It does not have to be fast, but keep moving. Always forward through the fear and the panic, the darkness and the confusion. Only forward will carry us through and out, past the danger and back into the sunlight.