I'm a Beginner All Over Again!

I’m a BEGINNER all over again! 

Like many other kids of our time we watched all those Saturday morning cowboy shows.  Roy Rogers was King, Dale Evans was Queen and Trigger was truly a Wonder Horse!  When I was about nine years old, my brother was given a horse.  It was fantastic!  Of course, it cost a whole lot less to keep a horse back then.  I think a big sack of feed was about $4.00 and a square bale of hay was around a dollar.

We lived in the city, but at that time folks who had a good amount of land could be found who would rent out a space in their big pasture where you could build you a run-in and a corral in front of it and keep your horse there for about $10.00 a month.    That’s what we did.  My mom drove us to ride Buddy everyday. 

My dad got a used saddle from someone and I think we got a new bridle, and we bought a few more things like brushes and ropes and saddle soap.  We both loved him and rode him and loved him some more.  He was definitely a saint of a horse.  We were all over him.  And he just stood there and let us do what we did.  I was never aware of the expression, “dead broke”, in connection with horses until a few years ago when I started looking at ads on the internet of horses for sale.  But “dead broke” is definitely what Buddy was. 

I remember that when I asked how to ride him someone said, “Kick him to go and pull on the reins to stop!”   Yee-Haw!   That is what it looked like the TV cowboys did!

Well, that was then and this is now, and it’s been years since I had been on a horse until about a year ago.   So… I am a BEGINNER all over again! 

But this time I wanted to know the “real” way to ride, cues to give, etc.  So, I took some lessons (only about two dozen) from a great horsewoman near my new home.  (It’s amazing who you can find to help you out way out here in the country.) She was explicit and encouraging, a good teacher as well as an accomplished horse trainer herself.  I was learning and gaining confidence.  I took lessons twice a week and rode Max, my first horse, at home the other days.  Little by little it was kind of coming back to me and I was gaining confidence…

Have a good ride,

Greenhorn