STAR EXTRA FARM

Sure, lessons can help riders gain technical skills, but there have been hundreds of thousands of good riders over thousands of years who never had formal riding lessons, but who got good by spending hours, days, weeks, months, years on the backs of moving horses.

It is so simple---Get hold of a horse that is within your current ability, in that it doesn’t scare you and make you tense, and ride the horse. Ride, ride, ride---Become so used to the sensation of going along on horseback that you become comfortable, at ease, and there you are, a pretty good rider.

Demystify the process. We learn by doing. And doing. And more doing.

Now lots of people will read something like this and come up with all the objections of why they can’t, no time, no money, no whatever, and even though all those reasons may be true, so what? Does it make this any less a fact?

It is so basically basic, those who spend more time riding tend to get better sooner than those who don’t. How soon we get comfortable on the backs of moving horses will be largely determined by whether we can or can not figure out how to get more riding hours.

Barn Rats Over Mean Girls: Life Lessons from Growing Up in a Barn - The Plaid Horse Magazine BY PONYMOMAMMY I feel like I am constantly trying to justify the expense of the horses to my husband. I get it. It’s not cheap, and it doesn’t ever end. My go-to defense of “bays over boys” is a strong argument as we are approaching high school, but really the more important factor to me [.....