non-fiction

Title: A Riders Path 

Horses have been a big factor in my life since I was little. When I first fell off a horse when I was four years old, my dad thought I was hurt and came running towards me. As he got closer what he thought was a cry on my face was a laugh. The horse stood over me and stared with sweet glossy eyes. From that moment on horses were my best friend, The thing that cheered me up when I had a rollercoaster of different emotions. I rode until I was eight years old and decided to take a break and try other sports as all my other friends were doing "normal" Sports like soccer, track, dance, and swimming. After trying all four nothing seemed to give me that same spark in my heart that horses did. At the age of 12 Realizing I missed horses so much, I decided to go back to my childhood joy and fulfillment. 

I was recommended to start riding at a place called Animal Rescue Teaching. The riding instructor there was named Dan Mcnally and he lived on a farm with his wife Tammy and they had 25 horses. When I first started riding there I loved it and went out any day that I could. Friday was lesson day, saturday was for beginner work and ride and sunday was for advanced work and ride. At a work and ride you would work for 2 hours cleaning stalls or fields and feeding horses, then ride for 2 hours. Sometimes we would play games like ring toss or the egg and spoon race, and sometimes we would also just ride around the arena. Most of all summers were my favorite because it meant more horseback time and camp. Camps were the best, you would be put into a group and there were 3 rotations through the day your group would go through. The rotations consisted of outdoor riding, indoor riding and art. Dan’s wife Tammy ran the art rotation and we would do lots of painting and bracelet making. I think my favorite rotation was outdoor riding because it made me feel free when I was cantering through the grass. When I got older I became a counselor. I would be assigned 3 campers and watch over them in the group. My favorite thing about being a counselor was the moonlight ride after camp. The moonlight ride was where the counselors got to stay after the campers left and have pizza and then ride late at night.

After I had been there for 3 years I noticed the dynamic and my riding mindset had changed. Riding at Dan’s felt like a competition to be the best and to be Dan's favorite. It was always a fight over who got to lead the horse down to the arena so you could be the first to ride that horse. I even felt like I had to make friends with the favorite’s to get on Dan's good side. Lessons were not really lessons, Dan would walk the lesson group down to the barn and then leave to go clean stalls or do hay and water. The way we started to get yelled at over the simplest mistakes or the level switches. One day we wouldn't be experienced enough to halter a horse but the next day we would be experienced enough to ride an untrained stallion. Looking back Dan didn't know very much about horses and hadn’t even gone to a real show since his 22 year old daughters were eight. Shows that were put on at Dans were probably the most stressful because Dan was stressed and when he was stressed you really did not wanna make a mistake. He even would have an attitude towards the adults that rode there. He would have some parents judge and his daughters judge which didn't make sense as the adults judging hadn’t ridden in years and his daughters were barely ever out. As this was all going on Dan had selected Me, and my friends Sadie, Presslee, Sydney, and also a few of his favorites to start training horses. We each got assigned an untrained horse to start working with. The horse I was assigned to was named Rainy, She was a skittish horse that Tammy had saved from the meat buyer auction. She was skittish because she lived in Mexico where people would jump over fences and rope the horses and beat them. Rainy has some cuts and scars from the whips they used. The first time Dan let me ride her after she had gotten some training, I saw so much potential in her and it made me so happy. Some of my friends felt bad, their horses were just too far gone. It is very difficult to train an old horse, basically impossible. It is so crucial to train horses when they are young just as it is for humans to get their education when they are young. After two months of work Dan just stopped the training which made me very sad. Eventually it got to the point where horses were getting paralyzed and having to get put down to horses getting rain rot in the field. Dan would hide the skinny horses in the back of the barn so people wouldn't see. I should have left completely then and there but my little kid horse heart kept me there. 

I started to pay attention to the lack of information I was learning at Animal Rescue Teaching and started to look for opportunities elsewhere but still going out from time to time. Eventually I found Bar Performance horses in Creswell oregon. I loved my new trainer Britney. She was so sweet and I felt like I had more freedom then I did at dans. That next summer I was still riding at dans and doing one lesson a week at britney's . Little did I know the lessons I was learning at Britney's and Dans were overlapping. I would go to Britney's and learn something but Dan would say that's not how we do things here so I would go back to doing Dan's way. Towards the end of the summer I decided to go to a camp called 3 rivers in Rogue River Oregon. The trainer there was named Judy and she was kind but sharp. My friend Sydney was not used to her kind of sharpness and it was hard for her. Judy said to me and Sydney the second day, “I don't usually say this but whoever your trainer is you need a new one ASAP”. This was a huge shock to both of us because we thought for years what we had been doing was “correct riding”. We were under the impression that we were experienced riders. After the camp Me and Sydney knew what we had to do. It was just so hard to say goodbye to our beginner horses. Eventually I cut ties with Animal Rescue Teaching and decided to dedicate my full time into learning more at Britney's and mainly starting from scratch. At Britney's I did my first real show as she had been showing for many years locally. I started to develop a new mindset about riding and what I wanted to do. I did more research and connected with riders my age. I realized I wanted to do show jumping. I had a need for speed and I loved jumping so I realized it would be the perfect fit. Later down the road it felt as if I was being pushed to do something I didn't want to do. Britney’s was a hunter barn which is jumping but not show jumping. Board was also very expensive for my family and the cost on top of showing and lessons was a lot. It got to the point where it felt like staying there and paying the money and doing hunters or going somewhere else. I decided to follow my heart and do what I wanted as I had dreamed of doing show jumping for so long. Leaving britney’s was the first time I realized everything can seem perfect at a barn. In reality you are just experiencing the joys of finally receiving what you lacked at Dan’s. 

After britney’s I still felt the need to work on my equitation before I did show jumping. I decided to do dressage at a different barn for a year and then I decided it was time to find that dream show jumping barn. Rohan equestrian met all my requirements and needs. The trainer Christy was the best mix of sharp but also kind and definitely knew what she was doing and how to improve my riding. Today i am honestly glad i got to have this unique learning experience. And I am happy showing across Oregon trying all different kinds of horses.