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Buster's View on the Human/Horse Riding Partnership
as received by D. Tremblay 8/2008
First lets say that a horse is not a man. You walk upright. I walk on four legs. You use your voice and see out of your eyes. You use your hands, while I use my mouth to chew. Let’s just say we are different.
Now let’s look at the similarities. I have an open mind. So do you. I have a speech pattern inside my head not unlike your own. I have dreams and wishes. So do you. We are a lot alike here.
Now on to the blending of those devices. A horse and a man act as one when riding- or should- in the ideal sense of the word. A blend. The ideal way to ride is to hear your horse- look at the ears- they are radar detectors. Notice the sensitivity of our muscles and the tightness of them under the saddle, if that comes up. Notice the way we hold our bodies. All this body language are clues to you on how we feel. Notice how our feet feel. We sit in our shoes and wait for your direction.
I am at a point in my life where I am asking my rider to sit up and take notice that I’m not doing all the work now, that together we will do the work and do the walk. Together we move forward and position ourselves as one. We do this by listening to each other.
I like to take a stride now and then of my own initiative too. As does the rider. We can do this together. There is joy in our partnership. Long done are the days when I’d have a rider sit and slump on my back letting me do all the work. Let’s work together. It’s better that way. It feels better on my back and we can move fluidly.
A horse and rider must learn to “remember” together. What I mean by that is hearing each other, internalizing our connection and letting it integrate into our bodies. Remembering next time how far we’ve come and growing on that. A trust issue happens and it’s magic.
It’s actually fun for a horse to be ridden (though I’m only speaking for myself of course) if there is a partnership. I laugh at my human at times for what she does on top of my back. And she laughs at the way I swing my head when she’s on the ground standing beside me as I want to go nibble grass. We laugh lovingly at each other. There is not seriousness between us all the time. That’s how it is with friends.
Now I shall speak about tolerance. We need to tolerate each other as we learn. I am a patient guy and wait to be loaded onto (being mounted upon) very patiently. We have come to terms with the fact that I’m here to teach her (my person) a great deal many things about balance and posture and just how to look good in the saddle. Or without one, as she sees fit. It doesn’t matter- we want to look good together.
My person and I have an ideal relationship. She listens to me and I to her. I am not belligerent without good reason. I do not put my feet into the ground and dig them in unless I have reason to. My person looks to see what she’s doing when I do this, before she assumes the problem is with me. She checks her posture, checks her thoughts, checks the ground, checks what’s up ahead and checks my ears. She listens to my body. As we all should. She asks me what’s wrong and waits for a response.
There are times she gets off my back when riding and does not insist I move under her. She is not a demanding friend. She is respectful. We work together and move together and when we do this together, we really shine. It’s the way two friends should be. It’s the way we are.
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