The 2022 summer therapy riding season recently ended and we were privileged to witness what we interpreted as a minor victory on the last night in the pasture. Normally being on a horse as a youngster has a powerful, almost uncontrollable, result of brightening eyes and revealing of teeth from the ear-to-ear grins from being in a saddle, especially if you haven’t had a lot of time sitting a horse. But this year there was a rider who spent the summer in attendance and was difficult to read when it came to their particular level of enjoyment. Suffice to say the horses didn’t have their normal smile-generating abilities on this young rider.
As the weeks progressed the expression from this rider remained a constant closed lip eyes down reflection of someone who maybe wasn’t enjoying themselves as we normally hope. This rider’s involvement in the activities remained guarded and they were less willing to do more than the basic requirements to fulfill the completion of the riding tasks compared to other participants. Being people pleasers, Charlene and I had a nagging urge to try different things in an attempt to coax a smile from this young face. One week we spoke to the parents, a loving supportive family who were ever-present and always quick with words of encouragement for their child. We were assured this rider truly looked forward to our weekly get togethers and transformed into a talkative participant on the ride home who expressed their honest enjoyment of the riding. We just didn’t get to see it. So, we moved ahead with the faith that the horses were working their magic on a level we just weren’t able to comprehend.
Fast forward to the final riding evening in the pasture. From where we stood as EPH organizers there appeared to be a literal switch that was flipped on. This rider, who spent the summer as a reserved, seemingly shy introvert reached a level of comfort allowing them to demonstrate some true equestrian skills leaving our mouths in an awkward gape. This rider went from a position of questionable balance the week before to literally standing on the horse’s back as it walked forward much like you’d see from a trick rider at a rodeo.
What caused this remarkable change is yet to be determined. However, the lesson we take away from this event is as humans we expect progress and measurable results and when we feel we don’t see that we must have failed in some way. The horses never operate under such self-imposed pressures, but instead take the time that it takes to get the job done without the constraints of clocks and to-do lists requiring the checking of boxes. The horses never would have felt frustration or disappointment from the above-mentioned events. With true unconditional love and commitment, a horse will do just what they did and assist this young rider through their unique brand of living in the moment and allow the things to transpire as they need to, when they need to, resulting in such touching and meaningful life occurrences we were humbled to witness first hand.