My heart pounds in my chest. I take two deep breaths to settle my mind. Tightly wrapping my fingers around the rubber, I straighten my posture. We’re off. I see the twelve 1.20M high, 1.30M wide obstacles ahead. My mind goes blank. All I am thinking about is rhythm. We are in the air. Bending my body over the figure beneath me. Cody lands, turns quickly and accelerates again. I get this adrenaline rush over a 100-times a week.
Riding a horse to a 1.20M high, 1.30M wide solid fence defies human instinct, and most people find show jumping terrifying. But to me riding is exhilarating. When I began riding the risks foremost in my mind were the possibilities of falling, being stepped on, or hurting my horse. Also, since a rider has to control her actions, and must take into account the fact that the horse has a natural instinct, which may be unresponsive to her directions, I was cautious. My horse, for example, tends to act lazy and stubborn when I first ride him however if he becomes scared, his natural instinct kicks in and he can turn into a fire breathing steam train with no intention of stopping. Knowing his capability from observing him in his natural state, I had to learn to train him to respond to my “aids”.
Over the twelve years I have been riding, I realized the bond we developed was critical in prompting the desired responses from my horse. As I became a better rider, I realized the trust my horse and I shared was a result of acquiring my own knowledge through trial and error.
I ride five days a week assessing how Cody feels physically; if he is strong, I work to make him compacted and collected; and if he is stubborn, I know I need to discipline him to send him forward. All of the calculating of the different aspects of riding has created this instinctual sense in myself that a horse and rider must share a bond in order to be successful. But really I am putting more trust in what I have learned from experiences. My horse has no way of communicating, I really have no idea if he actually understands when I press my left leg on his side that he is supposed to move to the right, or if he is just thinking to himself, “why the hell is this little thing poking my side,” or even thinking at all, but I know that when both of our bodies act in sequence together that it is the result of learning as much about myself as I have about him.
When I think about attending college, I picture myself about to jump over a new fence and it defies my human instinct. Similar to starting out riding I see the risks involved: choosing the best courses, doing my homework without the nagging parents, cleaning my own laundry, and being independent. I will be applying the self-knowledge I gained from riding to become a successful college student. I am going to have to trust in the knowledge I have obtained from high school, from my parents and from experiences in order to overcome the risks I see and I look forward to the new opportunities that college will bring.