A Look Into Competitive Horse Showing Through The Eyes Of An Equestrian: Summer Training

Since this week we had fall break on Monday and Tuesday, I didn't have a lesson. Between last season and this season I was home for the summer interning with the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Service and I found a barn to ride at and a trainer to give me lessons. I started out riding a few different horses and then my trainer, Cindy, put me on Star, who I rode for the remainder of the summer. I started out riding about four times a week but that quickly turned into riding every day. Star is a good horse for me because she's challenging. She likes to test me every so often by seeing if I can stay in the saddle when she misbehaves. I passed every time! The first time she tried to dump me, Cindy sent me into the round pen with her to let her blow off some steam and then I gave her commands from the ground using my body language and she responded. By the end of that day she was following me everywhere and listening to me. We were inseparable for the rest of the summer. Cindy's approach in lessons wasn't just to make me a better hunt seat rider but to make me a better equestrian as a whole. I have always been good at connecting with animals, horses in particular, but Cindy took that connection to a whole new level to the point that I connected with a horse that doesn't typically like people very much. We became best buddies in a matter of days partially due to my ability to connect with horses and partially from the bonding techniques I learned from Cindy. Besides becoming one with my horse, we also worked on my riding technique which improved tremendously over the summer. Cindy is a certified judge. She has judged a wide variety of shows from schooling shows to intercollegiate shows so for me she knew exactly how to teach me to be a better intercollegiate rider. At intercollegiate shows we draw our horse randomly out of a hat and get no warm up before we compete so the initial plan at the beginning of the summer was to put me on a different horse for each lesson to prepare for that but Star and I bonded to a point that she became my horse. We worked on the same techniques that we work on at Purdue but from a different approach. She had me do some work without the reins or stirrups so I had to steer Star at the walk and trot using only my legs and then I would pick up my stirrups and post the trot still with no reigns. She also had me post the trot without stirrups which is hard to do but it's an awesome exercise. This summer I also began learning to jump! I did trot poles which is the first step to learning how to jump. I'm hoping to get to do the second step, crossrails, when I'm back for Christmas break.

I came a long way as a rider thanks to Cindy and Star and I can't wait to be reunited with my sweet girl in about two months! Next week I will talk about the horse shows Star and I did this summer.