I started riding again last week. Today was my second lesson with the RDA at the Drum Estate out of town, where I used to ride when I was a youngster. Starting again after a break of over thirty years, I feel a curious mix of familiarity and strangeness: Strange to feel as I felt back then, a mix of yearning, excitement and trepidation; odd to feel nostalgic about the familiar scents and sights, and to realise how much time has passed. It is reassuring to know that I am now a grown-up and can meet and greet as I choose, with the freedom to be myself.
Posture is the big thing. I enjoy the discipline, and feel shaken to my core by the pain in my thighs, reminiscent of earlier, uglier agonies. All my nerves jump around as they try to discover a different and straighter equilibrium. I am assured that this will get easier and improve. Now, without the teenage angst and uncertainty pulling me back, I can listen more trustingly, and believe what I am told about how to sit, how to move, and about breathing deeply. If I breathe calmly, my mount will pick up on that, and we can be relaxed together.
I love to be back, and I welcome the new friendship, where I discover, yet again, that I have so much in common with others. They too have frailties and physical issues that they ignore, work with and endeavour to get past. I am not alone in that, or in anything else. The realisation that I am in such excellent company makes me at once tearfully grateful to be reminded, and sorry that I wasted so much time in isolated regret. Thank God, I am waking up. At last, I am getting over myself.
Now – sit up straight. I don’t want to waste this chance I have been given.
Please share:
November 11, 2014 @ 3:37 pm
Good on you, Fran. So glad to hear you’re enjoying it (potentially, at least) and that you’re gaining confidence. I went riding for my 50th birthday, after more than 30 years’ break. I really enjoyed it and like you the scents and sensations were so familiar. I was in agony afterwards, however!!
November 11, 2014 @ 3:49 pm
Now there’s a coincidence. I’ll be fifty at the start of January, and I don’t feel a day over fourteen when I am there. It is sobering to think that I am in a senior class…. Your comment makes me smile, thank you! 🙂 xxx
November 14, 2014 @ 3:36 pm
Wow, good for you Fran. I can see this is a truly holistic experience and I think you’re an inspiration. Dolly rides with the RDA at school and she really comes out of herself. I wish I could try learning on their mechanical horse ‘Japser’ and move onto the real ones, but I’m not brave enough. I used to ride a big motorbike and that was a lot easier (no brain and my feet near the ground). I love horses but they are ‘heights with attitude’! I love smelling their velvety noses……trot on! xx
Ps, how do you over come the stiffness and soreness? Or is it it impossible? That is something I feel must be a real challenge: how to soften and relax when you can’t control?
November 14, 2014 @ 5:10 pm
Thanks for your comment, Fleur. First, to overcome the strangeness of being so high up – it helps that I have about three people looking after me at the moment, until I get more used to it – and then, gradually, as I get used to being astride, my legs lengthen, so that hopefully I may be able to get stirrups soon. No point in having these when my feet are somewhere up around the horse’s shoulders!
I am swimming so much, that it helps with general stiffness, but the soreness while I am riding is relieved by lifting the legs up a while to let them rest. Apart from that, I just have to endure it, until I get more used to it. The volunteers understand, which is a blessing.
Posture is important too, because good posture helps to relax properly, and naturally helps everything into the right place.
XXXX 😀
November 11, 2014 @ 4:38 pm
How lovely – reading this I also felt a great nostalgia for the smell of the stables and the sounds and sights. I did have the chance to go with Ollie and Charlie a couple of times last year but only to watch. I am so happy for you Fran that you have this chance now that you can enjoy it more. xx
November 12, 2014 @ 8:35 am
Yay! Isn’t it great, Diane! I am doing the very best to enjoy everything about everything! XXXX 😀