Learning How To Not Ride A Horse

So despite my slightly traumatic intro lesson, I officially signed up for horseback riding lessons! I was excited but nervous. I agonized about having to get on the horse again. I pumped myself up and despite the pit in my stomach, I headed out with my partner in crime, Paige, and her daughter. But, I soon found out that I wouldn’t have to worry about any awkward horse mountings because we weren’t getting on any horses.

It was tacking lesson/review day.

For me, I would learn how to tack the horse. For Paige’s daughter, it was a review. For Paige, it was a waste of time. She basically just got cheated out of a lesson. But, she forgave me. 😁

So I learned how to get the horse from the pasture, brush it, put the saddle on, etc, etc. It seemed to take forever and I wasn’t overly confident that it was worth the trouble but really, I knew it was a cool thing to learn. And I would later realize that it wasn’t that much of a hassle when all the steps finally started to sink in.

The whole thing was a bit anticlimactic and stressful. It was stressful because one of the reasons that I felt comfortable taking lessons during a pandemic is the fact that it’s pretty easy to social distance when you are way up on a horse. It’s less easy when your trainer is showing you how to tack your horse. But, I did the best I could and sanitized like crazy after!

So, we left, got our celebratory slushies and I headed home to stress about getting on the horse at the next lesson. It turned out to be as difficult as I thought it would be… HaHa! And I know that this story was as anticlimactic as my lesson but I had to tell you this story so I could get to the good stuff!