Читать книгу A School Horse Legacy, Volume 1: ...As Tails Go By - Anne Wade-Hornsby - Страница 3

In the course of teaching and training both horses and people, I worked with all kinds of personalities and characters. The experience was usually mutually successful. I learned from my failures, as well. A few of the relationships were as grand as life is likely to allow. I viewed the riding school as a place where I got to interact with people whose love of horses led them to me – a person who could teach them to develop their riding skills to a level that made riding safe, enjoyable and rewarding. The sense of achievement one feels, in any discipline or subject, when an idea becomes understandable, attainable, and can be implemented with positive results, reverberates from the inside out –emotionally, physically, and mentally. When a rider made the head, hands, legs, and seat connection to his or her mount and was able to accomplish, say, an extension or a lead change or could gracefully jump an obstacle, I was the only person happier or more rewarded than the student. Over the years, I have been challenged by riders and horses to be really inventive about my approach, to make them think about what they were doing.

My classes may well remember how stubborn I could be when problems arose. “I don’t care if we practice past dark!” usually did the trick. “The reason you are on a horse is to go forward. Why are you standing there? Walking at a snail’s pace? Going in the wrong direction?” “Tears are not an aide your horse understands.” “ Crying doesn’t help your horse accomplish anything.” But, finally, “Wow, that is so much better. How nice was that!”

I woke up every morning, knowing I was going to have the privilege of using my hard won knowledge to help make the world more understandable and enjoyable for someone. My public school experiences grounded me in the ways of human interaction, and my horses showed me and related to me the endless wonder of the natural world. To be able to share this has been my greatest pleasure.