Rididng Now and Riding Then

Riding Now and Riding ThenÐ'...

When I was eight years old simply trail-riding and showing in costume with my grandpa was fun but now it is business and work. Riding has changed a lot between my abilities, fun level, and showing in the past few years. The stress level between riding when I was little and riding now have become more intense because of the level of competition rising. The competition between the simple, trail classes, the Halloween costumes in May, or the jumps increase from stepping over a ground pole to two and a half foot jumps. I have improved which who wouldn't over a ten-year period of time but everything has improved and some things have been taken to a different level.

Riding now and then are still fun for me they are just at different levels that I have fun. When I was little and now I still do the same things riding and playing with my own horses. Riding in lessons or clinics at home are pretty much the same as riding in lessons here at SAPC. It is difficult and demanding and that's how lessons were when I was little. They were hard and demanding but at a different level. What I had to do back then is easy now, but what I have to do now is just as challenging. There are always new things to work on and that keep things interesting.

Riding in shows when I was a lot younger was lot of fun, not competitive, and most of the time we would wear fun costumes. Most of the time my grandpa and I were in the same shows doing simple trail classes or just trail riding. Trail classes are simple as weaving through poles, stepping over ground poles, maybe walking through a maze set up by ground poles or figure eighting around two barrels. My grandpa would sometimes win and then give me the ribbon so I felt special. We would ride in Halloween costumes in the middle of May in shows just for fun. Or we would have shows where all you had to do was dress your horse up in some funky costume and you would receive some kind of award. Back then it was that simple and made easy whether it was for little kids or not it still made all of us happy.

Now riding is a very stressful, time consuming, and highly competitive hunter-jumper event. It takes a lot of work and practice. I ride for school and I am on the IHSA developmental show team. Even though I am not on the varsity team it still requires a lot of practice, and raises the stress level every day of a show. No matter how simple or complicated the task at hand for me it always seems complicated. Always striving to do better and the encouragement to always try to impress others is a constant pressure. Whether all you are doing is holding a horse, grooming or simply scrubbing stalls you are working hard. I always need

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