Horseback Riding

At school we all took co-curriculars two days a week for two hours, Tuesday and Thursday. On Tuesday I took tennis, and on Thursday I took horseback riding. The first term Elena took horseback riding with me, and her friend translated for us. There were only three or four of us in the beginner group. We learned how to trot, and after we learned that, it was all up and down, up and down for as long as we possibly could. The better group always said how they were glad they didn't have our teacher because all she did was make us trot...which was true.

The second term we still just trotted. Elena wasn't in it, but her friend still was so she kept translating a little bit for me (the things the teacher repeated a lot I could understand). In the second term, once we did get to go into the bigger area because there were only a few of us...the horses seemed to trot much better in that area: smoother and not stoping/slowing down as much. It was very nice and I felt like I could trot forever, except I couldn't.

During Christmas break in Mexico, we went horseback riding on the beach a little. We galloped a lot, and it was very fun.

We also went to a horseback riding place with some friends once just to take a lesson and see how it was.

In one of the first classes of the third term, I fell off my horse. It was nearing the end of the lesson and my horse still hadn't galloped, whereas some of the other ones had for a few seconds. We were just trotting along in circles, not trying to go at a fast trot or anything, and my horse was very slow and lagging behind a bit...I was at the back of the line of four horses. Suddenly my horse lurched forward a bit and sped up...I hadn't expected it AT ALL considering my horse seemed a bit lazy, so I flew back in my saddle and tumbled off the right side of the horse. I must've had my right foot a little too far in the stirrup, because it got caught and I was dragged alongside the horse. While I was being dragged I was terrified that I was going to be trampled. After a few yards–they seemed to be very long yards–somehow (maybe the teacher helped) I came undone. I got up, I wasn't really very hurt except for a few scratches...I was mostly just freaked out. The teacher made me get back on my horse and we all trotted a bit again (I thought it would would have been better just to walk, but no one asked me), then the class was done.

For a few classes after that I was mostly given horses that seemed kind of slow. Then we kept been given the same horses again and again for the rest of the year. My horse was very slow and very lazy...it even walked slower than the other horses! But then we learned to gallop and if the teacher concentrated on making my horse go faster, it actually did gallop. Galloping is awesome (if you're expecting it...if it's a surprise, it can be scary), and everyone was glad that we were finally doing something other than trotting. One lesson, they even gave me a riding crop (without it I had to literally constantly kick the horse) and I enjoyed not having to tire myself out as much. When I didn't have the riding crop, I literally had to always kick the horse, and the teacher still often told me to kick it...she didn't tell the others that often because they had faster horses.

I enjoyed horseback riding, and all that trotting actually helped me improve. I would definitely like to ride with different scenery, though instead of the usual circles. I'm a lot more confident on horses now and it was a good experience.