When you have a red mare... ride the spook

​I was in the grain room meditatively setting dinner grain when I abruptly heard someone screaming bloody murder in the indoor arena. I ran to see what the panic and chaos was but when I got there the scene didn’t match the screams. I was expecting to find a student on the ground, covered in dirt with a pony far away with wild eyes but instead the student was standing on her feet, in clean clothes with the pony quietly standing next to the instructor who was merely ten feet away. What in the world had happened? Come to find out, the pony (as all ponies do) got to the door and slowly tried to take his rider out of the arena and back to the paddock. This is his one party trick and he gives up hope with any indication that the student may be able to steer him away. Now, this student is a capable rider and has ridden this pony numerous times but this day she stopped riding. Instead, she made a halfhearted attempt to turn him and then proceeded to fling her body on his neck, scream her lungs out and jump off. No, he wasn’t spooking- he wasn’t even going faster than a walk… but she decided that it was too much and bailed (maybe she has practiced her “emergency dismount” too much?) The rest of her lesson was focused on how she wasn’t in any danger and about what she could have done for a more successful outcome. No ponies or kids were injured in the making of this story and this student will be back for her next lesson and hopefully can learn some valuable riding and life skills from this. 

Anyway, this got me thinking… I handle life situations the same way I handle a red mare spooking. There seems to be multiple approaches to riding a spooking horse.  I like to think of them like levels in karate; some being quite haphazard and ineffective and others leave the situation nearly better than you found it. 

​At the first level you have scenarios like the one above. The horse spooks, the rider takes that as a cue to lose their ever loving mind and escalate what could have been a manageable situation to something that stunt doubles should study. The rider basically throws all rational thought out the window, contorts their body in ways only found at the circus and hits the ground in the biggest heap they can manage. If they are really into the theatrics they also find a few notes that would put the fat lady at the opera out of business. Now, I imagine that these people are also the ones who, right about now, have entire fallout shelters made of toilet paper and go to the grocery store wearing gloves only to scratch their nose while pushing the shopping cart. This is also the level, like the White Belt in karate, that most valuable lessons for the higher levels are introduced. 

​The next level is for those who have realized that screaming = hitting the ground. The riders in this level have probably fallen off enough times to learn that you can either chose to fall off or chose to stay on. This is a tricky level because physics doesn’t care much about your decisions and a spooking horse doesn’t care much about physics. At least at this level the rider has learned that if they remain relatively present, they have a good chance of getting out of the situation with their feet still in the stirrups. Riders at this level have learned some form of emergency brakes, the power of the “grab mane and spin”, and the effective use of keeping their heels down. Now, I assume these riders are also those who are posting relatively conflicting news articles right now on Facebook. Some talk about how the economy needs to go back to normal and some talk about how everyone needs become hunters and gatherers rather than go to the grocery store. They’ve also posted a picture of how they just went to Dunkin Donuts and are now drinking their iced coffee through a hole in their mask. They will get through more hardship in life because they’ve mastered the power of problem solving when caught up in the pandemonium, even if it side tracks them once in a while.

​The highest level is saved for those who have honed their skills at the previous level enough to be elected to sit on the “crazy horses”. Some may call this level of rider senseless, while others may call it brave. I like to call them centered. They are like the ninjas who seem to subdue an entire gang without even blinking. These riders not only stay present while their horse is spooking, they add leg and adjust their plan to utilize the new energy. They can turn a spook into a piaffe, a bolt into a lengthening, and tension into expression. I like to think that these riders are also the ones who are turning their new found “down time” into opportunities for educational, personal or professional growth at home. They are most likely some of the first who transitioned to online business offers and who will come out of this slightly ahead of the curve.
 
I’m thankful that my red mare has taught me that some of the best training moments happen when I need to ride the spook.