Here’s my situation: I have a number of friends who want to ride a horse for the first time. Naturally, as the only horse person that most of them know, they look to me to facilitate their horsey aspirations.
I would love to do this. I want to share the joy of horses and riding with everyone I know, so that they too, will love my sport as I do. My significant other periodically reminds me that I have yet to get him on a horse. Probably some of you out there are now yelling at your computers, “You mean she has a boyfriend who wants to ride and she hasn’t done that yet!?!?!” I know, epic fail on my part.
The problem is this, I have no horse for them to ride/interact with. Chances are somewhat slim that I can find someone who is willing to let me use their horse for ponying around friends and even slimmer that I can find one that I deem suitable.
That’s not me being snobby, just practical. So many people I meet, upon hearing that I am a horseperson tell me their horror stories.
“I rode my aunt’s horse one time and it bucked me into a fence.”
“I tried to pet my neighbors horse when I was five and it bit me. I cried like a little girl.”
“I got kicked by this really mean pony.”
These stories all end the same way.
“I don’t like horses.”
People seem to have one bad experience with one horse and then suddenly, all horses are jerks.
So, I feel a lot of responsibility to make my friends’ first horsey experiences good ones so that they at least don’t hate all equines.
To me, this means a controlled encounter with the right type of horse, a sort of horse ambassador for the fictional nation of Equus. If my horse were still alive, this would not be a problem. I am convinced that his sole goal in life was to be loved and adored by humans. The second that anyone would groom him or pat him or simply pay attention to him, you could practically feel the gratitude and happiness radiating off of him.
Jack ferried my friends, my mom’s friends, former students who hadn’t ridden in years and people who had never met a horse before. Jack remained calm and affectionate and he won a lot of hearts over during his years as an ambassador. Most notably, a little boy who was deathly afraid of horses came to watch his mother ride and after interacting with Jack he decided that maybe they weren’t that scary after all. Less than a year later and this same boy was taking regular riding lessons.
Jack’s sweetness and dependability were what made him such a great beginner horse and that ability to instill at least a like, if not love, of horses in neophytes is yet another reason that I miss him so terribly.
Unfortunately, my favorite horse ambassador is gone. Fortunately, I think I’ve found a way to get my friends riding. It’s not as great as having Jack, but hopefully it’ll do…..
