So glad to have noticed this link in the latest EH. I am the quintessential rider Jim Hicks talks about in an article this edition – rode a lot in Pony Club as a kid and young adult. Cue career and child-raising, no time for horses. Then I saw the movie Buck. It changed my life. Completely different approach to horsemanship. I was incredibly fortunate to find teachers of the Tom and Ray tradition, Kim and Warren Meyer, in the town next door to me. I dove in, and it became pretty clear to me pretty fast that in the past I’d only been a passenger. Becoming a rider, becoming a horseman, requires such observation, practice, humility, patience, clarity, and empathy.
I now have my own two horses, one started at MSU in the class taught at that time by Reata Brannaman. Every day I strive to help my horses become more sure. This is not without mistakes on my part. It’s clear now that progress in my abilities comes in sudden peaks followed by (very) long plateaus. I’ve had to get used to that. And that being patient with those times where it looks like we’re stagnant allows this sort of slow, silent percolation of knowledge until it becomes something we just achieve without thinking.
Whenever a new edition of EH arrives in my mailbox, I feel a little leap of joy. Thank you, Emily, and all the contributors, for sharing what you’ve got.
