My Horse is a Better Teacher Than Me

Yes, it's true. Cherry is a far better riding instructor than I can ever be. Ain't that always the way with the best school horses? Your trainer can yell at you to do something 100 times, but it doesn't click until the horse does something that makes you go "oh, I see!"

Well, that's the case with Cherry. She's the best lesson horse I've ever known, though I might be a bit biased. I don't know how she does it, but she knows what the student needs to learn and she'll make them do it.

The most awesome part about her is that that she'll adjust her behavior (and misbehavior) to suit the skill level of her rider. When I ride her, she's usually full of piss and vinegar. When I put small, timid children on her, she's the picture of a lazy old plug who trots slower than most horses walk.

I distinctly remember watching her carry a 5 year old rider in the leadline class in one of the riding school's local schooling shows. Her eyes were half closed the entire time and she plodded around docilely after the rider's novice father. In the same show, the teenager who leased her rode in several WTC flat classes and a couple over fences classes. They won Hunter Over Fences and Cherry could not have looked more perky and happy to do her job.

When *I* jump her, gone is the cute Hunter pony and the would-be 17 hh hell-on-wheels show jumper comes out to play. That sure is fun. I take that as a compliment, though.

I actually got the BF to ride the other day, which was awesome. The extent of Cherry's misbehavior involved all of coming off the rail every now and then to see if he'd steer her back. That was it. Oooooh, what a rebellious pony!

Today in a lesson, my student needed to learn the importance of contact, especially at working at speed. The kid gets a nice, working contact, then gets scared of it and lets the reins slide out of her hands. Well, needless to say, that's not very effectatious for slowing or stopping her horse. We did some lead changes at the canter, and each time she let her reins get too long, Cherry almost got away from her. When she kept the contact, Cherry was perfectly under control. Amazing how that works! Me yelling at her all day would NEVER have gotten that point across.

I just love that about Cherry. She won't do anything to you that she doesn't think you can handle. I taught one of my students to ride (from complete novice to jumping small fences) on Cherry. One day, I decided to introduce controlling speed within a gait. We worked on slowing down and speeding up the trot. Before this lesson, Cherry had dutifully performed the "lesson horse trot". Today, however, Cherry busted out the ground-covering Arab trot. My student was surprised. "Welcome to Cherry's REAL trot!" I told her. She was a little unnerved, but I assured her, "She wouldn't be doing it if she didn't think you could handle it." And I wasn't lying.

She won't do something if she doesn't think you can handle it, and she's smart enough to figure out what her rider needs to work on. If you need to learn steering, she'll wander off the rail occasionally. If you need to learn about half-halts, she'll try and speed on you. If you need to work on balancing your horse, she'll run around crooked with a shoulder popped out.

Just another reason I love my horse.