A Little Bit About Me

A recent thread got me thinking about my strengths as a rider. Sadly, I actually had to think about it for a bit before I came up with any.

My equitation is lamentable, my discipline poor, and my knowledge of advanced riding techniques shaky due to the fact that I've only ever ridden ONE highly trained horse in my life. Even then it was only a couple rides, but damn those were good rides! Riding and training Cherry has done me no favors in that regard. I know the basics, but beyond that..... well, let's just say that I think I know what I'm doing. It's hard to tell when you're riding the equine equivalent of a high school dropout that could be a Mensa member if they just put in the effort to learn something.

I'm not the best, fittest, or most educated rider. This much is clear. So what am I good at doing?


Nothing.

Quite literally, nothing.



I'm very good at doing nothing. In all seriousness, I believe this is my biggest strength. I can let the horse find my aids and settle down without fussing, interfering or getting upset. When I'm riding, I set myself where I want my horse to be and leave it alone. Whenever I get a behavior that I don't want, I correct it and move on like nothing happened.

If she's waving her head around in the air, I just send her forward and I do nothing with her face. If I want forward, I'll send her forward. If I want anything, I'll ask for it clearly. No fussing, no nagging, no little corrections.

I do admit that sometimes my temper gets the better of me and I get frustrated. It's shameful that I've taken anger out on my horse, but it's happened. It happened more when I was a (typical angry idiot) teenager, and thankfully we've both moved on from that relatively unscathed.

But for the most part, I can happily do nothing and let the horse sort herself out. My hands are quiet, my seat is quiet, and my legs are quiet enough. I really need to work on building my strength and stabilizing my leg, but it's not like they're waving about and jabbing my horse when I don't mean to. I ride my horse and do nothing. It works well for us, as Cherry doesn't take kindly to being pestered or rushed.

My do-nothingness permeates more aspects of my life than just my riding. As a child, I got in trouble far more often for the things I DIDN'T do than the things I did. Instead of washing the dishes like I was told, I'd read a book. Can't get mad a kid for reading, but you can get mad at her for NOT doing her chores. My dad would get really mad at me for saying "no" when he asked me to do something for him. I said no because I didn't want to move (I was usually reading), I'd rather expend as little energy as possible. I didn't do bad things, but I didn't always do as I was told either.

Talking to peers was difficult for me in elementary school, so I simply didn't talk. I was painfully shy, and social interaction was awkward at best, so I just avoided it. Hence, the school thought I had a speech impediment and sent me to a remedial class with the ESL and "special" kids. What a surprise to for that teacher to find out that I spoke better English than most of my classmates, I just didn't talk unless someone spoke to me directly. Boy, my mom was sure pissed about that when she found out! Turns out they didn't tell her that they were going to "fix" my speech "problem".

I don't pay bullshit fees for clubs or boarding stables. I don't say anything about it, I simply don't pay. One barn owner decided that we all needed expensive new stall signs and ordered them without telling us. She then expected payment for said signs. Needless to say, I didn't pay for mine. If she'd asked before ordering them, I might have been on board, but demanding $60 out of the blue for something I didn't even want was not okay. Another BO required us all to have lessons with her (gak!), and since I didn't want to, I never signed up for mine. Oops!

I suppose that I'd be good at civil disobedience. I won't do anything aggressive or violent, but I won't do what I'm told to do either. I'm not a doormat or a sheep.

This character quirk or whatever you like to call it drives my boyfriend bonkers. He likes things to be done. Things need to happen quickly! Decisions need to be made! Well, I don't work like that. I let decisions ruminate in my brain until the answer comes to me, I don't sit there and purposefully think it out. It's actually probably why we're together. If we were both like me, nothing would ever get done (or maybe a whole lot of nothing would get done!), but if we were both like him, we'd likely have killed each other by now.

Obviously there's a downside to doing nothing. Things can pass me by because I'm too lazy to reach out and grab them. Oh well, I'm working on that. I need to get better at selectively doing nothing. I've found that many, many things work themselves out if you leave them alone, but some things don't. Some problems don't take care of themselves. Like Cherry's hooves and my up and down boarding situation.

Though I do seem to be able to care for myself and remain gainfully employed, so I can't be doing too badly!