Oh thank you thank thank you for this article! At age 65 I went trail riding for the first time in 40 years last week and...LOVED IT!
And... even though we mostly walked up and down narrow, winding paths through the pinon forest and atop the high desert, with just a little bit of trotting, and I too was fearful of horses as a child, I realized: I NEED MORE OF THIS IN MY LIFE!
My kids are grown and my need to prioritize my own personal safety for their benefit instead of letting my rabid sense of adventure run free, well, it no longer has legs. So, first foray was open water swimming. Now riding (maybe I'll finally get happiness cantering and finally learn to jump!), what next? Bungie jumping? Sky-diving?? Solo-sailing around the world??? Bubbles up!!
A local family-run brake shop where I live has a readerboard with weekly aphorisms, some of which are quite good. My favorite: “Sometimes you just have to do it afraid.” Larissa, I loved this. Although bone density issues in my case would make taking up riding at this stage imprudent, I have found other scary things that are good for me, and you inspire me to persevere. I have read your writing elsewhere—a personal account of different terror and trauma—and found it breathtaking. I admire your writing, and your courage, very much. Thank you for sharing your insights with us.
I was the assistant riding instructor as a teenager at summer camp where we rode western style. I loved working with these magnificent animals and having control of them, particularly at a full gallop. Alas, a growth spurt soured my vision of becoming a jockey. Many years later I had the pleasure of easing my wife on the only horse she ever rode and alerted her to the fact when we turned around on our little trip in the direction of the barn, her horse would pick up the pace whether she liked it or not. Fortunately she survived the experience.
I was more interested in discussing the experience of riding and the exhilaration and fear. I was a little confused when Larissa recounted her daughter’s telling her to canter up the hill and hold tight on the horn and grab the mane if she was scared. What happened to holding the reins? I remember once I had terrible back pain and was riding a course and jumping. My horse stopped and I continued over the jump landing on my back. My instructor rushed over and asked if I was ok. I was and I got up and no more back pain, it must have loosened all those tight muscles and knocked the fear out of me.
Is fear generational, is it innate, or does it become an essential necessity one must learn to survive at the level one decides is best for themselves. It certainly can be protective, even life saving. But can it prevent you from experiencing incredible thrills, immense joy, overwhelming self satisfaction. Not sure about generational but I accept the fact it can be innate. I come from a large family and out of all my brothers and sisters I seemed to be, as we grew up, the only one who seemed to love taking risks. Taking time to worry about the outcome was fleeting or short lived. Some looking back, some incredibly stupid, some just for fun, some very frightening risks, but I would do them way. The results would vary of course based upon the action. A scolding from my mother, a leather strap discipline meeting from my father, a cast on the broken bones and one scary trip to a hospital for surgery. Why was that in me. Not fair to say it was just for attention as many risky actions were by myself and kept secrete from my family as i was ashamed how it turned out and why was i hurt became a flimsy nebulous story. So my point might be I do not consider myself courageous and therefore I admire people like the author who overcame a fear that prevented them from going doing something they really wanted.
Overcoming deep seated mind altering fear requires courage and a commitment that i don't think was innately part of my nature. So my loss would be maybe I missed out on the immense pride the author has in overcoming her fear.
"But if I let her off the hook, I’d only confirm the pony’s fears and reinforce her behavior." This is also the key to human behavior!! Failure to be consistent, failure to confront maladaptive or inappropriate behaviors in a timely fashion, only reinforces it and also makes it harder to change in the future. Hello? College campus administrators everywhere! You fail to do this at your own peril to the safety of your campuses for everyone. Do not coddle these children who are behaving badly, threatening others in the name of the First Amendment, and damaging or destroying campus property. Give them appropriate adult boundaries within which to express themselves, do not tolerate vandalism or rioting or harassment. If they don't, send them home to their parents, but don't refund the tuition, use it instead to clean up the mess.
Great story that brings back so many memories. Now that I'm in my mid-70's I haven't ridden in awhile and we no longer have horses. For many decades, however, my wife, sons, and I had horses on our farm - even had several foals born there. Our youngest literally grew up around horses - He got his first pony at two and began learning to take small fences on a Welsh pony at age five. In 2004 a dream became reality when my wife and I rode Irish Hunters in the ocean on the Donegal coast! Thank you Free Press for all the continued great work.
I can’t believe that I never really made the connection about how becoming a mother changed my own relationship to physical risks and how that lingered even after my child grew up.
I didn't like the article because it was long on details about horses, riding, the economic limits the author had regarding riding, but short on the very true and important point of the article: Fear and overcoming fear are very important to a person's development. The brave person is not one who feels no fear, rather it is the person who overcomes his fear who is actually brave.
Mark Zuckerberg admits that the FBI interfered with the 2020 election, turning it for Joe Biden (every poll conducted after the elections with voters who were on the fence before the election said had they known of Biden's corruption through Hunter's laptop they would have voted for Trump)... and NOTHING from The FP.
Can't report on ANY of the news that hurts the Democrats. Just like the big boy mainstream media.
Real wisdom here. Thank you!
Oh thank you thank thank you for this article! At age 65 I went trail riding for the first time in 40 years last week and...LOVED IT!
And... even though we mostly walked up and down narrow, winding paths through the pinon forest and atop the high desert, with just a little bit of trotting, and I too was fearful of horses as a child, I realized: I NEED MORE OF THIS IN MY LIFE!
My kids are grown and my need to prioritize my own personal safety for their benefit instead of letting my rabid sense of adventure run free, well, it no longer has legs. So, first foray was open water swimming. Now riding (maybe I'll finally get happiness cantering and finally learn to jump!), what next? Bungie jumping? Sky-diving?? Solo-sailing around the world??? Bubbles up!!
A local family-run brake shop where I live has a readerboard with weekly aphorisms, some of which are quite good. My favorite: “Sometimes you just have to do it afraid.” Larissa, I loved this. Although bone density issues in my case would make taking up riding at this stage imprudent, I have found other scary things that are good for me, and you inspire me to persevere. I have read your writing elsewhere—a personal account of different terror and trauma—and found it breathtaking. I admire your writing, and your courage, very much. Thank you for sharing your insights with us.
Pathetic. Please don’t anymore.
I was the assistant riding instructor as a teenager at summer camp where we rode western style. I loved working with these magnificent animals and having control of them, particularly at a full gallop. Alas, a growth spurt soured my vision of becoming a jockey. Many years later I had the pleasure of easing my wife on the only horse she ever rode and alerted her to the fact when we turned around on our little trip in the direction of the barn, her horse would pick up the pace whether she liked it or not. Fortunately she survived the experience.
I was more interested in discussing the experience of riding and the exhilaration and fear. I was a little confused when Larissa recounted her daughter’s telling her to canter up the hill and hold tight on the horn and grab the mane if she was scared. What happened to holding the reins? I remember once I had terrible back pain and was riding a course and jumping. My horse stopped and I continued over the jump landing on my back. My instructor rushed over and asked if I was ok. I was and I got up and no more back pain, it must have loosened all those tight muscles and knocked the fear out of me.
Is fear generational, is it innate, or does it become an essential necessity one must learn to survive at the level one decides is best for themselves. It certainly can be protective, even life saving. But can it prevent you from experiencing incredible thrills, immense joy, overwhelming self satisfaction. Not sure about generational but I accept the fact it can be innate. I come from a large family and out of all my brothers and sisters I seemed to be, as we grew up, the only one who seemed to love taking risks. Taking time to worry about the outcome was fleeting or short lived. Some looking back, some incredibly stupid, some just for fun, some very frightening risks, but I would do them way. The results would vary of course based upon the action. A scolding from my mother, a leather strap discipline meeting from my father, a cast on the broken bones and one scary trip to a hospital for surgery. Why was that in me. Not fair to say it was just for attention as many risky actions were by myself and kept secrete from my family as i was ashamed how it turned out and why was i hurt became a flimsy nebulous story. So my point might be I do not consider myself courageous and therefore I admire people like the author who overcame a fear that prevented them from going doing something they really wanted.
Overcoming deep seated mind altering fear requires courage and a commitment that i don't think was innately part of my nature. So my loss would be maybe I missed out on the immense pride the author has in overcoming her fear.
"But if I let her off the hook, I’d only confirm the pony’s fears and reinforce her behavior." This is also the key to human behavior!! Failure to be consistent, failure to confront maladaptive or inappropriate behaviors in a timely fashion, only reinforces it and also makes it harder to change in the future. Hello? College campus administrators everywhere! You fail to do this at your own peril to the safety of your campuses for everyone. Do not coddle these children who are behaving badly, threatening others in the name of the First Amendment, and damaging or destroying campus property. Give them appropriate adult boundaries within which to express themselves, do not tolerate vandalism or rioting or harassment. If they don't, send them home to their parents, but don't refund the tuition, use it instead to clean up the mess.
Great story that brings back so many memories. Now that I'm in my mid-70's I haven't ridden in awhile and we no longer have horses. For many decades, however, my wife, sons, and I had horses on our farm - even had several foals born there. Our youngest literally grew up around horses - He got his first pony at two and began learning to take small fences on a Welsh pony at age five. In 2004 a dream became reality when my wife and I rode Irish Hunters in the ocean on the Donegal coast! Thank you Free Press for all the continued great work.
I can’t believe that I never really made the connection about how becoming a mother changed my own relationship to physical risks and how that lingered even after my child grew up.
Hi, I didn't read the article, just wanted to post this.
Proverbs 9:10 "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom..."
As an equestrian myself, it was super fun to see unexpected overlap between my personal hobby and my favorite publication, TFP! A great read. ❤️
I didn't like the article because it was long on details about horses, riding, the economic limits the author had regarding riding, but short on the very true and important point of the article: Fear and overcoming fear are very important to a person's development. The brave person is not one who feels no fear, rather it is the person who overcomes his fear who is actually brave.
Mark Zuckerberg admits that the FBI interfered with the 2020 election, turning it for Joe Biden (every poll conducted after the elections with voters who were on the fence before the election said had they known of Biden's corruption through Hunter's laptop they would have voted for Trump)... and NOTHING from The FP.
Can't report on ANY of the news that hurts the Democrats. Just like the big boy mainstream media.
Countless hearts on your post, Matthew C.!
Countless hearts on your post, Matthew C.!
Yay!
Horses!
That's not an expensive hobby at all!
We all have money to blow on riding horses!
I use my leftover riding crops to make sturdy basket handles that my wife weaves in her fucking spare time!
Wow! The Free Press must have a lot of fucking FREE TIME to be writing shit like this and call it news!
I want to work for you!
Where do I apply?
How did we get here, Bari?
How?
I loved this piece. It made me happy. Thank you for writing it.