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Grade 9: Sharing Equestrian Experience

June 16, 2020

In the 17th week, Chloe Wang from 9(9) shared her equestrian experience with her peers. When Chloe was younger, living in Canada, her family would drive by a horseback riding club sometimes while driving to and from school. Chloe was always curious about the horses, but she was afraid of them due to their big size and disliked the odor horses gave off. However, after a lot of convincing, her mom talked her into trying one lesson, and by the end, Chloe thought horses were adorable and marvelous animals and started to take lessons.

Horseback riding is not like most sports, it takes a lot of effort to learn and understand horses because they are living, breathing animals with a brain of their own. It's not as easy as it looks in movies where a person jumps on a horse, yells “yee-haw,” and the horse sprints forward without hesitating, following the rider’s every command. It is so much more. Chloe even had to spend the first couple of months practicing on a fake horse to find balance, safety measures, and just getting used to sitting on a horse. Because it is impossible to talk to horses, signals must come from the rider’s body to non-verbally communicate with the horse. Chloe has learned that horses are quite likely to be scared, and they will freak out at things that seem normal to humans, for example, a plastic bag on the floor or an umbrella. Horseback riding is really about being a team—if the rider is feeling uneasy, the horse will sense it and be nervous too, but if the rider puts confidence in themselves and the horse will feel safe and perform well.

Although it is difficult at times, horseback riding is super fun and exhilarating. Chloe will never forget the first time she cleared a jump, it felt like flying, and for a moment, she was suspended and weightless in the air. It gets even more fun the higher the jump is and doing multiple jumps in a row gets the blood pumping even more. Even though horseback riding can be done just for leisure, Chloe has learned many essential life qualities from the equestrian sport: focus, emotional control, patience, and trust. As noted before, horseback riding is like a partnership: if the rider does not fulfill their role in being the leader, the horse cannot fulfill their role in carrying themselves and the rider safely through the course. Chloe repeatedly experienced frustration and a lack of confidence in the past while riding horses because she has always been on the quiet, shyer side. If something goes wrong, she will usually blame herself. But through more and more practice, she has been trying to build up her confidence in herself. She tells herself that if she doesn’t focus, the horse will wander off and become disagreeable too. She is trying to improve in putting her trust in them as well; that way, the horse and she can learn safely together. Like humans, horses have sad days and happy days, so she has learned to patiently work with them no matter how overexcited or moody they can be.

Horseback riding is not accessible in China overall, but it has been receiving more attention lately. Although Chloe has participated in some small horse shows within her equestrian club, she hopes to participate in more significant competitions. It is safe to say that Chloe is no longer afraid of her big fluffy friends, and the smell that she didn’t like before is now a scent of familiarity where she can have fun and be herself.

（Written/Pictures by Chloe Wang Supervised by Menglei Wang)