" I just hate..."

Today an older woman, one that is not a good rider but loves horses, says to me. 

"I just hate hate hate arena riding." 

I still have a hole in my tongue where I bit it. 

Statements like that really hack me off! And so of course I'm gonna share it with you all!

Here is an older woman that bought a horse- and probably didn't have anyone helping her to find a good one. The one she bought was pregnant- which she didn't know about until she found a foal on the ground.( I'll bet the previous owners knew though! Can you say sucker?) She could never ride the mare- she was too sour and ugly- I think it even may have died. BUT she kept the foal- a filly who got her number early and hung on. She moved this filly into the place where I am now, and finally at the owners suggestion she took the filly to a trainer( who also saw her coming) where it still resides because this woman is afraid to ride her. Evidently she isn't afraid to keep paying someone else to ride her though. 

And so instead, she has coerced an 80 year old man that boards where we do, to let her ride his 25 year old stone broke gelding- in the hills- alone.  

Her question to me was this- " Can I ride this horse in the hills? Cuz I hate hate hate arena riding." Then she goes on to add," I'm not a very good rider. Maybe I should walk him, then mount up and let him carry me home." 

Lil Mama interjected in the nick of time, suggesting that the horse was a solidly broke horse and should be fine- if she was. 

Whew- saved from murder charges- again. 

I find that most people that hate arena riding are just the very persons that should embrace it! 

If you have a plan, and a step by step way to implement the training of you and your horse, arena riding is more than going around in circles. 

It is a way to be connected, a way to see how your horse is feeling, a way to become the rider you wish to be! 

Why don't these folks see this? 

And aside from clocking them upside their heads with a feed bucket, I can't even begin to explain it to them. 

Thank Goodness for Lil Mama and her diplomatic responses.