Saddled

Chapter 3

Eyes up, heels down.  Eyes up, heels down.  Eyes up, heels down.

That’s all I can hear in my head.  That’s all I’ve heard for the past hour.  Or was it longer or shorter than that?  I can’t quite remember.  Time doesn't seem quite right.  There was some other stuff about elbows and shoulders and leg position, but I don’t remember anything other than eyes up, heels down.

Kimberly turns her attention to me, “Very good Brei!  Now if you would just sit up a little bit taller you’d look absolutely perfect.”

Perfect.

I used to think that horseback riding couldn’t possibly be that complicated but then theres all these components of the line between like your heel and whatever other body parts that Kimberly named that I don’t remember anymore.  Or having your arm in like this certain position.

And then moving your horse, you squeeze your legs to make it go faster, if you want it to stop, you “sit back, pull on the reins, and say whoa.”  Honestly, why was it so complicated?  You’re just sitting on a horse and making it move around.

She starts coaching us on turning and I’m just utterly confused.  Okay, so you move your hand over to the left and the horse will turn left and hand to the right and your horse will turn right.  And you use your left leg to make your horse turn right and your right leg to make the horse turn left?  Why would you use your left leg to tell the horse to turn right?

We practice making a small circle to the center of the ring, one by one, and when it’s my turn, Maverick turns in a neat circle.  There’s something about telling a horse what to do and having it listen to you.

“Okay we’re going to jog now one by one!” Kimberly says and one of the girls squeal.  Jog?  What?

Kimberly walks over to the little girl, Ruby on the little fuzz ball and takes the reins.  “I want you to give a big squeeze your legs, and make a clicking noise like this.”

Ruby starts clicking and Kimberly pulls on the reins and clicks along with Ruby and soon enough, the little fuzz ball starts moving her legs faster and it changes tempo.  She jostles around in the saddle and says, “Whoaaa this is so bu-bump-p-y!”

Ruby starts giggling and wouldn’t stop until Kimberly instructs her to pull Rosie back into a walk.  Kimberly walks to Lily, who is sitting on her fat horse.  Lily seemed to have trouble maneuvering Candy.  Candy just plodded around the arena in a auto-pilot way and when Lily tried to circle Candy, Candy just just kept walking on the big circle.

“Okay!  Cue Candy to jog!”  Lily clicks wildly hoping Candy will jog.  “Give her a big squeeze!”

“I am!” Lily complains.

“Well it needs to be stronger than that since Candy is a little lazy!”

Lily gives a kick and Candy surges forward into the choppy leg movement that’s apparently called a jog  Lily doesn't jostle as much as Ruby did and she doesn't giggle or complain.

“Good job, Lily!  Just sit up tall and look where you’re going!” Kimberly praises.

When Candy finishes jogging, Kimberly walks to me.

“Sit up, Brei,” Kimberly reminds, “Okay, remember to give Maverick a big squeeze and click to him.”

I squeeze with my legs and click.

Nothing happens.

I try squeezing harder but he doesn’t move any faster.

Kimberly starts clicking along with me and pulling on the reins.