PONY CLUB members have recently been enjoying cross country training at Turbary, Halifax. In any sport practice is vital for progression but it is also important to know you are practising the right things.
Input through training brings knowledge and skills. It builds confidence, harmony and the fundamental ability to think things through.
Horse sport is unique in that we are not just training ourselves but another living being with its own thought processes and ideas, as Pony Club’s Joint Chief Instructor Sarah Coldwell discovered when she acquired her horse Andy as a four-year-old.
‘Quirky’ is one word she still uses to describe him but back then ‘I just couldn’t do anything with him’ she remembers.
Training of any kind certainly wasn’t top of his wish list! His unruly, stubborn behaviour could be likened to that of an anti-social teenage boy and when asked to do something his answer was often ‘no’ and ‘this is what I think instead’.
He earned the name Rocky due to his penchant for bucking, but Sarah isn’t inexperienced, as she has ridden for Great Britain at the student games. She persevered and it paid off.
After a few weeks training with Olympic eventer Tiny Clapham and a lot of patience and hard work, they are now competing successfully in affiliated eventing, a tough sport with three separate phases. She is regularly placed in the top ten and Andy’s mind is now firmly ‘on the job’. He is fast across country and his dressage marks have improved a full 30%.
Horses are one of life’s great teachers. They inspire us with their brilliance and willingness and humble us with their challenges.
But in all aspects of life they teach us that hard work and effort pay off and that with practice and training and the small daily successes it brings, bigger achievements can be had.
What wonderful life lessons for young horse riders!
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