You remember back at school, how wherever you went, there was that one horse girl? She’d be at every school, galloping around during recess and lunch. I was that girl. I had a friend who I made my sidekick horse girl. Double trouble. It all started when I was 4 and I think everyone thought it was a phase and that I’d grow out of it. 14 years and thousands of dollars later, here I am, still that horse girl.

The two most common questions I get are “Do you have your own horse?” and “But don’t you love horses?”. The first answer is no. I don’t own a horse. Why? Well I have no money and no property, and I’m allergic. That leads to the next answer. Yes I love horses. This doesn’t make me invincible to allergies. Now shut up before I smack you with a glove full of your own stupidity. If you’re thinking that question might relate to the no money and no property situation, I can assure you it doesn’t because I generally say allergies first to get it out of the way. When I tell them I have riding lessons the obvious question is “how?”. This is a fair question because my allergy could be bad enough that it kills me. Fortunately it doesn’t. I take some antihistamines and a bundle of tissues and I’m all set.

I’ve had riding lessons for about 12 years, although lately I either get them free from volunteering (woo) or I just don’t go riding. Emetophobia has a big impact on my ability to ride but I won’t go into that. I had my first fall when I was around 7 and it wasn’t even a bad one. I simply lost balance and slid off the side of my trusty steed, Cindy. I stuck to walking and trotting from then on. That riding school got closed down but one of the instructors bought a couple of horses and started doing lessons elsewhere. She was an amazing instructor but I wasted a lot of our time because one of the horses she bought was Cindy and she was the only one I was allowed to ride. So for a few years I stuck to walking and trotting.

One day we were on a trail ride and started trotting up a hill and Cindy just started cantering. She was lazy and it was not out of control at all so I went with it, and have been able to comfortably canter ever since. Soon after though, my instructor fell pregnant and had to cancel lessons for a while so went to another place that is really popular but oh my Lord it is awful. There was this guy learning to canter and they put him on a horse that regularly bucks when he canters. So surprise surprise, this guy falls off and his confidence is clearly hanging by a thread but gets back on. I didn’t see what happened after but I was just thinking ?????? That is so unsafe. Anyways, my instructors baby unfortunately passed away so she went back teaching. Little while later and she’s pregnant again. With twins! So this meant she was going to permanently stop lessons and it was time to move on.

I hit the jackpot finally. My idol is Olympic Silver Medallist Megan Jones and she and her mum opened their place up as a riding school. I’ve been there ever since and absolutely love it. It’s just what I was looking for and although I can’t ride much, I love to volunteer as much as I can. It’s a happy place for me, and I’ve even fallen off a few times and jumped straight back in the saddle.

So that’s a brief overview of my horsey life up until this point. Oh! Forgot to mention I got a private lesson with another Olympian, Wendy Schaeffer, who gave me a lesson when she didn’t have an instructor available. Shout out to famous people that are genuinely so nice to their fans! They’ve made my life. Thank you Megan and Wendy!

I’m hoping to get back in the saddle soon, but until then I’ll just keep blogging.

Thanks for reading

Larne