That was until trainers began to always assign me the “difficult” horses and I burned out, abandoning horses completely.

Adult Re-Rider

When I returned to the horse world almost two decades later, it was because, once again, I dreamed of riding horses. I’d wake in the morning, remembering the feeling of freedom and connection and think, “I have to ride again.”

I took lessons, finding that muscle memory quickly kicked in. I remembered diagonals, how to cue the trot, and how to pick up the correct canter lead.

It was exhilarating and terrifying all at once, because as an adult returning to the barn after time off, I had a completely different mindset than when I was a teenager.

When someone asked me to tack up my lesson horse myself, I couldn’t. Growing up at a performance barn in the 1980s taught me to ride, but none of the accompanying horsemanship skills. We had grooms to tack our horses.

I felt embarrassed at my lack of knowledge and ability on the ground. While I still loved riding, I changed my focus to becoming a horsewoman, not just a rider. I took a job as a working student at age 35 in exchange for riding time at my barn. I learned basic horse handling and care, and the reward was time in the saddle.

The Love for Riding

One of the most wonderful perks of working with horses is the ability to mount up and spend time together in the arena or on the trail. There is no better feeling when you are on a horse, communicating without words.

I spent some of the best times of my life in the saddle. For years, I tried to find something that could replace that euphoria, but I drifted back to the mounting block each time.

My trainer is always after me to ride more often, but as a working mom, my barn time is limited. As a result, my trainer is always asking me to get on my pony and give him some exercise.

“He’s bored,” or “He wants a job” are common refrains. I constantly feel guilty if I don’t tack him up and get on for 30 minutes. After all, it’s healthy for him, and no one wants a spicy pony who has been sitting too long.

Getting proper exercise is important for both horse and rider. My pony has lived with EPM for almost 10 years, and keeping him ridden and properly muscled has been a huge part of his wellness program. He has less inflammation, more stability, and a healthier life when he is ridden regularly. For us, riding is one of the most important things we can do together.

Time Out of the Saddle is Important

Riding is only one aspect of horses, and one that perhaps has overshadowed all the others. As a timid rider, I found that the more time I spent working with my horses on the ground or even just hanging out in the paddock, the more my confidence improved.

My Thoroughbred, Delight, was diagnosed with kissing spine. Despite being only 11 years old, I retired him from riding after trying many therapies and discussing it with my wellness team. In fact, his dangerous and aggressive behavior under saddle with a previous owner was how he came into my life.

I dedicated all my time with him to groundwork, earning his trust again and keeping his brain and body busy, all without being on his back. Turns out there’s a lot we can do to have fun and give them a wonderful quality of life that doesn’t involve putting a saddle on their backs.

The Most Important Goal with Horses

One day, I may be too arthritic to ride comfortably. My horses may all be too old to carry a rider successfully. They will still be valuable in my eyes and worthy of my attention.

For me, learning to tack, longe, and do liberty and groundwork helped improve my communication with my horses and gave me a more enjoyable experience in the saddle. The focus on riding was the reason for my burnout so many years ago. Incorporating other methods of connecting and spending time with horses taught me how to listen better, be a more effective communicator, and enjoy the time spent with these animals.

Now with one riding horse and another retired, I can enjoy both animals equally because they require different things for exercise. Whether you choose to focus on riding or unmounted time with your horse, remember that showing up for your horse and spending time with them is the most important goal.

This article about there being more to horses than riding appeared in the April 2024 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post There’s More to Horses Than Just Riding appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

Because so much time, energy, and money is invested into these creatures we love, frustration may creep in when the reality of other life responsibilities interferes. It’s important not to internalize these restraints and allow them to make you feel discouraged. Instead, you must recognize and include them as part of your goal setting in order to make your goals more attainable from the start.

Get Started with Goal Setting by Gaining Perspective

A helpful exercise that I use for horse owners and riders is to ask them to write down all the important sections of their life. Examples might be work, family, relationship, other pets, hobbies/sports outside of riding, et cetera. Oftentimes when you see how many things are on the page, you realize that there are quite a few people, animals, and other commitments vying for your attention.

This is a great way to put it all in perspective. When you’re at the barn, nailing those flying changes may feel like all that matters, but no matter how much you love riding, it’s just one piece of your much larger existence.

Most things in life end up needing to be a compromise. You may want to participate in all of the shows on the local circuit, purchase a competitive horse for the division or class you want to show in, master the sitting trot, or ride the perfect pattern, but all of those things require an investment of some kind. You must be honest with yourself about what resources you have available.

This situation also becomes difficult for the professionals guiding your equestrian journey. We never want to tell anyone they can’t do something; good trainers will build you up and encourage you every step of the way. But it’s also our job to manage expectations when a client mentions goals that we know to be outside of their scope of resources.

Setting Goals for Ownership and Showing

Goals can be set in any sector of equestrian sport. A common one is horse ownership. Other than buying a horse, there are many options available, including leasing, half-leasing, care leases, or riding school horses.

Just as horse ownership causes you to compromise by allocating resources (i.e. time and money), choosing one of the other options may take less resources, but requires compromise on how many times you ride per week, how high you jump, what movements you school, et cetera. However, all of the above options will help you continue to grow as a rider.

Other common goals center around showing. Rated horse shows can be extremely costly, plus paying your trainer and your own travel expenses.

I find the best way to get the most out of show season isn’t to only commit to one show at a time, but rather to present your trainer with a show budget for the year that is reasonable to you.

From there, the two of you can brainstorm and put together a calendar of shows that fit your schedule, finances, and goals. This way you can also plan to use those shows to build to some sort of “peak.”

For example, if you can afford six shows for the year, your trainer may decide it would be better to do a cluster of three in the spring and three in the fall so that you get into a rhythm rather than just showing once every other month.

It’s also important to mention that not every rider enjoys showing, and that is totally fine. No one should ever make you feel “less than” for that.

Setting Smaller Goals as an Equestrian

The secret to equestrian goal setting is to use the time you have in the saddle to work on the basics that need brushing up. Rather than having a grandiose goal such as “I want to show in X class,” break down what would be needed to be successful in that class: A better sense of canter rhythm, tighter turns, cleaner lead changes—whatever it is, all of these things are achievable with basic exercises that can be done both inside and outside of a lesson.

Dedicating even 15 minutes of each ride to improving the basics you have targeted will result in reaching the next level. As your foundation builds and your basics and communication with your horse improve, more and more doors will open.

From a sports psychology standpoint, achieving lots of smaller goals on the way to the larger goal will make the journey much more rewarding!

Potential and Comparison

Another common occurrence when setting goals is feeling “I’m not using my horse to his full potential.”  The horse has no idea if he was born with fantastic bloodlines, perfect conformation, or great aptitude for a certain discipline. The only thing he knows is whether he has food, water and shelter, and whether his handlers treat him kindly or roughly.

Your horse doesn’t understand the significance of Finals or the World Show, the difficulty level of the exercise at home or class at the show, the color of a ribbon, nor the concept of what could be. Equines are very lucky to live in the now, and we humans could learn a thing or two!

Where do we as humans get these ideas of what we should be doing? Usually by looking around and comparing ourselves to friends, barn mates, and social media influencers. What they say about social media is true, though: people tend to only post the good.

This is also the case for what people tend to allow others to see in real life. Generally, only a person’s immediate family and closest friends will know about all of their fears, struggles, and hard work. The rest of the world tends to only see the very biggest failures and triumphs, and even those fade from the collective memory of society very quickly.

Social media just happens to be a place where all the happy and colorful win photos are curated and posted, whether you as a viewer have had the best day or the worst day. However, what you don’t know is what the other person gave up to be at the show, to buy the horse, or to finally be able to execute that upper-level movement.

The person posting could have sold their car, missed important family events, cried driving home from the barn for six months after tough lessons, or endured injuries and layups for their horse. Just because those parts of the journey are kept quiet doesn’t mean we don’t all go through them.

Key Takeaway

Overall, as an equestrian, it’s crucial to set goals that fit into the big picture of your life. Riding is supposed to be fun, and our relationship with horses should bring joy. If the time we have at the barn is spent stressing or rushing, then something needs to be adjusted. Throughout all of it, take comfort from your horsey friends and your trainer to help guide you through this balancing act that is the equestrian experience.

This article about equestrian goal setting appeared in the January/February 2024 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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“I think they hoped it would just be a phase that I would grow out of,” Anderson says.

But as these things so often go, horses soon became a big part of her lifestyle. After years of riding hunter ponies, she moved to horses, which led her to the jumper ring. Then she found the sport of eventing, and she was officially hooked.

Anderson bought Nelson, a Thoroughbred who already knew the ropes of eventing, to help her learn the sport. When he was ready to retire in 2021, her parents bought her next partner as her clinical psychology Ph.D. graduation present. Global Jedi is a big, gray Irish Sport Horse, known around the barn as Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Anderson started dreaming big, but Obi fractured a splint bone in September of 2021. With the help of the veterinarians at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky., just three months later, she and Obi were back on track to have a full 2022 competition season.

A Diagnosis

However, merely a month later, everything changed again. Anderson was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer.

She’d found a lump a few months earlier, and while she thought and hoped it was just a cyst, she scheduled an appointment with her doctor to get it checked. Her OB-GYN reassured her that it was probably a cyst, but referred Anderson for imaging to be certain.

Imaging led to biopsies, which ultimately to a cancer diagnosis. A swift series of appointments ensued, and Anderson barely had enough time to accept what was happening and what this meant for her—and Obi’s—future.

Chemotherapy began by the end of February 2022, and Anderson got to work trying to figure out how she could keep riding and making horses part of her life through the upcoming months of treatment.

“I managed to push through the nausea, aches, fevers, exhaustion, sensitivity to heat, and other side effects of chemotherapy to have a pretty full show season,” she says. Anderson was exceptionally thankful to have Obi as her partner.

“He’s a steady horse. He is bold, brave, and extremely chill.”

Together, they competed in six recognized U.S. Eventing Association (USEA) events, finishing in the top 10 each time.

A Support System

Anderson’s barn family at Lucky Dog Eventing played a vital role in keeping her and Obi out and about during the show season.

“Our barn family is incredibly special,” she says. “We celebrate and mourn together. We are always there for one another. Everyone rallied behind me and Obi.”

Her trainer, Jenn O’Neill, or her friends rode Obi when she had chemotherapy on Mondays and when she was too sick or tired to make it to the barn.

“At shows, my friends made sure Obi was bathed, braided, tacked, untacked, watered, cold-hosed, and whatever else he needed,” says Anderson. “They made sure I rested, ate, and stayed hydrated. There were times I wanted to quit, but the support from my barn family encouraged and inspired me to keep going.”

In June, when she completed the long format Novice three-day event at the Indiana Eventing Association Horse Trials, she was exhausted. She knew it was in her best interest to save her energy for the next two months of chemotherapy, but she wanted Obi to continue in his competition season. Luckily, O’Neill was able to take the reins and keep competing Obi for the remainder of June and into July.

Strength and Courage

While Anderson was thankful that having O’Neill compete Obi was an option, she had mixed feelings about the situation.

“The ‘owner’ role was bittersweet,” she says. “I loved watching Jenn pilot my horse around his first Training [level event], but I felt resentment that the cancer had taken that experience away from me.”

While it was easy for Anderson to focus on what the cancer had stolen from her, she tried to focus on what her barn family had given her: support, encouragement, and inspiration that sustained her strength and courage.

“I learned how to be strong, brave, persistent, and gritty throughout my years with horses, and my barn family never let me forget that I was, and am, all of those things,” she says.

Getting to Cancer-Free

Anderson concluded chemotherapy in August, but her hemoglobin was near emergency levels, so her oncologist ordered a blood transfusion. After that, her energy surged back, and she started moving at full speed toward the USEA Area VIII Championships in September.

“The Lucky Dog Eventing barn family never faltered in their support and came to cheer us on at championships decked out in pink ‘Badass Gear’ from Mare Modern Goods,” she says. “I’m not sure how to describe what I felt when I galloped through the finish flags on cross-country to cheers echoing from a sea of friends all in pink—gratitude, joy, and relief. But we were back.”

Anderson finished her season with two successful runs at Training level, and she and Obi blazed through their final cross-country run of the season—decked out in pink—two days before her double mastectomy.

She has been cancer free since October 3, 2022. For those nine months, cancer dictated her life. Now, she no longer has to schedule her life around appointments and focus solely on surviving. Anderson can start living again and spend as much time as she wants at the barn and competing with her favorite horse and people, and she’s looking forward to a strong 2023 season aboard Global Jedi.

This article about an equestrian who overcame cancer appeared in the June 2023 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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I have loved horses for as long as I can remember. At the age of 2, I was at a company picnic with my parents when I spied pony rides at the bottom of a hill. Without a second glance at my poor mom and dad, I took off running down that hill as fast as my chubby 2-year-old legs could carry me, screaming, “Need to ride the pony!” the entire time.

That pony ride lit a spark that has burned bright for the last 34 years. I began riding lessons when I turned 7, and at the age of 16, I became the proud owner of an old, grumpy red dun Appaloosa named Phoenix.

A Wake-Up Call

My life as an equestrian was not without its challenges, however. I spent a good majority of my life overweight, and in the equine industry, that can be met with a myriad of backlash. I rode anyway. I made sure I always had a horse that could comfortably carry my weight and I did what I loved the most.

In 2019, I found out that I was pregnant. I also found out at a doctor’s appointment that I was at the highest weight I had ever been. High weight can lead to pregnancy complications, and that is exactly what happened to me. I developed a pregnancy complication called ICP, which stands for intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy, brought about by my undiagnosed nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

This serious complication can cause spontaneous stillbirth, and because of that, I was induced to deliver early and had my son at just 34 weeks gestation. I spent a total of nine days in the hospital, and he was in the NICU for an additional 10 days. That experience opened my eyes regarding the seriousness of my weight and my health more than anything else ever had.

A Major Change

Soon after, I began the process of getting approved for bariatric surgery. After six months of psychiatric evaluations, nutritionist appointments, cardiac testing and B-12 shots, I was finally approved and scheduled for surgery.

In August of 2021, I had gastric sleeve surgery, which involves the removal of around 80 percent of the stomach. Many people view weight loss surgery as an “easy way out,” but those people would be wrong. It wreaks havoc on your brain and your body.

Imagine the mental strain of being addicted to food and then suddenly not being able to eat it. I had to change my entire relationship with food, exercise, and how I looked at myself. However, I am happy to say that in the 15 months since my surgery, I have successfully lost 180 pounds.

I have felt the benefits of weight loss in all aspects of my life, but none more so than when riding my horses. I’ve heard others say that as equestrians, we shouldn’t expect our horses to be athletes if we aren’t willing to also be athletes as well. But I never understood that concept until I felt how much easier riding was after I lost weight and got in shape.

New Perspective on Riding After Weight Loss

Before losing weight, I would trot two or three laps around the ring before needing to walk because I was so out of breath. I would feel like physically passing out after jumping a course. I was in decent shape for my size, but I was not physically in shape to ride the way I needed to be.

I’m not saying that a person needs to be skinny to be an effective equestrian, but they should be in the best physical shape possible to be an effective and strong partner for their horse.

Now I can trot around with my big Dutch Harness Horse for quite a while without feeling winded at all. I even bought myself a tall but fine-boned off-track Thoroughbred as a project horse.

Beyond the weight loss, I have developed a love for fitness and nutrition. Yoga and cardio dance classes have become favorite additions to my week, as well as a passion for lifting weights that I never knew I possessed.

I’ve also gone back to school at the age of 36 to pursue certifications in personal training and strength training, as well as a master’s degree in nutrition. I’m hoping to begin a career focused on helping other equestrians reach their health, fitness, and weight loss goals.

I’m truly grateful that I was able to take the steps necessary to improve my health, my skills as an equestrian, and my life.

This article about Kylie’s weight loss journey appeared in the AR issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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“Ignore the appearance of my fence.”

“I shortened the lead rope after I took the picture.”

“I know my position needs work.”

In an attempt to ward off potential critics, almost all of us, including me, have been guilty at some point of including an apology of sorts with our social media posts.

I’ve also seen a horse’s conformation ripped apart when an owner meant only to lovingly share a photograph of her horse. Then there are those who are not qualified to act as trainers, farriers, or veterinarians offering advice on how they would handle certain situations if it were their horse.

For example, years ago when my mare my was severely afflicted with founder, I was openly attacked in the comments of a social media post I made by the spouse of a farrier who did not know me and had never seen my horse. This person took issue with the treatment protocol of a well-respected veterinary hospital and their team of veterinarians and farriers who were very experienced in the care of foundered horses and whose care my mare was under.

Why Be Nasty?

Why is it that some within our equestrian community feel the need to make negative, critical comments—and in some cases cross the line into cyberbullying—on the social media posts of others?

“Typically, it’s a need to pass judgment on and criticize others,” says Janet Edgette, Psy.D., equestrian and clinical sport psychologist. “Or it’s such a deep sense of inferiority that only by judging others harshly can they maintain any kind of positive self-regard.” Sometimes, Edgette explains, it’s a need to present oneself as more discerning, knowledgeable or skilled than others.

In other situations, people who feel angry all the time are gratified by inflicting harm on others and seeing or imagining them in distress, according to Edgette. Or there can be a person who is vindictive and trying to exact revenge for some perceived or actual wrongdoing, even if inadvertent or accidental. These people want to “even the score,” she says.

Crossing a Line

While it’s bad enough when hurtful comments are a one-time deal, it’s even more cruel when these social media critics become cyberbullies. The line is crossed when this type of behavior becomes intentional.

“People who post mean, rude, or critical comments become bullies when they mean to hurt the other person and it’s repeated over time,” Edgette says. “There’s usually some kind of power imbalance between the critic and the rider being criticized. For example, the critic is an instructor, or someone with a large social media following, or perhaps someone in the rider’s barn or social circle that is popular or otherwise has a lot of social media capital with which to influence the opinions of others.”

A Varied Effect

The effects of these types of comments, whether they are one-time or repeated, can vary.

“The least affected individuals will have a very centered and grounded sense of themselves,” says Edgette. “Meaning, they are not overly reactive to external events in their lives, are disinterested in drama, have no need to prove themselves to anyone they don’t know personally, and don’t take comments personally. They realize that the comments reflect more on the sender than themselves. The most affected are typically those who are easily offended by others or are especially reactive in conflict situations, or who feel a strong need to defend oneself against any criticism, or who can’t resist the urge to prove the critic wrong, or who remain steadfast in the belief that there’s value in engaging with the critic.”

Detrimental consequences for those severely affected by criticism can range from physical and mental symptoms to poor performance in other areas of life and even suicide.

Preventative Measures

Fortunately, if you are a victim of a critical or hurtful post, there are steps you can take to keep the situation from spiraling out of control. Edgette advises not responding at all.

“Nothing positive will ever come out of any exchange between the rider and the critic,” she says. “There is no ‘changing the other person’s mind.’ The critic is not looking for dialogue or perspective or enlightenment. They are looking to make someone else feel bad. And for so many of them, this type of activity is recreation, which is incredibly sad.”

Edgette states that while you can’t stop others from posting negative comments, there are some things that you can do to reduce the chances of being on the receiving end of such criticism:

◆ Never respond to any comments that you get. That’s what the other person wants from you. They’re ready to do battle and have no interest in hearing your point of view. Leave it.

◆ Take a second look at your posts to make sure there’s nothing that might invite critics. For example, avoid claiming that your way is the best or asking for feedback.

◆ Don’t be a critic yourself, no matter how valuable you believe your input to be. If people aren’t asking, they aren’t hearing, either.

◆ Don’t try to inform or educate other riders even if you think they need to hear your advice or input and you’re sure that you’re saying it nicely. A comment doesn’t have to be critical in order to feel critical to the reader.

◆ Don’t let the poor behavior of others on social media change how you show up online.

In the end, it’s important to realize that attempting to shame others rarely results in positive changes. More often than not, it does quite the opposite. Instead, as an industry, we would do well to adopt a supportive dialogue with one another.

This article about social media critics appeared in the October 2022 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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Inside Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park, the rush of the city falls away into the peaceful tranquility of wooded trails and open space. Tucked away on a dead-end road, Chamounix Equestrian Center has made its home inside the 2,000-acre municipal park. The stable is widely known for its sold-out summer camps, popular year-round lesson program and boarding opportunities, as well as a unique equestrian scholarship program called Work to Ride.

Work to Ride’s Beginning

In 1994, Lezlie Hiner was at a crossroads. She wanted to carve out a niche in the horse industry that blended her equestrian background with a degree in psychology and women’s studies. Launching the Work to Ride (WTR) program was the perfect intersection of those passions. The 501(c)(3) non-profit is a community-based prevention program that provides disadvantaged urban youth constructive activities centered on horsemanship, equine sports and education.

“We are serving low-income youth in the city by providing an opportunity to ride while also focusing on academic achievement,” Hiner says. “We tie academic activities to being on the polo team. If they want to be a part of the team, they have to keep up their grades.”

When designing WTR, Hiner looked closely at nationwide data regarding the after-school hours between 4 and 7 p.m. Research has shown that this is the prime time for kids to find opportunities to get into trouble or skip out on schoolwork. Participants enrolled in WTR are at the barn during those hours, which reduces the temptation to engage in less productive activities that can become appealing to unsupervised youth.

“All of the kids in Work to Ride are funded through scholarships,” Hiner says. “We also have academic scholarships for those who want to go to college and need help. They can apply to us and when we have funding, we help them with college tuition. One girl graduated from Cornell and is in nursing school now, and we’re covering her tuition.”

A Place for Everyone

Riders are not dismissed from the program if they are struggling in school. Instead, they receive extra tutoring and academic support to bring their grades up. However, they are not allowed to travel to competitions until their schoolwork is satisfactory. Participants get paid to maintain the horse stables and receive after-school tutoring to help maintain grades and assist with college enrollment.

“We are a little bit different in that we have a lot of boys in our program, which is fairly uncommon in a lot of other equestrian sports,” Hiner says. “Other [riding] disciplines have a hard time keeping boys after age 12, but polo is a sport that fills all the needs of teenage boys.”

The Park is connected to two of the city’s poorest communities: West and North Philadelphia. That makes it a convenient walkable distance for the nearly 60 kids who may not be able to afford transportation. Hiner estimates that Work to Ride has served hundreds of young riders since the program opened its doors 27 years ago.

From Wrong Turn to Ivy League

Shariah Harris became part of the program when she was about 8 years old. Her mom was driving in Fairmount Park and took a wrong turn onto the dead-end street and discovered the stable.

“We saw other Black children riding, and my mom wanted to figure out a way to get us involved in riding,” Harris says. “We went inside and met Lezlie, and she gave us an application. A few months later, both my brother and I were accepted into the program. My older sister soon followed our path and joined the program, too.”

Polo is the main focus of the WTR program, though some riders want to focus on jumping. Those who work hard, keep up their grades, and meet the program requirements travel across the country and around the world to play as part of the team. Harris quickly became a rising star in the sport.

As a high school senior, she was named the U.S. Polo Association’s National Interscholastic Player of the Year. Her skills earned her a spot playing high-goal polo for Postage Stamp Farm at the 2017 Silver Cup tournament. She became the first Black woman to play in high-goal polo, the top tier of polo in the United States.

In just a decade, Harris has collected a lifetime of memories. She says one of her favorites was her first trip to Nigeria to play in the Unicef Cup tournament. Her sister went too, and it was the first time they had left the United States.

“It was amazing to experience the culture in Nigeria and meet the different people,” she says. “I remember the excitement that I had to be able to go, because it was an annual trip that all of us in the program were anxious for a chance to experience.”

The team won the tournament, which made it even more special for Harris. WTR influenced Harris’s decision to attend Cornell University, where she played for the women’s varsity team.

“WTR helped me build confidence in myself that took me a bit longer to discover. It taught me to believe in myself even when I was nervous or afraid,” she says. “It also gave me an outlet and something to devote my complete attention to, which took my mind away from challenges in my life throughout the years.”

Harris credits Work to Ride with preparing her for Cornell University on a social level as much as an academic one. Training and traveling across the country and around the world taught her skills for adjusting to new or even uncomfortable situations.

“During my time in the program, we were always playing teams, and as I got older, I was the only girl playing on an all-male team, so I learned from an early stage how to adjust to these situations,” she says. “When I went to Cornell, a PWI [predominantly white institution] and being the only Black person on my team, I was already prepared in a sense for what that might entail for me. Work to Ride taught me how to adapt and how to make myself comfortable in situations where I was ‘the only one.’”

The Horses

Hiner has 33 horses in her string. Just under half of the herd are polo ponies, while the others play a key role in the barn’s lesson program. Given the locale, the horses eat a lot of hay—20 to 30 tons each month, since turnout is limited.

“We have a lot of off-track Thoroughbreds that the kids help train,” she says. “We’re very much into supporting the Thoroughbred industry and finding different uses for them. We also get polo pony donations from owners who have an older horse.”

Harris fondly remembers many of the horses who taught her to ride at WTR. However, Jordan was the one who captured her heart. He was Hiner’s personal horse, a Quarter Horse she purchased as a youngster and used in the program.

“I was drawn to his gentleness and tolerance for almost anything I did around him,” Harris says. “He was so bombproof that I always felt completely safe in his presence and riding him, even when he would misbehave. It gave me confidence to try new things.”

Philadelphia may be most well-known for the Liberty Bell, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the iconic statue of fictional boxer Rocky Balboa. But it’s programs like Work to Ride that are making the most change in the residents’ lives. The program gives children an outlet and safe haven from challenges that they might be dealing with at home, but it also exposes children to a world that they might never have known exists.

“Work to Ride has altered so many lives, and I’m glad that I stumbled upon it, because it’s changed my life in ways I never would have imagined,” Harris says.

Crossing the Line Kareem Rosser, an alumnus of the Work to Ride (WTR) program, recently released a book detailing the life-changing experience it provided for him and his siblings. In Crossing the Line: A Fearless Team of Brothers and the Sport That Changed Their Lives Forever, Rosser describes what it’s like to be born and raised in West Philadelphia. He worried he and his siblings would be stuck for life in “The Bottom,” a community surrounded by crime and poverty. Riding bicycles through Fairmount Park, his brothers found Chamounix Equestrian Center. Lezlie Hiner offered them an escape, and sometimes a place to stay. By working at the stable, they could earn riding lessons. That fueled a passion for polo, with the brothers committing to the sport with unmatched determination and discipline. WTR helped Rosser earn a polo scholarship to attend Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pa. After one year at a community college, he transferred to Colorado State University, where he was named the U.S. Polo Association’s Intercollegiate Player of the Year in 2015. He also became part of the first all-Black national interscholastic polo championship team. After college, Rosser moved back to Philadelphia for a career at a bank. Ironically, his boss was also a polo player. Today, he serves as the executive director of the fundraising arm, Friends of Work to Ride, where he uses his finance background to fundraise for the organization.

This article about Work to Ride’s equestrian scholarship program originally appeared in the September 2021 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post The Work to Ride Equestrian Scholarship Program appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

As a senior in high school, however, my priorities changed. I focused on graduating, getting into college, and hanging out with my friends. Shortly before I left for university, I quit riding.

Circling Back as an Adult Equestrian

The next four years went by quickly and without regret. I then moved to New York City to work in publishing, and volunteered my time at the Central Park Zoo to experience nature. But when I moved back to New Jersey shortly after getting married, I dreamed of riding horses again.

Almost 15 years after I left horses behind, I returned as an adult equestrian, and began to take lessons again. Quickly, my barn time became the one thing I looked forward to every week, giving me sanity and solitude.

My lessons quickly escalated into becoming a working student, half-leasing, and soon after, owning my first horse. It was official: I became a returning adult equestrian, or “re-rider.”

More and more adults, especially women, are finding their way back into the saddle after years away. Stepping aside and coming back after a long time off proves how passionate we are about horses. It also gives us a fresh perspective.

Competing Demands

“I stopped riding when I started college,” says Linda Snyder, a western re-rider. “I lived in New York City. It wasn’t easy to find riding facilities, and I had very little time available. I trail rode on vacation. I came back to riding in my 50s after my two kids were independent, and I had some time and money to ride. Now living in New Jersey, there are more stables around to ride at and take lessons. I finally realized my dream and bought my first horse two-and-a-half years ago. My goals with Cooper are to develop a partnership and gain trust in each other.”

Many returning adult equestrians share a similar trajectory with Snyder. Career and family demands compete for time and money with our horse habit, and often win—at least for a good chunk of time.

Mindset as an Adult Equestrian

The thing I noted most about my mindset when returning to horses was how timid I felt. As a young child and a teen, I always felt invincible, and when I fell, I bounced. Now, the fall is more of a splat. I have children and a husband that count on me to come home safely, and as a result, I am hesitant and less of a risk-taker.

My pony had a month-long vacation from riding this winter because of the snow and ice. It was unsafe to ride in our uncovered arena. Instead, we did groundwork and played in the snow at liberty.

When the weather cleared, I walked him in-hand, then longed him to assess his temperament before mounting up, and eased him into a workout to avoid any drama. Was I too careful? Perhaps. Yet over the years, I’ve learned to care less what other people think and do what is best for me.

Get Outside the Box

It’s easy to get stuck in a rut. Sometimes when you work with horses as a career, the riding aspect fades. “I started riding at age 9 and lived on a horse until graduating high school, then it was on to college, moving to the big city, and starting a career,” says L.A. Sokolowski, an award-winning equine journalist. “When I was working full-time for the U.S. Equestrian Team and running press rooms for international horse shows, there was little time to ride.”

She never left horses, however. The priorities just shifted to her career. But like most adult equestrians, Sokolowski’s priorities shifted once again.

“I found opportunities to ride and exercise horses whose owners, because of age or injuries, couldn’t ride as much anymore,” she says. “I also wanted to introduce my partner Charles to riding, and to see the horse again through an enthusiastic beginner’s eyes has been glorious. My priority now is to ride horses long and low, bitless and spur-free, and preferably without stirrups, so my seat stays deep and my legs long. I put great value in riding on a longeline and earning my reins.”

Returning adult equestrians may gravitate toward their old disciplines when starting back in the saddle, for both comfort and familiarity. Yet some re-riders will venture outside their comfort zone and into a new discipline.

A friend of mine grew up in the hunter/jumper world. At 36, Michelle trained for an endurance race in Mongolia and quickly fell in love with the sport. Now she spends her weekends riding 50 miles, and has learned barrel racing, team penning, and cow sorting for fun.

Fresh Perspectives

I returned to horses after motherhood, having the desire to do something for myself. I wasn’t alone in that need, nor the transition in perspective.

I was out of shape and had an inconsistent ability to get to the barn. My goals weren’t the same as when I was younger, and the fear of getting injured was real. Now I had a small child relying on me.

Autumn Fiordland, a young mother who used to compete, agrees that time and consistency can be a challenge to manage.

“I rode seriously from age 10 through 16,” she says. “I purchased my horse at age 23. We trained five days a week, schooling jumpers and cross-country, and competed in the hunter/jumper ring. But two years later, I stopped riding because of my pregnancy. When I began again in 2020, I was inconsistent. It has been challenging getting us both into riding shape, but I enjoy the slower pace of walking rides, something I never took time to do while actively training.”

Fiordland had to adapt her lifestyle due to motherhood, but this is such a common occurrence, there is even a Facebook group dedicated to “Mama Equestrians.” Re-riders push horses to the back burner while they navigate college, a career, or motherhood. Still, the unifying aspect is they all return for one thing: love of the horse.

Age often makes us more afraid, realizing we can get hurt, yet also gives us a new sense of freedom to try something new. Life experience gave these women the freedom to explore what makes them happy, such as Sokolowski found in her return, or Fiordland taking off her competition hat and learning to enjoy the ride. For myself, I still ride at a hunter/jumper facility, but have incorporated ground training, liberty work, and positive reinforcement methods, known as R+, into my riding.

It’s common to see me riding in a western saddle and English hunter bridle because it works for us. As a woman in my 40s with three children at home, I make no apologies for riding my horse however I like while enjoying every minute. Because now I know what I was missing all those years.

This article about returning adult equestrians appeared in the June 2021 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Coming Back to Horses as an Adult Equestrian appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.