I could do a solid hundred pages on how I put off getting back to riding again, because I have a fertile brain and I put it to good use finding excuse after excuse after excuse for why I wasn’t riding again.
I knew the real reason I didn’t was because I was scared stiff, but here is a rundown of my most-used excuses.
I weigh too much
Look at all those stories in the horsey press about people riding horses who aren’t up to their weight. Way back when, I was one of those people who had to eat to keep their weight up, but age and a fondness for my own cooking have put paid to that.
In reality, I may not like how much I weigh, but I’m not obese and my BMI is in the healthy range, but I told myself I couldn’t possibly ride until I got back to a particular weight. It was only fair to whatever poor horse I was asking to carry me.
I hadn’t got to my ‘riding weight’ when I decided to book an actual lesson. One bit of me thought, eek, better try and lose a bit of weight before you go. And another one, I am ashamed to say, thought well, if you weigh too much, problem solved. You can’t possibly do it.
When I did get back to riding and had to give my weight, I actually gave myself an extra half a stone, and there was a little bit of me thinking there, you can’t possibly do it now, can you? You weigh so much. But when you’ve chosen to ride somewhere that people dressed in full armour ride the horses, well … I am probably a rest cure.
I am not fit enough
This one did have some bearing, because I am very, very inflexible and I have a job that involves an awful lot of sitting and I am quite bad at getting myself out and keeping fit.
I did do something about it, which was to do 10 minutes of yoga a day. This is the programme I do, and it really did help.
However, I started this in January 2022, and by October 2022, still had not made that booking. So that brought me to …
I have no kit
One of my best excuses was kit. Riding kit. Lack of same. How could I possibly ride, I thought? I had nothing to ride in. No one could expect me to ride because well … look at all those endless ads for kit. None of which I had.
It would be a terrible waste of money, I thought, commending myself on my noble thriftiness. Because everything I had needed replacing.
My hat was several standards out of date, my ancient boots had rotted after I stored them in our (damp) cellar and jodhs? Well, they no longer fitted (pair 1) and the stitching had rotted (pair 2). No way any sane person could ride. Why spend all that money on new kit if I never actually managed to get back on a horse, or was so traumatised when I did I never did it again?
Except of course none of these barriers were insuperable. Every riding school has hats you can borrow. I may not have had jodhpurs, but I did have leggings and it turned out they were absolutely fine.
I wasn’t sure about boots, but my Clarkes lace-ups, acquired earlier in the year from eBay as everyday boots, looked as if they would do the trick, as they had a heel and a basically smooth sole. And they’ve been fine too.
So I’ve spent nothing extra on kit, not one single penny, and yet still managed to ride.
The big thing, of course, was tackling the fear. You can read about me tackling the fear here.
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