Sasha Liewen

August 26^th, 2010

Summer of '09

It was last summer in June of 2009 at Summerhill Arabian horse farm, a quaint little horse farm just off the Rillito river.  Somewhere around late morning, the sun was already beating down my back.   I was taking horseback riding lessons, western saddle, but I had only ridden a few times previous to that day.

I was learning to ride on a beautiful bay horse, Sharo.   She has a small brown body with short black legs to match her jet black mane and tail.   She seems to be fast and I am nervous, especially after returning to Tucson from summer vacation.   I hadn't ridden in a week and since I was only a beginner back then I was still scared of going really fast.   I learned to ride in the round pen, a small circular arena.   My trainer, Abby, is in the middle of the round pen with me, giving me lessons as I ride Sharo around in a large circle.   Abby tells me I am going to learn how to lope, which is a smooth, faster-than-a-trot run.  I am really excited since I've never done it before, but I still have that feeling of insecurity in my stomach.   She tells me I will make a kissing sound with my mouth and apply pressure to her stomach with my outside facing leg.  We start from the trot and I use my leg and kiss.   Sharo takes a big step forward and starts to speed up, and in a split second she is loping.  Since then and the last time I had ridden her, I had been in San Diego.  I went on a big roller coaster for the first time and had a blast.  I imagined that loping on Sharo would feel as intense as the fast roller coaster.   At that moment my imagination had become reality.  We took off and before I knew it she was running perfectly smooth.  I rocked with her in sync, like a baby being rocked in his mothers arms.   I slightly rocked back and forth with her as she moved one, two, three.

I had realized that I was quite silly for being scared of that moment.  I had also decided that going faster was a lot more fun. I was proud of myself for getting over the fear of going fast on a horse, and that I was brave enough to even try it.   The funny part of the story is that Sharo is a very slow horse compared to the others I am currently riding.  It's been a life changing experience working with these 1, 200 pound animals, and learning that I shouldn't be afraid of them.