cityside equestrianism

Sunnybrook Stables logoA while back, I mentioned that I’m taking horseback riding lessons. I’ll elaborate now.

On Thursday nights I take an adult beginner’s horseback riding course over at Sunnybrook Stables.

Situated behind Sunnybrook Hospital, it’s a bit of a trek to get there from the closest bus stop. I take my inline skates with me, at least, though they don’t help me much when faced with a long, gradual decline that makes me pick up far too much speed for comfort.

Once I’m there, however, it’s all good.

We spend some time learning about the tack and the parts of the horses. Then we move on to the stables and gear up the horses for riding. The first two weeks we had two horses and each spent fifteen minutes on one. When we felt a little more comfortable the following week, we began to each spend half an hour on the horses. This is the first week we’ll spend an hour on the horse. This occasion actually falls on my birthday!

For having only ever ridden a horse once in my life, I’m finding the riding actually quite easy. It was a bit weird at first, getting comfortable with being on top of a large, powerful animal. But once past that stage, I have had little trouble with positioning myself properly and moving along with the horse. I had a bit of trouble with steering, as I’m afraid to hurt the horse. One just has to keep in mind that it is very powerful and therefore not too likely you’ll hurt it – you’ll probably just make it uncomfortable. My legs rarely hurt after riding – in fact, while doing two-point, I found the thing that hurt the most was my back, in the shoulder area.

The classes end at the end of October. The best follow-up to that is going to be horseback riding when I visit my parents in England for Christmas. I can’t wait!


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