The first Intermediate Girls Weekend went so well! There was a range of skill levels, but every single one of them improved and I hope took something new away from it. I was so proud of them!
My approach to riding can be drastically different than a lot of instructors. The end result may be the same, but my focus is on the details and understanding why you do what you do on a horse (no, riding is not just sitting on the horse-ask the girls it's very hard). I'm not sure why more instructors don't talk about what I talked about. I owe it all to my trainer who taught me. Just watching her ride while I grew up made me realize there was something more special than just going around on the horse. She is a truly gifted rider. She makes everything look effortless and seeing that made me truly understand that what she was teaching could make any horse or rider successful. My trainer always instructed me to ride the horse with my seat and legs, never my hand and to always be aware of controlling the horses body. I never could sit on a horse and just go around. My mind had to be engaged with my riding. I tried to get the girls to do the same.
I was proud of my horses too! I have been riding them since February and to see them actually do what the girls were asking was amazing. It makes me feel like my work is paying off. They even seemed to enjoy it which is always crucial since the spent many hours in the ring. The girls made them all look good!
I was also really excited about the spiritual content. I am truly passionate about dressage and teaching people how to train horses and become good thinking riders, but I also have been discovering a passion this year for speaking to girls about their relationship with Christ. It took me a long time to get that Christ was more than just rules or religion. I love the story of the women at the well in John chapter 4 (the story our stable name is based off of). I grew up in a Christian home, but it wasn't until my college years that I came to terms with the fact that I was a lot like her-a really messy person and I couldn't fix myself. I wasn't trying to satisfy myself with things that were morally wrong, like the woman at the well, but the things I thought would make me happy and fulfilled were just as disappointing and enslaving as immoral things. Thankfully, God kept leaning into me and showed me life and living water beyond keeping good grades, having nice friends, and getting to show my horse. He in a sense refocused me using circumstances in my life and various people (not all of it felt very good). But even after that I struggled with feeling like I didn't have abundant life, like Jesus promises. I soon discovered that the Christin walk is a lifelong struggle of recognizing what things we make our idols before God. We drink of different things in life hoping that they will bring us fulfillment-they can be good and bad-my list tends to be pretty socially acceptable, but it never works. Even deeper than that I learned it had more to do with a heart issue than the individual things I turn to. At some level I think that life should just be easy and comfortable and God isn't giving me that, so I turn to other things to distract me from the pain or to just see if it can make me feel happy. It succeeds for awhile, but it never lasts. I also think we as women in particular get caught up in believing lies about ourselves and God. We did an exercise where we wrote down our lies on a poster and then as a group found scriptures to combat the lies with truth. It is my hope that the girls don't just take this as a good talk and really apply it. I learned that I had to work hard to make sure Jesus stays at the center of my life. It still doesn't always work-I have my list of mini gods I think can fulfill me, but when I turn to Jesus I walk away so much more satisfied because when I ask He gives me Himself everytime.
