Kim and “Lana”

“’Trust your horse’ my friend tells me one afternoon as I am riding Lana, her favorite mare. I’m scared and trying hard to hide it, the only one I am fooling is me. I know I have too much horse under me, yet here we are, on a trail ride. Any moment now the boogie man is going burst out of the brush and she is going to leave me sitting in the dirt.

I wasn’t always scared. As a kid I rode everything – I spent my youth riding bareback on the beaches of Lake Michigan, galloping on narrow trails winding tightly through the woods. There wasn’t a horse made I couldn’t ride. I had no fear.

In my thirties we bought a really pretty gelding at an auction. You know the saying ‘You can’t ride pretty?’ Well, the second week we had him he blew up and threw me into a wall. I didn’t ride much after that. After a couple of years I was missing riding so we bought an older well broke mare. She had arthritis in her hips and hocks and we were not able to keep her comfortable and had to put her down after only a year. I then bought the horse of my dreams, my once in a lifetime horse, the colt that I had wanted before he was even born. When I rode him I was scared, not that I would admit it. It was a long way to the ground, he was 17.2. The first time I fell off him I broke 7 ribs. It would be 8 months before I rode again, and I started to make excuses not to ride. I bought a cow, then chickens, another dog… be for long I was too busy to ride.

Lucky for me I have good friends who talked me into riding with them. It took a long time before I was comfortable. I never told them I was scared but they knew. They never pushed, they let me go at my own pace and so did their horses.

Lana never did leave my farm. ‘Keep her for 30 days’ my friend told me, ride her, and see if you like her. She’s broke, you can trust her. The day after that first trail ride I came home from work and saddled her up, thinking it’s now or never. Down the lane we went, past the beehives, the wood pile and down to the river. No hesitation – not even a thought. We reached the other side of the river and I stopped, looked around at where we were and smiled. Lana is amazing. …. Now I ride at any given opportunity, I don’t need an excuse, I just ride. I ride and because I trust Lana, she trusts me and together, there isn’t anything we can’t accomplish.”