Another thing I would like to speak about in these posts is strong female leadership. I teach all of my students to be leaders on horseback. In a horses mind, every time they have interaction, there is a leader and a follower. Yes, sometimes as beginner riders, the lesson horses will trump the leadership position and thanks to their kind souls we can allow that. But once you start riding with a purpose and pointing that horse in a direction, you become a leader, even if you don’t realize it. Working with horses teaches strong leadership skills, and I want to make sure my students carry that with them for the rest of their lives.
For some students, being a leader comes to them easily. I have a young student that was a leader the first time she got on a horse. Maybe it was just from watching everyone else, or maybe these were just strong natural tendencies, I don’t know. But I have never seen her ride a horse where she wasn’t in charge. Even at five years old, she knew she was the boss of that horse and she would charge that horse around as she pleased. There were times she was a little too bossy on the horse and we had to work on bringing in some finesse and subtlety to her riding. However, I never worried about her falling off. This is true of many male riders as well. When they apply strong leadership skills on a horse, it helps in many riding areas, but they also have to learn to listen to the one they are leading. With great leadership comes great responsibility. 🙂
For most of my girls however, they tend to start off more reserved. Most of my students start between the ages of six and eight, and at that age they are mostly focused on staying on. Some may be more confident in their riding ability than others, but most of them have yet to get a lot of control of their horses. For the most part I find they don’t really realize they need much control until the late ages of nine and ten. This is the age where I hope they really stick it out. Because now they have to decide if they want to put in the work to not only learn how to ride their horses better, but are they willing to change their own mindsets. Of course, they don’t usually realize this is what’s happening. But over the course of the eleven to thirteen year old years, I have seen girls that were shy, quiet and wobbly become confident, stable and goal oriented. Girls that can ride a good buck and spook and put their horse back on track without a second thought. Girls that are ready to take on the world, take on whatever is thrown at them.
I personally don’t know who I would be if it wasn’t for horses and my first instructor, Diana Peaton. I was a very quiet child who had no idea what hard work was. The lessons went from once a week to twice a week, and I was lucky enough to have parents who bought me a horse and moved closer to my instructor. Soon I learned how to take care of the animals in my backyard and I had goals to work toward. Not only that but I had other kids and friends now with the same goals. Thanks to the great atmosphere at Diana’s of not only friendship, but a you can and you will do it yourself attitude, I was able to grow and become confident in myself. This led to becoming more successful in all other aspects of life because every day I woke up knowing who I was. I was someone who put animals needs before my own and someone who always has a goal to work for.
Now it has been amazing to watch other girls go through the same thing at a barn I created. These girls are not only growing in horses, but growing into themselves to become better leaders in the community. As I start my student of the month section I will share how each student has grown into a leader in her own way!
Does anyone have a strong female leader they would like to share?