When youngsters begin horsemanship lessons, they
yearn to ride but must first accomplish two gargantuan tasks: saddling and
mounting. Heaving a heavy saddle onto a horse’s back seems impossible to them,
as does getting boots into stirrups and keeping them there while hauling
themselves aboard. Between pants and grunts, the phrase I can’t competes for
most-frequently-heard honors with the words she’s
so tall.
I refrain from pointing out that, at 14.3 hands,
Sugar isn’t particularly tall, as horses go. Instead, I explain that getting a saddle
up onto a horse—or getting up into
the saddle—isn’t so much a matter of strength as it is of momentum. I
demonstrate how to use the energy created by momentum to make Mission
Impossible possible.
It’s kind of like crossing a small creek: if you
stand flat-footed and then jump, you’ll probably get your feet wet. But if you run
up to the water and leap without pausing first, momentum will help propel you
to the other side. In the same way, swinging a saddle upwards is easier than hoisting
it, and step-hopping up onto a horse requires less effort than rock-climbing up
there!
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| Made it! |
“We forget that IMPOSSIBLE is one of God's favorite words.” –Max
Lucado
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