Horsing around and the great fall

I finally fell off a horse! And before freaking out and thinking OMG is she ok, yes I am and it is a good thing to fall off your horse. I know it sounds a little crazy, but horse-people know what I am talking about. Basically it is inevitable that you will fall off at some point and the longer it takes for it to happen the more fear is built up and that is really bad for riding.

My first riding lesson on March 30th  and Tess and I jumped, I am proud of myself that I did it, but I would rather have a Stick and Ball.

I am really happy that my friend Andrea has from day 1 told me that I will fall off the horse, it hopefully won’t be bad but it will happen and the earlier the better. I was really pleased to tell her when it happened and she was excited about it as well. Ok are we weird? Is this not normal for other riders?? She stressed the fact that it was important for me to fall and that if I didn’t fall within the next few weeks we would have to plan a fall.

Anything that puts such a big smile on my face is worth doing more of

My fall wasn’t bad at all though, I was cantering with one foot out of the stirrup working on my balance and then of course I lost my balanced and landed right on my butt. I was expecting a fall to be much worse and to hurt and it didn’t, I mean those horses are huge and I am learning to ride on jumpers so they are even bigger than most polo ponies. So when you are up there and you look down at the ground it’s really far away and a little scary. That is why it’s a good thing to fall off once in a while. You feel the shock, you realize you are fine, you dust yourself off, get back in the saddle and carry on with less fear and essentially more confidence.

Andrea has been on horses her whole life and has had some nasty falls and she told me: “if you are not prepared to fall and get hurt sometimes, then go find yourself another passion, cause any equestrian sport and especially polo will get you hurt.” Well I am not going to find myself another passion that I love more than polo, so I am prepared to get banged up once in a while.

My third polo lesson, happily cantering around with Juan. Photo by www.thepolopaparazzi.com

That’s the thing about a passion, it is not something you decide will happen and that it will take up your entire being. It just happens! You discover something and think it is absolutely amazing and you give it your all. So bruises, cuts and possibly broken bones here I come! #passionforpolo

When the mallet hits the ball on the sweet spot and it soars, well that’s enough to get me hooked

I am still very much a beginner at riding, but I can feel the improvements each time and I am always looking forward to my next lessons. I started out with Baby steps towards playing polo with general practice riding at the Dilmun club here in Bahrain, then my first polo lessons at the Grand Champions Polo Club, while I was in Florida and recently on my trip to London I had lessons with Roy at The Berkshire. I am not sure where my next polo lessons will be, maybe in Denmark or in Sotogrande in Spain, but I do look forward to them already. In the meantime I am doing 2-3 GP riding lessons per week at the Dilmun, as after all good horsemanship is a great part of playing polo.