How I Learned to Ride Horses

How I Learned to Ride Horses
©Ken Harris 2008

It was 1955. I had decided that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Joanne Heyser, even though it meant I was going to have to learn to ride a horse. I had never ridden much.

I started with Sheba, The Horse With The History. At first Joanne did all the saddling and bridling. Sheba, all 14 hands 2 inches of her, knew a lot about riding and I knew nothing. Fortunately for me she had a kindly disposition.

On weekends I would drive from Riverside to El Monte and spend the weekend with the Heyser family. Each afternoon Sheba took me out for a ride and brought me back. The took great care that I didn’t fall off. She had to because there were so many things I didn't know.

I didn't know, for instance, that you don’t sit in a saddle. You stand in a saddle with the balls of your feet in the stirrups and your weight on your heels. This keeps you from rubbing a large blister at the base of your spine. I know that now.

Also, when you're in the saddle, if it feels like you are sitting (oops, standing) up straight, you aren’t. You stick your chest out and arch your back until it feels like you’re doing a swan dive. This keeps you from developing blisters in your thighs. I know that now.

Finally, you point your toes out when you stand in the saddle. This keeps you from developing blisters on the inside of your knees. I know that now.

I was no challenge for Sheba. She dozed through our excursions. My first clue was her ears. A horse’s ears point to whatever she’s looking at. Sheba’s ears flopped back and forth as we walked and her eyes were closed. She didn’t actually snore, but she was sound asleep. Once she stumbled over a cigarette butt.

Gradually, as Joanne and I rode to more interesting places, Sheba began to stay awake. I realized that I had passed some sort of milestone when she actually crow-hopped a little bit with me. Not enough to dislodge me; just enough to register her displeasure with something I had done. That meant that she felt I had progressed enough to be reprimanded for my shortcomings.

After that, I began riding Legend, the Horse With The Problem, from time to time. “What a thrill,” I thought at the time. And, as it turned out, there were many thrills in the ensuing years.