Forward I

When it comes to horse riding, I seem to have a problem with "forward". That is, I am not "forward" enough. Coaches see it when my horse does a little pigroot. "You need more forward!", they scream at me. Great! Fantastic advice. Except that it usually ends there.

But what, exactly, is forward? How do I achieve forward? I mean, after all, I am a forward thinking kind of person. "Let's do this jump, then let's do the next jump". That's forward, isn't it? "Let's do this competition, then one in two weeks, then one in two weeks after that". That's forward, right?

Hmm ...

Let me backtrack a bit. Most coaches actually scream "your horse is not forward enough". Well that's plain old up the wrong alley. A horse's job is to "survive"; that means eat, seek shelter, run away from predators if required, and breed. All the horses I have ever met have plenty of "forward" when it comes to their survival.

When it comes to being ridden, the forwardness of a horse is simply a product of their rider. So it is actually me that's not "forward" enough. The problem with us humans, is that we've become too logical. And we think that logical planning is equivalent to "forward".

I seem to think that "let's do this jump, then let's do the next jump" is "forward". Well it's not. Logical planning it may be, but it's not "forward".