People often ask me if it’s difficult riding with one hand. My answer is always, no. It’s just like learning how to ride a bike or sing. The first thing you learn is normally the thing that you stick with. For example, if you find a new swimming instructor and he tells you you’re doing the backstroke incorrectly, you are going to second guess what he said based on the foundation you learned prior to his direction. I grew up using only my left hand for tasks so it was easy for me to adapt to riding in this way. Same thing goes for two handed horseback riders, it’s probably hard to switch to one hand when you’re used to riding with two. This blog post is what it’s like to ride with one hand.
Recently, I have tried to use two hands and hold the reins while walking, trotting, and cantering. While cantering is tough for me at the moment, I have been walking and trotting while maintaining contact. It feels great and I feel like I have more of a connection with Ziggy. My shoulders are square and I can feel my seat a little bit better than when I rode with one hand. When I ride with one hand, it is more difficult to have direct contact on the reins. This means that if I want to turn left, I sponge the left rein, if I want to go right, I sponge the right rein. Ziggy is neck reined so it is easy for me to have the pressure of the rein on his neck. If I want to turn right, I bring my entire hand to his right shoulder.
When you are getting contact from your horse and when riding with one hand, your shoulder tends to be in front of the other. This can affect the balance of the horse. My trainer say that I have good balance and my horse is very balanced to begin with. My trainers and I also discussed buying a second horse in the future. With the strength I have in my right hand, they say it would be better to teach or look for a horse that knows how to neck rein like Ziggy. This way I can easily turn when I’m going through a course. Another thing that comes up is the fact that I can’t just ride any horse of my choosing. This is a safe choice. If I get on a really hot horse, odds are I would not be able to control them based on my experience and my strength compared to if I could ride with two hands. Finally we also discussed that I need a flat jumper. A flat jumper is someone that does not engage their hind end to the fullest while going over the jumps. When you have a horse that does, you may fall if you don’t have enough strength in your body. My right side is slightly weaker than my left.
There are many things that can stall your goals but who’s to say you can’t ignore it. I think that my disability made me who I am and it isn’t stopping me from continuing to reach for my dream. There’s also a lot of things that could be worked on and I’m working on riding with two hands almost every day. I never thought it would be possible.
