Age is Just a Number
Category : Uncategorized
Whatever age you are as you read this, that age is just a number.
One of the many beauties of equestrianism is that it can be a lifelong passion which doesn’t have to be defined by the number of years which have past since the date of your birth.
I’ll tell you a little story……
A couple of years ago a young rider came to see me for some help with her confidence. As always, we started with a “get to know each other” chat so I asked her to guess the ages of the youngest and oldest riders I have worked with. She guessed her own age for the youngest – 9 (real answer is 8 yrs old) and then for the oldest she guessed …….wait for it……..”THIRTY??”
Her Mum, who was with us, caught my eye and the two of us had to quickly suppress our laughter as we tried to explain that thirty is really very young!!
The real answer to the question is 84! A rider whose family wanted them to stop but who had many reasons for wanting to carry on with something she had been doing for so many years.
Of course, when you’re only 9 then a person who is 30 does seem ancient so you can imagine the expression on this rider’s face when she heard about someone who enjoyed riding in their 80’s!
Whatever age you are now you are the sum of all of your life experiences to date and life does change and evolve as we travel through it. Many riders tell me that they wish they had the joyous bravery that they had as a child, or before they had the responsibilities associated with adulthood, but looking at it a different way I would guess that you are likely to be a technically better rider than you were in those days and, whilst you may be more aware of the risks of the sport, that doesn’t have to mean that you can’t still enjoy riding and still get a huge amount out of your time spent on and around horses.
Whatever age you are or whatever stage of life you’re at then you can make choices appropriate to you and to your circumstances. Whatever those choices are riding throughout life will have huge benefits for your physical and mental health so KEEP ON RIDING!

Photo by Alexander Dummer on Pexels.com