Photo courtesy of Anna Habarth.
I grew up in Pony Club. I idolized the older members in our club and at our farm. I took lessons from these older girls and learned invaluable lessons from them about horse care and about life. They took us under their wing and, quite honestly, they had a huge role shaping me into who I am as a horse woman today.
Now that I have grown up and graduated Pony Club, I have the opportunity to teach our next generation of Pony Clubbers and riders. I give weekly lessons to young kids and love to pass on the knowledge I learned growing up, as well as be that role model that I had as a child.
I take this role humbly, never taking for granted the parents who trust me with their children and the kids who trust me so deeply and will try just about anything I ask of them. With this trust also comes the responsibility to keep these children safe, while still urging them to step a toe out of their comfort zone to canter off the lunge line or to jump a vertical the next hole up the standard.
What I don’t think crosses everyone’s mind as often is what goes through a trainer’s mind to be able to push that child just a little bit further. How there is a moment of second guessing if you are pushing them too far, are you asking too much of them, are you over-facing them? To juggle the risk of failure with the promise of building confidence.
When a lesson doesn’t go as planned, I go over it again and again in my head wondering if I asked too much of my rider. Could I have set the exercise up differently, could I have told him or her to make a different correction, what could I have changed? When my rider leaves a lesson feeling drained of confidence, I am my own worst critic. I can even think of a time or two where I lost sleep blaming myself for my kid losing confidence that day.
Personally, I know that there are good days and bad when it comes to riding. Disappointing lessons and falls are just a part of our sport. Growing up, I can not think of a single occasion where I blamed my instructor for something going wrong. Yet as an instructor now, I put a lot of the blame on myself.
I care so much for these children, more so than I think their parents ever will know. I hold myself to such a high standard because all I want to see is for them to succeed. I see so much light in these kid’s eyes, how much they love their horses and their sport, and it reminds of myself when I was a kid. I know that falls and bad rides happen, but what’s most important is I’ve always taught them to get back on and keep going. Just like life. It’s this advice I keep in mind when something goes wrong, just to learn from what happened and to continually make myself a better instructor and leader for our Pony Club.
About the author: I am Anna Habarth, a 24 year old instructor with West Woods Pony Club in Arvada, Colorado. I got my start in Bay Leaf Pony Club in DeLand, Florida earning my C-3 before letting college get in the way of my riding (ugh). I recently relocated to Denver, Colorado and partnered up with my lease horse, Atlas, who I hope to event this season!
Photo courtesy of Anna Habarth.
