So you'd like to ride my horse....

I see memes and posts about this from time to time.  A lot of equestrians do not want and will not allow others to ride their horse.  I guess I fall on the fence on this one.  I love sharing our horses with my nieces and nephews.  They are so adorable and it makes their day to ride around on China and Peach.  And for the most part, I think China and Peach soak up the attention.  Nothing makes me happier than getting videos of my niece and her stick horse named China or asking when she can come ride China again.  But turning someone loose on my horse, not giving pony rides, is a whole different story.  I'm still okay with it, but let's just say it does ramp up my anxiety a little (okay - a lot).  Let me try to make an analogy.

Let's say you had saved up and saved up to buy a fancy new car.  You get handed the keys to your new car and the dealership explains that your car needs to be programmed to drive.  It doesn't know what to do when you turn or hit the brakes.  You have to do repetitive practice asking it to stop or turn exactly the same way time after time before your car will be programmed to do what you want it to do.  And if you mess up and forget to ask it the same way or allow it to turn right when you meant left, you'll have to start over. 

So you spend hours programming your car, sometimes in the heat, sometimes in the freezing cold.  Sometimes in the rain, the wind, the bugs, while you're sick or tired or just want to sit down and stare at the shiny new care.  But you know if you don't keep programming it, you'll never be able to drive it at all.  Meanwhile you are working a second job because the new car needs special fluids, gasoline and accessories.  Everyone tells you how it "must be nice" to be able to afford such a nice car and how much they want to come drive it.  All the while you are logging 60 hours a week at two jobs to be able to afford your car. 

Finally you start to really figure out the car and have it tuned in just the way you like it.  So you decide to start taking it to some car shows to show off how well programmed your car is.  You spend hours getting ready for the show and dollar after dollar, only to have the car glitch and go the wrong direction at the show.  So back home you go to reprogram the car and get it ready for the next show. 

You put new tires on the car, have a specialist look at the car and do some fine tuning on the programming, purchase some higher end accessories and head off to the next show.  But your best friend's cousin's sister has never gotten to drive a show car before so she wants to come out and give it a spin.  Feeling generous, you let her get behind the wheel.  Being excited to drive such a cool car, she steps on the gas and the car shoots forward instead of gliding into the next gear smoothly. Since she doesn't know better, she jams the car back a gear, grinding on the new clutch and jerking the wheel to the right when she actually means left and overcorrects to go back the other direction.  You groan as she happily slams on the brakes and the car jerks to a stop in front of you.  You've made her day, but as you look at your shiny set of wheels, you know that you have a lot of reprogramming to do and not a lot of time before the next show.  But it was worth it to see how happy you made her this special day.

Now imagine that the car was not an inanimate object, but a living, breathing animal with a mind and moods of it's own.  Imagine that the car could become scared, confused, frustrated and downright angry.  Imagine the hours spent building a relationship of trust with that living breathing creature, trust that while you would protect them, they would chose not to bury you into the ground and then stomp the life out of you.  Then imagine handing that trust over to someone else. 

I will keep giving pony rides, I will keep sharing my horses with others because once upon a time, someone shared their horses with me.  But if you're one of those people who I let get a pony ride or two, just know that to me, that's a huge honor.  Riding someone's horse isn't something to be taken lightly.