Dad: Views From the Saddle

We had a couple of days worth of riding lessons this week and I'm still trying to decide what I'm enjoying more: the riding or watching my son grow right in front of me.

Nah, that's easy.

While the riding is fun, or a complete blast actually, the opportunity to see my 7 year old working hard at something is thrilling.

Last week he had the opportunity to upgrade horses, to move from the older, gentler, lesson horse to Sally. My own experience with Sally is that she was fun to ride, responsive to commands but willing to test the limits of the rider. She wants to know who is in charge: you or her.

The first time he got on, I thought "the kids gonna work today."

And he did.

By the end of the session as we were riding home during what always seems like discussion time, he said he sure wanted his former horse back, since he didn't trot as fast. As a dutiful dad, I let him know that if he wanted to ride horses that go faster and were tougher to ride, he needed to take the opportunity to do it when he had it.

Boy I sound like a dad.

There was more dad talk about how he was growing as a rider and that he didn't need the easiest horse and all that.

As we arrive for our next lesson, the older horse is tied to the bar waiting for us. I thought this was his perfect opportunity to just take what came his way.

Nope.

He spoke right up and wanted to know why he wasn't riding Sally this time and that he'd been looking forward to riding her all week.

That was news to me, by the way.

My inner dad puffed up as I saw my son choose the more difficult path.

He had lots to learn over the course of that lesson. He had to correct and demonstrate more than once that he was in charge. I kept waiting for the whining to begin that he was bored or this was too hard. He did great, and not just with me, but with the horse. He stayed calm and took her through the lesson just fine.

That night as I was putting a worn out kid to bed, he said he'd had fun riding her, but that he was too tired for the lesson scheduled for the next day.

Yeah right.

He went right back out and did it again. Sure we were sore and tired after back to back days riding more challenging horses, but we loved it.

When I began this there were a variety of thought going through my head about childhood dreams, opportunities to grow even further out of my box, fun with my son, but I never imagined that after a few months of this I'd see this much change in him. He is still better at this than I am. At this point, if I can trot and stay put in the saddle, I chalk that up as a victory. He is ready to go faster and do more.

He is living out his dream as a cowboy every Thursday or so, and I am living out my dream as a dad.