I live my life by horseback riding, most people argue that it isn’t a sport. I would agree. It’s a lifestyle. When your football practice is over, you take off your pads and go home. When my riding lesson is over, I take off my boots and helmet, but I still have to take care of my horse. There is so much behind the scenes of riding. You have to be able to take care of any injury on an animal that has no way of telling you he is injured. You have to clean all of your tack and your horse. You have to create a trusting “team-mate” bond with an animal.

Most people know that riding is where they are meant to be when that first bond is created with their first horse. It is more than a friendship. You two begin relying on each other, needing each other. While in football all positions are important to make the plays successful, everyone is replaceable. When you’re on a horse, the two of you become a connected machine. No one can replace the relationship between horse and rider. There is absolutely no room for error or you will find yourself in the sand with a confused horse looking at you.

When a quarterback starts his play, he relies on his offensive linemen to protect him. When a rider gets onto a horse, they put their life into the hands (or hooves) of a 2,000-pound animal with the mind of its own. But for some reason that’s what makes completing a flawless course that much more rewarding. That 2,000-pound animal just listened to me? He listened to my inside leg and outside rein, did the flying change I wanted, counter bent perfectly and hit every distance because of me?! That feeling is indescribable, it’s the equestrians version of making a touchdown.