Why Do I Still Ride?
I may just start calling her the master of blog hops instead of Viva Carlos, but today she brings us another great blop question I’m answering:
Why do you continue to ride?
No doubt my life would be much simpler without riding. My house would look nicer. I’d have better clothes (you know, the normal variety). There would be time and money for more traveling. For a while I would have told you that my husband would be a lot happier if I didn’t ride, but that’s not the case. Why? Sure we’d have more money, but I wouldn’t be me.
On a first-world-problem metaphorical completely over the top level, I need riding to be happy. So that’s the short answer of why I ride.
To elaborate? Riding keeps me motivated to be physically fit more than anything else. I don’t feel like I need to lose weight to be attractive to anyone or even healthy (currently healthy, I know that can change but that’s a different issue) but I do feel the need to be as fit and trim as possible for the sake of my horse and the pursuit of this sport. If I’ve been lackadaisical in my personal health, riding tells on me and I love it for doing so.
I keep riding because it never lets me settle and get comfortable. It always pushes me to the next level, the next challenge, the next thing. Sure it’s tiring both physically and emotionally… but in some areas of my life I’m not so driven so I appreciate that riding doesn’t let me get too comfortable. Don’t we all need something external to push us along sometimes?
I keep riding because it keeps me social. Let’s face it, when you’re old it’s hard to make friends. There is no structured school to meet people, all your friends are married or have babies, and co-workers may or may not be people you want to spend even more time with. I appreciate the friends that I have made through horses and riding.
Plus, I really just love my horse. I love working with him and teaching him and having him teach me. I love his nerd horse face.
12 thoughts on “Why Do I Still Ride?”
I’m starting to dislike this blog hop – everyone’s posts make me tear up! 🙂
Seriously though, those are such good, relate-able reasons to keep riding. Keep it up!
We wouldn’t be us without our ponies 🙂
Lots of good points, especially about the social aspect. I don’t think I’d have any friends at all if it weren’t for family and horses!
Yes, I love that there is always something more to learn or to improve on!
For real though on the social aspect! The barn is pretty much the only time I see other people!
I need to get on these blog hops… they’re great. and great reasons for riding 🙂
We have very similar reasons! I’ve been thinking about participating in this blog hop but it’s hard to put into words… you did a much better job than I could.
You summed it up very well- we need riding to be happy 🙂
Riding also keeps me social too!
Love this post! I have been trying to put into words why I ride for the bloghop, but this pretty much sums it up for me too, particularly the part about riding pushing us on to new challenges.
Couldn’t have said it better myself!
I totally agree with all of this. If it wasn’t for riding, I wouldn’t have any motivation to be fit, and when I moved to the current city I’m in, the first (and probably the only) people I met were through the barn.