High Five Taylor!!
#HighFivesAthlete Taylor had the opportunity to ride Star in Folsom, CA with the help of the High Fives Foundation!
Taylor’s ridding coach, Erin shares their experience…
“We all had a blast and marveled at Taylor’s upbeat, gracious, willing personality and her incredible talents!
Taylor first led Star around by the lead rope, then took her into our round training pen, where she exercised her. By doing so before riding, this establishes a relationship between any horse and rider in which the horse acknowledges the person as their “alpha”. There are many cues and nuances to our body language involved, which Taylor performed flawlessly and Star melted! By Taylor’s willingness to take the time to do this on the ground before mounting up made me realize that she is definitely a horse girl! Taylor groomed and tacked Star up with very little assistance.
Not knowing exactly what her abilities might be and preparing for the fact that she may fatigue easily or be overwhelmed, we had our team of a horse leader and sidewalkers available to help lift Taylor up and support her while riding. After the initial assistance while mounting, Taylor quickly left the team in the dust! Her mom, also a horse girl, was able to join her on horseback too!
She came out the next day and rode just as well, so we knew it wasn’t a fluke or adrenaline! She even helped to train Star through some new maneuvers which then gave Taylor more independent riding abilities. Really awesome to witness! Like you said, she is an absolute ray of sunshine! I don’t think she will leave many adventures untouched in her lifetime! We are looking forward to more riding here in Folsom during the winter months, then up in Truckee over the summer.
Thanks so much for the connection!
Take care ~ Erin”
