Fifteen riders and eight cart riders, along with organizers and volunteers enjoyed a sunny summer evening and a delicious barbecue supper at the Caluori Pavilion in Olds on June 27 for the Mount View Special Riding Spring Trail Riding Night.
This competition was the culmination of hard work and practice at eight weekly riding lessons beginning in May.
Participants and their leaders and side-walkers negotiated a number of trail obstacles including “Where's My Lunch?”, “Tip-toeing Through the Log Poles”, “Spruce Forest”, “Backing The Bales”, “Picking Flowers” and “Escape The Barn Owl”. Cart riders enjoyed a course winding around the obstacles as well.
Lessons involve a wide variety of tasks on horseback such as patterns between cones, walking over poles, retrieving hats or rings and transferring them to hooks or buckets, halting, backing and trotting / fast walking, and games such as red light, green light. Riders are also encouraged to lead their horses back to the saddling area and assist with brushing them after the lesson. These tasks and games in turn enhance skills such as social, conversational, listening, understanding, carrying out instructions and responsibility, while stretching and strengthening muscles, improving balance and motor skills, resulting in greater independence and self-esteem.
Mount View Special Riding Association (MVSRA), a CanTra accredited association, would not function without its instructors, volunteers and horse owners – all of whom perform vital tasks within the association. CanTra Certified Instructors Diane Luxen and Shelene Williams are the driving force of the lessons – combining the elements of structure, learning, safety and leadership in fun and enjoyable formats.
Volunteers are the backbone of the association, performing a wide variety of tasks such as grooming and saddling, side-walking and providing emotional and physical support for riders, managing equipment, cleaning and caring for tack, and organizational duties to keep MVSRA running as the efficient and successful association that it is.
Horse owners are the third vital part of the whole picture – as there would be no “riding” in special riding without them and the excellent quality of horses they faithfully transport to the pavilion each week.
