Rider Feature (continued)
I would stand up for Eli in the same way the special people in my life stood up for me and didn’t give up on me, even in my darkest days.
Because of my learning disability and the fact that I am left handed, simple tasks can be very difficult for me. When I asked trainers for help with Eli, I struggled. The trainers tasks were easy for them, but not for me. Knowing my learning deficit and how I best learned a new task; my ever present husband would break down the steps and the goals for me to a single task to teach Eli. In retrospect, this approach to teaching Eli and I was tremendously advantageous for both of us. Eli taught me patience and to love unconditionally. The love I gave to him was, and still is, in the same form of gentleness that I needed all along. I had to learn to say to myself the same things that I would say to Eli. My gentle touch with Eli is also the same thing that I am now learning to do for myself. This was something I had missed during my formative years, like many individuals in dysfunctional relationships, but thanks to Eli I know it now.
If I go too fast with Eli’s training, he reminds me to slow it down. Every time I work with him I remember to focus on being in the present and peaceful. One day at a time, sometimes one minute at a time, we break the lessons down to their tiniest pieces. After a year of working with Eli, my veterinarian told me he was glad that I kept him and that my life was safe. A testament to how far Eli has come! We have already signed up to do ACTHA AOC events in-hand this season.
At one point in my life my PTSD, depression and anxiety was so bad it took all my strength to get out of bed. There was even a time when I was not able to go to the grocery store. My daily activities consisted of work, barn and home. I felt as if the horses and my dogs were the only species that could understand me. I spent a lot of time alone with my horses releasing tears, fears and pain. My horses provided me with the strength to go on.
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Lois riding Chip, her Golden Boy