100 Hours Later: Look at Her Now

When Brooklyn first came to Dale Rosa Equine, the goal was pretty simple.

She wanted to learn enough western riding basics to participate in a barrel racing clinic put on by the Indiana Junior Rodeo Association.

Brooklyn wasn't completely new to horses. She came to us with a sporadic background in English riding and hunter/jumper. She had been in the saddle before, but western riding, barrel racing, and the style of horsemanship we teach at Dale Rosa Equine were new.

In some ways, she wasn't learning to ride from scratch.

She was learning a whole new language.

And 100 hours later, it is pretty incredible to look at how far she has come.

Brooklyn has officially joined the Dale Rosa Equine 100 Hour Club.

It Started With Dixie

Brooklyn started her Dale Rosa Equine journey on Dixie.

Those first lessons were about taking the experience she already had and building on it. Western riding introduced a different feel, different mechanics, different expectations, and a different way of communicating with the horse underneath her.

We worked on balance, her seat, hands and legs, body control, safety, and understanding the mechanics behind what she was asking the horse to do.

More importantly, we worked on the thing we probably say more than anything else around here:

Why?

Why did Dixie respond that way?

Why did that turn work better than the last one?

Why did changing her body position change what happened underneath her?

Why do we use this cue here and a different one there?

Because our goal has never been to teach kids to just follow instructions from the middle of the arena.

We want them to learn how to ride without us.

And Brooklyn started soaking it up.

Then Came Gemma

As her confidence and ability grew, Brooklyn started riding Gemma.

That was another step forward.

One of the biggest milestones in becoming a horsewoman is realizing that knowing how to ride one horse and knowing how to ride horses are two completely different things.

Different horses require different timing. Different amounts of pressure. Different corrections. Different support.

Brooklyn had to take everything she'd learned and figure out how to apply it to another horse.

And she did.

Her seat became stronger. Her hands became quieter. Her confidence grew.

But one of my favorite things to watch was her feel developing.

Instead of always waiting for me to tell her what happened, she started recognizing it herself.

She could feel it.

That is a big deal.

Now, There's Penny

And lately, she's taken another big step.

Penny.

Penny isn't a seasoned lesson horse with years of experience and every answer already installed. She's a young horse who is still developing herself.

That changes the responsibility of the rider.

Brooklyn has to think. She has to feel. She has to make decisions. She has to recognize what Penny needs from her and adjust.

And watching these two together has made those first lessons on Dixie feel like a very long time ago.

The girl who originally came to Dale Rosa Equine because she wanted to learn enough western riding to go to one barrel racing clinic is now confidently riding multiple horses and developing the skills to help a young horse along, too.

That's growth.

What 100 Hours Really Means

The 100 Hour Club is fun to celebrate, but it isn't really about a number written on a board.

It's what happened inside those hours.

It's the corrections I don't have to give anymore.

It's the questions getting more complicated because her understanding has gotten deeper.

It's making an adjustment before I can yell it across the arena.

It's learning the difference between getting a horse through a pattern and actually riding the horse through the pattern.

It's confidence.

It's independence.

It's feel.

It's learning that horsemanship isn't about becoming really good at riding one particular horse. It's about becoming the kind of rider who can get on different horses, listen to what they're telling you, adjust, and help them be better too.

Brooklyn came here with some English experience and a goal to try something new.

One hundred Dale Rosa Equine hours later, she's ridden Dixie. She's developed further on Gemma. And now she's taking what she's learned and applying it to Penny.

The barrel racing clinic might have been what got her through our doors.

But somewhere inside those 100 hours, she became a horsewoman.

And that makes me incredibly proud.

Congratulations, Brooklyn, on joining the Dale Rosa Equine 100 Hour Club.

You earned every single one of them.

Now let's see what you can do with the next 100.