Why does Unique Retreats for Women Ready for Change include a horseback ride?

Let me tell you what I learned about riding (as an adult) that feels so right.  The rhythm of the horse’s gait, whether walking or cantering, calms some inner part of me.  I start out enjoying the landscape and the sensual swaying of the horse. I am transfixed. But, then, out of nowhere, I think of solutions to problems I didn’t even know I worried about.  I come up with the most creative ideas.      

How does this happen?  Perhaps it is similar to what some call a runner’s high.  However, riding is not like jogging or biking.  It’s not an aerobic workout.  You don’t lose weight.  In fact, riding exercises entirely different parts of you – your mind, your sole, your creativity.

On the trail, there are always more women than men.  Why?  Was it Oscar Wilde who said, “There’s nothing better for the backside of a woman than the backside of a horse”?  Freud, who now has been discredited about so many of his ideas, thought it was sexual. He was very wrong.

Girls in the 1940s and ‘50s had few areas where they could experience personal power.  Personal power is not about control but competence; the competence of guiding a large horse.

Lots of girls in those days heard the same message I got from my gym teacher:  Girls may be smarter or better athletes than boys, but you should never show it.

Well, here was an activity that boys weren’t interested in, and I could excel without threatening them.  Today, I love teaching non-riding friends to ride because, unlike “real” riding teachers, I’m not interested in form. I’m more concerned they feel competent to get a horse to stop, go, turn, and back up -- in a firm yet loving way.

The meaning of riding, though, has changed for me over the years.  In my 20’s, I relished the competence I felt from making the horse to do what I wanted.  (Where else could we women have that sense of competence over another who was so much bigger and stronger?)  In my 30’s, riding had become an experience of sensuality (not sexuality, as Freud said).  As I said, I loved the rocking of a slow canter with the wind fingering through my hair, caressing my face.

By the time I reached my 50’s, riding had yet another meaning for me.  It massaged my mind, freed it from the ordinary in order to make space for the extraordinary.

Elsewhere I have written about my experience on a horse that led to the creation of Unique Retreats for Women.

Now in my 60s, I am curious what meaning riding will have for me in my 70s.

Give yourself the opportunity to find out how a one hour horse back ride (even, especially, if you’ve never been on a horse) can affect your life.  Aren’t you curious what creative ideas and decisions will come to you?

For more information, contact me at DrKGL@DrKarenGailLewis.com  or by phone at 301-585-5814.

(Registration is open for only 3 more weeks!)