Horse-riding at......Johor Bahru

As I just completed 2 years worth of academic studies, it's only normal that my style of writing is still very much affected by it. I decided that each entry in my blog should have one main theme and that each paragraph serves up not more than one point (for now).

Turning to the main discussion, 3rd Dec was the day that I was looking forward to, yet feared at the same time in case I did a Christopher-Reeve (one must understand that my anxiety levels have been at an ultra-high the past few years) when I do horse-riding at Horse Valley, a barn in Johore Bahru (!!). Perhaps it was no surprise then that I was late (I woke up at the time I am supposed to be at Kranji where the coach was supposed to pick up up from) -- perhaps my subconcious creeping up on me? Anyway Shuzhen was very patient and kind (who had also been the one doing all the coordination work) about it and it turned out later that I still reached earlier than the coach which arrived 1 hour late. Though all 11 other people waiting with us must have been so angry about it, I was actually quite okay because 1) it meant my lateness turned out to be an inconsequential matter 2) I got to see Shuzhen's prowess at work which impressed me and which I learnt a trick or two from :P

The group of 13 (including me and Shuzhen) turned out to be a motley crew consisting of a strong, silent Caucasian (of which a few hours later we realised was an American when he broke his silence to a group of more passionate and talkative ladies), the talkative ladies who were passionate about K-pop groups, a very very quiet lady whom I am still not sure if she is part of the group who loved k-pop, a Korean lady with her scholarly-looking mixed-blood son and her friend and a very interesting couple.

Horse-riding and the whole equestrian business is one fascinating sport. From what I gathered so far from speaking to the manager of the barn, some essential skills to learn include trotting  (which dictionary.com defines as "going at a gait between a walk and a run"), cantering ("the pace at which the horse is moving at an 'easy gallop' much like the pace that pilgrims rode to Canterbury"...Shuzhen, the word originates from our JC literature text!!!) and galloping. Galloping is hardly taught if one ever takes up horse-riding lessons, unless the instructor came from a jockey background of which the act is in his blood, we were told! Horse-riding came with its set of rules, not surprisingly and once again guided by a set of etiquette of which humility rules.  I quite like that, and more importantly I love understanding more the set of vocabulary that comes alongside learning a new thing. They no longer exists just as verbs that I might probably teach in my classes. Instead they came alive for me that day.


We weren't taught to communicate with the horse during the 5-10 minutes of individual instruction time each of us had, but I think that is important. So here's me conversing with the horse, requesting it to be kind to me:

The horse-riding experience for me turned out to be an unforgettable one - mainly because it made me realise how powerful it can be when one coordinates one's breath with what one is doing. I did just that as I sat on the horse as it trotted, making sure that I breathed in when I pushed myself up on the pedestal (don't think it's the right word as I am not riding a bike but that's the best that Shuzhen and I could come up with), making sure I pulled down my heels as I did that and breathed out as I sat back on the saddle. It was an intensely personal and intimate experience I felt during that short span of around 5 minutes trotting on the horse, I felt at one with my horse, the instructor who was giving me instructions to move my body up and down and with the small field where we were in. I didn't even remember the anxiety that I had, and most importantly truly enjoyed every minute of the experience. That is meditation at work :P

That said, it was an extremely difficult and tiring experience, making sure that one's body is in a good alignment akin to a straight rod as one was doing all that. I felt imbalanced with all my weight on my outer part of my right feet and knees but was much better in my last round of trotting when my instructor got me to balance the pedestal on my balls of my foot (instead of the soles) and to hug my knees around the horse (yet making sure that I wasn't pressing too hard on the poor horse), hence transferring some weight away from my knees. This body-awareness experience was something that I enjoyed thoroughly too. It helped too that I turned out to be quite good at it :)

The snacks part though was an absolute disappointment - the 'local snacks' that were served to us included a bottled mineral water and curry puffs!! Though they come free-flow and though I don't really know what I was expecting, curry puffs were certainly something I didn't quite foresee??

Lunch was at another very interesting place that seemed a hot favourite with the locals judging from the crowd.

Though I must say I am not sure if I am missing something as I didn't find my meal of abalone-bah-cho guo tiao particularly pleasing.

I will not go into details of my analysis of the meal that I had with Shuzhen as it may jolly well be my tactile-challenged tongue at work or it may really be the lack of chilli as what Shuzhen suggested. :P But the abalone simply tasted plasticky and rough!

Taking horse-riding lessons, is now newly added to my to-do list of things. It certainly won't be happening in the short term, as 1) I need to wait for the bridge linking JB and Singapore to be completed (possibly next year if all goes well in the Singapore-Malaysian politics front) so that I don't have to get up at 5am once a week to travel across the Causeway 2) I need to wait for someone kind enough to sponsor the 700 ringgits worth of lessons (10 lessons, 45 min each) 3) and when I have cleared more things off my 5-page to-do list.

So for now, I am happy just to trot and canter in my dreams. :)