When you reach the age when you’ve been a rider for most of your life, it’s important to regularly mine your experiences in search of insights. Try to remember those moments when, in an instant, your perspective changed suddenly—usually for the better, sometimes for the worse.

Here are 21 ‘aha’ moments every rider will understand.

1. When you FINALLY figured out what the hell a diagonal was and how to change it.

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2. When you were old enough to realize that falling off hurts way more the next day.

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3. When that thing your trainer had been telling you for years finally seemed important, but only after the big-name clinician called you out on it too.

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4. When you realized “grab mane” was not just a figure of speech.

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5. When you were grateful, much later, for the teachings of the lesson horse you never wanted to ride.

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6. When you decided there were better ways to measure progress than blue ribbons.

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7. When you were getting a little too big for your britches, and the next horse you sat on bucked you off.

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8. When you thought you rode pretty well… and then you saw someone who rode really well.

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9. When you realized being “tough” on a horse doesn’t make you a horseman.

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10. When you asked for a lead change and got a lead change and it was cool AF.

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11. When you made a difference with a horse that nobody noticed before—and everybody noticed after.

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12. When you were SO grateful to hear your horse was lame from a hoof abscess (and not something worse).

13. The first time you rode a horse that was truly talented.

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14. When you had the best round of your life…and were off course.

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15. When you realized that no one discipline, trainer, or riding program has all the answers.

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16. When you knew how to help someone else that was having trouble, and did.

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17. When you were okay with the fact that no matter how “nice” your horse is, there will always be someone with a “nicer” horse.

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18. When you realized it was fine to be a little afraid.

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19. When you nailed it (the test, distance, pattern) just when it counted the most.

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20. When you won an argument with a horse using patience (even if you were two seconds from giving up yourself).

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21. When you realized a few decades in, that in a few decades more, you might be able to call yourself a ‘relatively experienced rider’.

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