If you could...

[acoustic]

Get rich.

[Across Sicily]

I'd get rid of lingering fear issues. Show me a 4 foot jump and I'll JUMP it, dammit! Not curl up in the fetal position on my horse's back.

Sigh... if only!

[ReSomething]

I would somehow go back in time . . .

LOL. I was thinking about this in the car on the way home. Really.

I'd like to go back in time and stop begging for a pony and instead make friends with the girl I went through grammar school with, whose Mom was nice enough to take me along for a lesson in the 7th grade. And while I was back there I'd have a good talking to myself about my choice of friends.

Since that isn't too likely I guess I'd better work on the weight and make that doctor appt I've been putting off to further investigate my hip pain.

[goeslikestink]

win the lottery

[Canaqua]

I'd go back 30 years and NOT have quit riding at 18, only to take it up again at 48! I've been pleasantly surprised at how well I've come back so far, but I'd be seriously good right now if I hadn't taken all that time off!

[Calhoun]

Looking back, wish I had better judgement of people, it would have saved my horsey checkbook a lot of money. The good news, life experiences teach you to have better judgement.

[Naturally Unbridled]

Thanks & Keep 'em coming!

Thanks for this fabulous and honest feedback. I'm using the information from you folks to design a special coaching program to help equestrians to achieve their optimal equestrian experience - and confidence and fitness will be a big part of the program.

Now, if I could only get that time-machine thing figured out, all of our problems would be solved! Maybe I'll get started on that after the coaching program!

[Punkie]

I would stop over-analyzing...everything. I'm a scientist, I like to know the ins and outs of the way that things work. And that includes the physiology and mechanics of riding. For example, when my trainer asks why a distance didn't work out, more often than not it's because I let my horse drift through my outside aids. Simple enough. Well for some reason I insist on analyzing every footfall and every minor muscle twitch, and have been known for getting into neurological responses and timing and...well, you get the picture. And it's not that I think of this after it happens...I'm thinking about this on my way to the jump. So I know the horse is drifting, but I find myself needing to work out exactly why it's happening.

Thankfully, I've been working with my trainers long enough that they know when my head starts to go into overdrive, so they'll tell me to sing a song or recite the periodic table or tell a story and magically everything ends up working out It's gotten a lot better over the last few years, but I still have a ways to go!

[Naturally Unbridled]

Ah, yes - the infamous "Analysis Paralysis"! As a former scientist, I'm very familiar with that disorder. Ha ha! There's a degree of benefit to it but when it gets to the extreme that you're hearing synapses firing, the song thing is probably a good idea.

I think it's great that everyone is being so open. I think it's helpful just to know that everyone is working on something!

[katarine]

Have to work only Tues- Thur from 8-4 or so l for maybe 500/hr

that would pretty much take care of it. I'd hire the maid and the personal chef and the part time farm help. Ok maybe 750/hr

I have the courage and the desire and the feel: I don't have the time or space to get it done.

[betsyk]

More lessons. More lessons as a kid (I knew everything already...), more lessons as a young adult (still discovering maybe I didn't know EVERYTHING...) and more lessons as an adult (who needs food and shelter?). I wish the idea of investing in an education had transferred over to investing in an education in the saddle a whole lot sooner!

[caradino]

-I'd like to be fitter and stronger. I'm at a good weight and in fairly good shape, but man I get tired during no-stirrups work and any time I really have to RIDE to get a good performance out of my pony (helloooo abs!)
-I'd like a trip in the way-back machine to my childhood and somehow be able to ride better horses with better trainers from the very start. My beginning riding education was stunted to say the least!
-A winning lottery ticket
-More time to ride!

[skip916]

i would like to have known to appreciate my first trainer more (jon conyers) and to have NOT turned down a chance to be a working student in europe because i didnt want to leave my boyfriend...

[Trevelyan96]

Longer legs, more confidence, and ambidexterousness.

[2DogsFarm]

Clone myself

Then "she" could do the barn work & I could come home to a fully groomed & tacked horse, ready to ride.

Hmmmmm....
Can one clone without certain personality traits being passed on?
Don't need my cloned help having the same 'tude

Seriously:
I'd use that Wayback Machine to give myself more confidence when I was a re-rider.
I too was a victim of Traineritis Deplorabilis < Latin for the Client W/O The Big $$ Gets the Shi**y End of the Stick.
Proof in the pudding, ya know.
Those ribbons were not all Sympathy pinnings from the judges!
Once I found a good trainer, it was he who told me:
"You empower the trainer"
i.e.: you cannot be a doormat if you don't lay down

[Wellspotted]

I would go back to my 13th year and ride again like I did then ... only this time I would find some way to keep on riding until I got back to the age I am now, and continue!

[foundationmare]

I was a horse crazy kid and that hasn't changed. Back in the day I had ZERO support for my obsession, although my parents did try. I took riding lessons at a public riding stable, e.g. ignoramus people like me renting out horses for an hour or so and getting "training". I was too young to understand and all I wanted to do was ride a horse. It was mostly good, even the time the paint mare, Bonnie, reached her limit and did a 180 back to the barn at warp speed, losing me in the process.

Geez, my 12 year old self bounced up like a Weeble and soldiered on!

I wasn't able to indulge my horse-ness until well into adulthood. I've been a ground person with racehorses for quite a while now, spend lots and lots of time with them, but haven't been aboard a horse for a LOOOOng time! Last attempt launched me off my "Queen" TB and that spooked me. I have recently been diagnosed with scoliosis and early osteoporosis, so I am extremely skeptical about climbing aboard again, although I want to ride! I have at least one sensible OTTB who would probably cart my kiester around without shenanigans but, oy vey, a bad landing could be life altering for me.

For the record, since the astonishing news about my spine and bone health, I have been diligent about taking my calcium and Vitamin D and getting as much sunlight as I can. I've also bumped up my intake of foods that contain lots of calcium and I continue to exercise on a daily basis which, at this point, consists of caring for 4 horses, cleaning stalls, carrying water buckets, etc., etc. I tally it up to 1.5 hours of fairly intense exercise on a daily basis.

Still, I would like to start riding again.

If I could do anything over again, I would have never let my saddle time lapse.