Facing Fear on Four Legs

Laurie Horowitz isn’t what you’d call a thrill seeker. The retired paralegal’s idea of a good time is iced tea and a book. She hasn’t been on an airplane in more than 15 years. She would never jump off a high dive.

Yet almost every day, this petite brunette straps on a black helmet and climbs aboard a 1,200-pound creature. When she rides her bay mare, Gigi, she isn’t taking a sedate trail ride either. In a small hunt-seat saddle (that means no horn to grab), balanced on short stirrups, she gallops toward 3-foot-tall fences and jumps over them.

Except when she doesn’t. While her mare is exceptionally reliable, mistakes happen – rider miscommunication or something startling, like a scary plastic bag twisting in the wind – and Laurie hits the ground. That doesn’t happen nearly as often as it did on her old horse, a naughty gelding named July.

Laurie Horowitz says no to flying in an airplane, but yes to jumping her reliable mare, Gigi. (Photo: www.lawellphoto.com)

“He dumped me probably 50 times. He’d go to a jump like he was going to jump it, then he’d plant his feet and twist to the side, and I’d come off.”

Why did it take so long to realize he needed to go bye-bye? After all, Laurie is of the age where she doesn’t bounce.

“Hope,” says Laurie. “And he was the most gorgeous creature I’d ever seen.”

Laurie’s barn buddy, attorney Lynn Zimmerman, who is wearing a cast after breaking her arm in a fall, pipes up: “Kind of how you keep a bad husband or boyfriend with a pretty face!”

The women throw back their heads and laugh. Life is good. It’s a sunny day, and at this moment, they are hand-grazing their horses at Horse & Hound near Pearland, where they take lessons from owner and trainer Stephanie Greiwe.

Lynn Zimmerman broke her arm in a recent fall, but except for some time off to heal, that hasn’t stopped her from riding her warmblood, Wesley. (Photo: www.lawellphoto.com)

Here, they don’t have to explain why they spend most of their free time, and all their free money, on a sport that is dangerous and not at all kind to manicures.

“It’s our country club,” says Beth Lumgair, a business-development manager who owns Jago, a dark bay American warmblood.

Friends here – and at barns like this that dot the outskirts of Houston – understand that a bond with a horse can feel as strong as, and sometimes more successful than, relationships with people. It’s similar to affection felt for a pet dog, but different too. These are flight animals, engineered to gallop away at trouble, but, despite their size and strength, they let us climb on them and agree to all sorts of odd things, including jumping fences. They choose to let us live.

Because of the two-way trust, these riders take physical risks they never would otherwise and conquer psychological demons along the way.

At the beginning of every session, says Laurie, the jumps look huge. But as she warms up, she begins to let go of her fear and trust Gigi and her training. And after?

Beth Lumgair rides her gelding, Jago, without stirrups (the parts of the saddle you put your feet in) to strengthen her position and legs. (Photo: www.lawellphoto.com)

“There is definitely an adrenalin rush,” she says, “a feeling of pure joy.”

Her barn friend Susan Davis, who owns a caregiver agency, says her chestnut quarter horse mare named Seminole gives her courage: “When you know your horse, you’re a team. When I used to ride a different horse every day, I would say a prayer going out to the stables.”

The moments of exhilaration in the saddle are brief. They are eclipsed by the time spent grooming, cleaning leather, setting up veterinary appointments, meeting with farriers and simply admiring your horse.

Susan Davis says riding her own horse, Seminole, whom she knows so well, is easier than riding a different lesson horse every day. (Photo: www.lawellphoto.com)

For Beth, the barn eases the stress of the work day. “And horses can tell the truth about you. When your horse loves you back, you know it’s genuine,” she says. “You have to learn to channel strength and leadership, not anxiety and fear.”

Some adults out here have been riding since childhood. Others had to dream for decades, re-reading classics like The Black Stallion and Misty of Chincoteague.

“I’ve adored horses since I first laid eyes on them,” says Laurie, who rode as a child but stopped for education, family and career.

Finally, at age 47, with nothing to do on Sundays but watch her husband watch football, she started taking lessons again. Six months later, she bought a horse, July, the beautiful but naughty one.

And then, eventually, came the 10-year-old Oldenburg named Gigi. And along with her came not only courage, but quiet confidence. Laurie may not jump off a high dive or fly in an airplane, but she has found another way to soar.