Skiing and horse riding

Do you do this too?

 

 

 

My husband being a ski instructor and me a riding instructor, many hours are spent comparing our sports, our teaching and our methods, drawing similarities between them and how to use those to our advantage when teaching. I know I often use skiing comparisons when teaching and my husband often does riding comparisons when he has riders as clients.

 

 

 

I am a fair weather skier. After years of being up there no matter the weather teaching skiing, I have now become a "lady-of-leisure" and ski one or two mornings a week, ideally out of the busy periods and when the weather is good (or at least not too windy or raining). My usual skis are close to giant slalom type skis- long, stable and with a big radius. My husband as a brand and shop rider has access to different types of skis. Being of the same height and wearing the same shoe size, this means I can borrow his skis. So one morning, for a change from my usual long red skis to work on something more specific, I borrowed my husband's slalom skis; shorter, more nervous with a smaller radius.

 

 

 

Think you can see where this is going.

 

Yup, guilty as charged.

 

I ended up comparing both sets of skis to riding two different horses! Going from my usual skis to the slalom skis was very similar to going from Lutin to Kivi: a steady ride, information taking time to convert, having to be precise in your demands Vs a speedy, sharp ride where you have to keep your core engaged and stay centered.

 

I love my husband for this; he was utterly unperturbed by my comparisons and, judging from the corner smile just visible under his goggles, enjoyed them.

 

Do you compare two apparently different activities to find similarities?