Portuguese to English Other Sports / Fitness / Recreation Equestrian

the protagonist is fearful of riding a horse and she is overcoming her fears, and mounting the horse.

this is from Portugal

I'm thinking it may be something along the lines of "she walked the horse" or "she stroked the horse" because there is an instance where the author says the protagonist "fazia festas num cavalo" both before she has mounted it, as well as after she mounted it...

really perplexed on this one...

here is the whole sentence:

Percebi! Estou confiante que não vou cair! – disse enquanto fazia festas no cavalo. – Eu tenho equilíbrio... eu tenho equilíbrio... – repetia em pensamento.