When the going gets tough - the professional gets going

Sometimes being forgetful can lead to quite an eye-opener. We went to breakfast so I decided to change at the barn afterwards. Problem was I left a crucial piece of clothing at home – my riding pants. Riding in Jeans has never been my favorite, and the missing skin on my legs from the biopsies certainly didn’t help. Nevertheless, I warmed up Chambord for JP, and that went well. I had a lot of fun with his canter. Just need to remember that Chambord needs quite a bit of help from the inside leg. Too much of the outside leg and he bunches up.


Then on to Saumur, and that’s when I decided the Jeans definitely were not helping. Neither did the sheepskin lined winter riding boots and polar fleece socks in 75F weather (the only boots I had that I could wear with Jeans). So I asked Sandy if she could ride Saumur. I haven’t seen her ride him in quite a long time, and it was very educational to watch. Ah, yes, I am always going for too much angle in the half-pass. The real eye-opener though was the level of work and precision Sandy asked of Saumur. I still pretty much go for the “good-enough” approach, while that certainly has no place in Sandy’s vocabulary. There were moments when I cringed, and I wondered if the work wasn’t getting too demanding for Saumur. They worked on canter half-pass, counter canter, with the goal of WAITING for the flying change. Saumur is such a smarty, he thinks he knows when he should change. And to some extend it is my fault, I made such big deals about every clean change I got last year and as long as it was a clean change I pretty much didn’t care if it happened precisely where it should have happened. No more of this, though. Saumur was working very hard mentally and physically and ended up lathered in sweat (he still has part of his winter coat and the temps went almost overnight from the 40s to the 70s), but the interesting thing was - he was relaxed and looked very pleased with himself after the work.

I guess that is what separates the professionals from most of us amateurs. (Most) professionals know how far to push without getting into a fight and keep the horse motivated through the tough stuff. It is also the quality and trademark of an equine athlete, to want to do the hard work, and taking pleasure in a job well done.

So then why do I have no problem pushing myself in my professional life, but I am very reluctant to push my horse? I want to progress with him, but I am so worried about pushing him too hard that I rather back off for fear of mentally upsetting him or physically making him uncomfortable. In my earlier blogs I was writing about the intimate relationship with the horse, I think I need to listen and observe better what he has to say instead of just coming to conclusions on my own. As long as he is healthy and happy, let’s go for it! Albeit always being cognizant of the work-life balance. Plenty of play time and hitting the trails should do the trick - for both of us!