"Stay in your bubble!" - and lessons from endurance athletes

 We (ok, I!) had a light bulb moment yesterday - and it shouldn't have been a light bulb moment because it was so obvious. The indoor arena has windows all around, and they are just the right height for the rider to look out ... and get distracted. Remy and I were merrily trotting along when my eye caught a horse that was being turned out kicking up his heels and careening around. First thought (and unfortunately audible outburst): "Oh, sh*t!" - as I fully expected Remy to follow suit and and join the action indoors. Vanessa quickly gave me a strong half-halt: "Stay in your bubble!", "Remy didn't even notice what was going on outside, he was focused on his work. Your horse needs YOU to stay in YOUR bubble, otherwise he'll wonder where his person went." Oops, of course,  mea culpa, stimmt genau, Vanessa! 

We (again, I) had some difficulties in our previous lesson. For some strange reason I could not get a decent shoulder in to the right to save my life. The harder I tried the worse it got, and my frustration mounted. It didn't help that we had a rail-bird* chiming in (which made me very cranky). Yesterday, without a rail bird in sight, we (I) were back on track, with flowing and correct shoulder-ins and half-passes.

As luck would have it, the WSJ's Wednesday edition featured an article by Elizabeth Bernstein "Hard-Earned Lessons in Endurance", subtitled "Adversity can make us braver and stronger, in sports and in life. We got advice from endurance athletes". 

I loved "Accept the Rule of Thirds" quoting Alexi Pappas, a professional long-distance runner and Olympian. She explains that when she got frustrated her coach, Ian Dobson, explained ..."when you are chasing a big goal, you are supposed to feel good a third of the time, OK a third of the time, and crummy a third of the time. If you are feeling bad all the time you are fatiguing, he said. If you are feeling good all the time, you are not working hard enough."

The other one that hit home was from Blair Braverman, a dogsledder, who has completed the 1,000 mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race (amongst many others). "... After years of trying to anticipate and solve problems before they happened, Ms. Braverman realized her worry was unproductive. She decided to trust herself to successfully deal with a problem when it arose." "If I could come up with a solution while lying awake in bed at three in the morning, I could also come up with a solution on the trail - and it would probably be a better one...".

OK, to sum it up:

1) Stay in your bubble when riding

2) Accept the Rule of Thirds

3) Trust yourself to successfully deal with a problem

4) Relax and SMILE - Says JP 😊

As JP says: SMILE! 
Saumur and his people at Waterloo, quite a few years ago

*Rail bird = Zaungast = Onlooker (often someone that gives unsolicited advice / comments)