You didn't know I'd been inspired

I can't speak for anyone else, but I know from my life how easy it is to slide into complacency. This can be as trivial as procrastinating vacuuming the house, or that To Do list that just keeps piling up. The proverbial "sweeping it under the rug" syndrome. We're all guilty of this but laziness just feels so good sometimes.

Let me put this in horse world context for a minute. This is that liminal time between horse shows where you've finally recovered from the long summer campaign and you need to ramp up for the onslaught of the spring circuit.

Merriam - Webster provides an excellent definition of liminal:

liminal : of, relating to, or being an intermediate state, phase, or condition : in-between, transitional

This is really the difference between losing and winning. It's that liminal time between show seasons where you decide if you want to reach the next level in your training, or if you're just going to coast along until spring hits and problems arise. 

I read a great article on Facebook this week that had an affect on me. If you don't follow Noelle Floyd, here is a link: https://nfstyle.com/meredith-michaels-beerbaum-two-ways-short-riders-can-maximize-their-height-in-the-ring/

For those of you who haven't been around me, I'm pretty short. 5'4" to be exact. That article was a great reminder this week. It's pretty easy to ride with short stirrups when you're training a lot of babies. I like having my pedals as it gives me something to brace on when I need it. But this can result in crunching our leg up and riding with a lot of lower leg contact. 

Then add Vertigo to the equation. When he's in the ring, he loves to run and jump. At home, unfortunately, he's the exact opposite. If I'm being brutally honest he's really just an overgrown pony. He loves his food and has no real motivation to participate in any kind of flat work. Flatting him can be a cardio workout in itself. Unbeknownst to him, I read the aforementioned article before riding him one day. I don't think he knew what hit him. To quote Meredith, "The horse should maintain its speed until you tell it to slow down. That's a really important point". I dropped my stirrups a hole, took my lower leg off and worked him. Hard. It was probably half way through the ride when he realized I wasn't relenting until he got motivated. As I was cantering around drilling the shell shocked boy, I may have stated, "You didn't know I'd been inspired", to which Bridie told me I needed to write another blog post. So here I am. 

Humour aside, there is a major truth here. Practice makes perfect. We have to put ourselves in a place to make mistakes, so we can fix them. We need to read articles and watch videos of idols until we can emulate them. Cantering laps around the ring, doing half-assed transitions and calling it quits is NEVER going to solve problems. Set up bounces, poles courses and skinny boxes. Pull out the ugliest stuff you can find and jump it. Put your horses in a position to make mistakes and then train them how to do it correctly. Train yourself how to ride it right, the first time. Be a thinking rider that has a plan before you've even approached the exercise. Teach them to problem solve and stay in your aids. If you want a lesson to go sideways fast, set up skinny boxes on a long canter and watch your hot horses fall apart when you put all the aids on and tell them to stay in the middle. I promise you that'll do it every time. 18" can be significantly more difficult than 1.60m. Practice until you get it right. Then practice till it's perfect.  

When rubber meets pavement this January, I don't want to be left in a cloud of dust because that false sense of security seeped into my riding. Don't be complacent. Be inspired. I think you'll surprise yourself.