NCHA

Frustration – we all get that way

The heat is making me crazy. Well, maybe not literally but crazy none the less becasue I want to RIDE!

I was put on my first horse at about 6 months, then began riding lessons when I was around 4yrs old.  It’s funny but I can still remember some of those days. My family always hoped I would grow out of the horses.  Well, I have only grown to love them more and more with every passing year. At this point, I have made the leap into cutting horses…..oh boy what a ride!  I have ridden western pleasure horses, reining horses, hunters and about every dicipline in between.  But cutting……… it is almost indescribeable.  You have to really trust that your horse is truely trained to do its job and be able to guide your horse with only cues from your feet.   In other words, while you may have reins, you really don’t get to use them! Now I know better than to be a green rider (ok maybe not green at riding but green at cutting) and buy a green horse.  But what did I do? Yep green horse. Her name is Mini (Da Cats Whiz Kid) and I have most certainly leanred a TON from her, however I wanted to be more competitive, so I went out and got another cutting horse (PG Zorra – aka Gracie). While she is lite years ahead of Mini, she is still on the green side and while I am more competitive, I am a whole lot more frustrated!!!  Not in a bad way, but in that “can we just hurry up and figure out how to do this already” way.

Frustration, we encounter it everyday in our lives, I guess it really boils down to how we deal with it.  Personally I have come to the realization that while I may be frustrated to the

heavens, I am still improving everyday.  Gracie, I am sure has been way frustrated with me, but she is such a good sport, she just goes on. I am having to remember that while I know what direction I need to go, I may not get there in the next 5 minutes. It may be days, weeks or even months (oh I hope not!) before we get it right and score where we need to. The same is true with non-riding frustrations. Being frustrated is ok, it means you are at least doing something, you just have not figured out the way that the puzzle pieces truely fit together yet. Deep breaths seem to help, what is happening is no one’s fault necessarily, but rather the timing is not right. This is a hard concept to wrap your head around, without flat out getting mad.  I have leared to make it constructive for myself – like the puzzle – let it be a game.

Riding has taught me so many things, and not all of them are just about horses.  Many life lessons have come from my time with my horses, the current one is dealing with, working through and being ok with my frustrations.