11/29/13

Nothing to fear but fear itself.

I'm planning to ride tomorrow and hopefully the next day. 54 degrees and sunny, the warmest it's gonna get for awhile. ;) Plus I have to start working him for the parade, mom has to get Spirit around some loud stuff to make sure he won't flip and I just need to rideeeee. Or I'll go insane.

Someone posted a photo on Pinterest that said "Nothing to fear but fear itself." and I realized how important that quote is to me in this horse world and industry. Fear has been my box. I keep myself from doing stuff, fun stuff or just stuff that I have to do in order to improve, because of fear. I didn't trot my horse for the first couple months because, I'm not gonna lie, I was afraid that I'd fall somehow. After all, what had I heard every single day since I became his owner? "His trot is the roughest thing ever." "His trot is horrible." "You'll never be able to sit his trot." but here's the thing. I'm a really impatient and determined person. When people say I can't do something? I prove to them that, yes, I can do it, and I'll do it better than you. Not for pride or to be a jerk, but just to prove to myself that I have worth in this world. That I can be just as good as those people I look up to.

Ever since I was little, there were a few disciplines I wanted to try. Western Pleasure was first on the list but now I realize that I'd hate WP with a passion. I'm not into the glitz and glamor, I'm into my horse. Barrel racing always looked amazing because my mother did it, but I realized that other than an admiration, I have no passion for it. But I always wanted to rodeo. What does that leave? Roping. I love roping. And guess what? I ended up with a horse that was more than likely bred to be a roper. That horse has an eye for goats and cows. He see's them? He lights up like a christmas tree and KNOWS, I mean knows, what to do. And in his 12 years, he maybe had 2 of them on a ranch. That's obviously in his blood. But everyone said that he'd be too lazy to do it. Like I couldn't get my horse to lope, let alone gallop! But, I wasn't gonna let that fly. But then, every time we were so close to loping, I would chicken out. His trot is super fast. I'm not gonna lie, his trot is the fastest I've ever ridden. But I HAVE to canter my horse. Giving up isn't an option and I have him, it's my job to give up fears in order to keep my horse happy, healthy and worked. Plus, despite what everyone thought, I knew my horse had that potential. It just took awhile for everyone to see past his AMAZING mind and see that he had an amazing work ethic as well. So, little by little, I gave up fear.

We were racing the horses, Red stayed at a trot of course. We took off towards Red's favorite place, the back pasture. Red LOVES to run up in the back pasture. We do the majority of our hill work there. First, we went around the hill and went up the shorter one and he started loping. I pulled him back after literally one beat and "AM" looked at me like "what are you doing?". I kept trotting and finally, Red had enough of me and wanted to GO. He loped. Totally without my permission and I admit I probably should have stopped him and said, no, you lope when I tell you to, but nope. Too much fun. We only did it for a few seconds and I  made sure to give him lots of pats even though he was a bad pony and did it totally randomly. Guess what? I totally didn't die. After a YEAR of horse ownership.....FINALLY. I loped my horse. After that? My fears were 99.9% gone. The next two Saturdays? I was galloping around like a crazy person and enjoying my horse like I had never done before. Fear isn't going to hold me back, and I know without a doubt that I was right you naysayers and my horse won't be holding him back, if anything, I'm holding him back.

I wouldn't care if Red was still lazy because he's Red and he means the absolute world to me, but I'd just like to say this-To the people that said he would always be scrawny and bald and ugly and lazy? HE proved y'all wrong. I didn't do a single thing except make him work and let him enjoy it. And now, my horse is better than yours. ;) (Joking I'm not THAT prideful but in my mind, yes, he's better because he's mine.)
It's said we have nothing to fear but fear itself...
 


3 comments:

  1. Riding is an extremely mental sport, and I know my fears hold me back. But once you break through it (whatever "it" happens to be) it's an amazing feeling!

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    1. I totally agree!! Everyone seems to think that all we do is just sit there, but even if that were the truth and riding wasn't hard physically-which is a bunch of garbage, if it's not hard why is no-stirrups such a literal pain?-then we'd still have to deal with so much mentally. Lame horses, fears, schedules...

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  2. Very true post :) Sometimes fear gets in the way of our goals but that just means we have to push ourselves through that to get to the next level!
    Don't ever let anyone tell you that you aren't good enough, you certainly are.

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