For those who have not yet made it to the big kid world, let me clue you in on a little fact; it’s rough.
About 2 months ago, tenacity and bullheadedness gave me a spot on the coaching staff of the world’s second best equestrian team. Since then I have been trying to sort out in my head how does one teach people who are a few years younger, or even the same age as me!
I tell you that story to share this one, Wednesday was yet another wonderful 7:30 am lesson with my girls. One of my horsemanship riders was trying her absolute hardest to grasp the trick of effectively using her leg; while bareback.
Persistently she rode through the paces, every once in a while needing a little help from the reins to balance herself. About halfway through the lesson she slipped pretty drastically and abandoned the “pretty princess” look to grab her horse and stay on. Exasperatedly she told me, “I just don’t understand why I can’t get this.”
I told her adamantly that she was doing great and that it was a very tough exercise not mastered overnight. That answer didn’t seem to cut it for her as she was still bummed with her performance.
I looked at her completely straight faced and said, “I have 23 years’ experience and several world championships; darlin’ I still grab the saddle horn in half my sliding stops.”
She chuckled and said “really?”
My reply, “When things go sketchy, just grab mane.”
She laughed and ended up finishing her lesson beautifully.
Later that week, the metaphorical straw broke the camel’s back, as I was frantically chasing my loose dog through the neighborhood, the entire scene caused me to break into hysterical giggles. Who wouldn’t laugh at a fully grown woman chasing a 25 lb dog around the block, barefoot in half makeup? They say laughter is the best medicine, so I figure my blood pressure should be a few points lower now.
I realized that that advice was pretty applicable to everyday life too. If everything is not working out perfectly like you hoped, just grab mane and hang on!