06/07/2022
✨Resolutions for the Horse Show Competitor✨
🌟 Thou Shall Not Switch Training Programs After One Bad Run
- I know... you bought this magical unicorn that used to mark 75's like it was easy with its previous rider. You spent a lot of money. You're heading to your first show of the year and you are fixin' to mark a 78, dammit. You end up marking a 60. Your unicorn is now seemingly broken. Your trainer is looking out for you and doing their very best coaching you through runs with your limited skill set. One of the major keys to success is consistency, don't be a trainer hopper, stay the course unless you have a much more educated reason than "well I'm shoving my horse up the pen with my offside leg and for some reason my trainer is telling me to take my spurs off - they should be able to just FIX THAT, I paid a RIDICULOUS amount of money for these custom Kerry Kelley Bits & Spurs spurs and I LOVE them and will NOT take them off." We've all been there, if someone wants to send me a pair of Kerry Kelley's I probably wouldn't want to take them off either, heck I'd probably sleep in them, but maybe you should have invested in the clover-leafs, not the rock grinders.
🌟 Practice Gratitude In & Out of the Show Pen
- Be grateful for your horse, for the opportunity to show, for your friends that stay up late and cheer you on, for your family that supports you going up and down the road, for your trainer that has turned you from novice, to successful competitor, for your significant other that "forgets" that time you threw a bridle at them. Gratitude. It's really cool. Invest in it.
🌟 Hang Your Bridles Right
- I mean it, if you haven't learned how to do this yet, you need to lock yourself away in a tack room somewhere and don't come out until you know how.
🌟 Set S.M.A.R.T. Goals for the Show Season
- S: Specific
- M: Measurable
- A: Achievable
- R: Relevant
- T: Time-Bound
- It's proven that when you make sure your goals are S.M.A.R.T. and chunk them down by weeks, months or quarters so that they are more achievable than say "Only ever mark a 75 and win the World but never leave my home state/province"... you will get a whole lot farther, faster.
🌟 Don't Play The Comparison Game
- The minute you start to think to yourself something to the effect of: "well so-and-so only does well because her dad bought her that horse" or "well of course so-and-so is successful, she grew up in this sport" or "so-and-so works for a trainer, so of course she does well" or "well, if I was retired like so-and-so I would be able to do this easily too".... I have a really great trick for you. It's going to rock your world. Are you ready? I want you to find the nearest wall and bang your head against it five times. Why? Because that is the useless, hurtful and definitely odd motion that is equivalent to wasting your time comparing yourself to others. My words of advice... 1. Be happy for people in their winning season, you don't know what they've lost in their losing season. 2. If you are constantly getting beaten, sit down, re-evaluate and strategize how you can be the best competitor you can be with what you have in the moment. Whether that's ride more, go to the gym, watch more shows, take more lessons, whatever it is, start to strategize how you can be the best version of yourself. No comparison required.
🌟 Believe In Your Unicorn
- aka, have fun! Have a blast. Support the sport. Make new friends. Scare yourself by showing in new arenas. Get on your association board. Cry your eyes out when you mark your first 70, 73, 75. Celebrate your successes like you just won the friggen' world. Show everyone your new buckle. Wear your spurs to the grocery store. Take a clinic. Go to the Futurity. Go to the World Show and holler your guts out with your friends after a few cocktails (wait, who would do that? ...heathens) Either way, or anyway, or whatever way... the golden question is... Why essentially throw all this money into the air and stomp all over it, not to have the most friggen' fun you can have possible?
(reposted from Western Twist Media)