I've been doing a lot of internet reading via blogs, Facebook and Instagram over the past few months (thanks night shift!) and a recurring theme has stuck out to me. I see a lot of "well, I mean, I'm just doing beginner novice because we're not that good" or "It's just First Level, not like I'm doing Fourth like you or anything" or "my horse has been injured so we're just coming back into work, we usually work a lot harder and look better" or "don't judge my eq, it was a bad day."
NEWS FLASH!
Done? Ok.
Now, I am 100% guilty of doing this as well. I'm in fact very, very good at saying things like "well, we didn't have an indoor so I'm just working on getting back into shape and thus look pretty terrible" and "we've got some lameness issues so we don't work that hard." Yes, yes, all good and well but the reality is it's YOUR horse. It's YOUR goals. Regardless to what someone in the barn says, or your family says, or the internet says - some days you can do this:
AKA be a total badass on your SUPER cute pony with friends cheering you on!!
(Stolen from Eventingnation.com)
Andddd.... some days you do this.
(Stolen from pintrest.com)
Goals: it's all about the perspective.
So I'd like to encourage all of you to OWN your accomplishments! Whether it's "complete my first four star without falling off," "walk around the outdoor twice without horse throwing a temper tantrum," or "keep pony from jump out of dressage ring." Guess what friends? My goal for tomorrow is to ensure Digby's shoe (that he lost on Sunday... Grr.) is back on and then go work in the round pen for 5-10 minutes to make sure I've got a go button and a whoa button so hopefully Thursday I can start Digby doing some long lining to slowly get back into shape. Yup, it's that exciting. I am going to look like a lumpy sack of potatoes holding two ropes with a skinny horse with zero muscle probably flailing around at the end of them. Maybe this time next year, I'll be working on some dressage tests to show over the summer.
But for now, this is our life. And it's going to be awesome.
This is such a good reminder and SO hard to put into practice. I think especially with everyone posting everything online, it can be easy to get sucked into comparing yourself with everyone else and feel really crappy about where you are with your horse! But you're right - each partnership is different and we all need to be proud of the things we accomplish!
ReplyDeleteYup, it's SO hard! This post actually started because I've been reading more blogs (because I've been blogging again haha) and was like "wah wah, everyone has more fun than me, their horses look nicer, Digby looks like death and I'm a bad mom for not doing more earlier, look at people lessoning and doing things, wah!!" I just felt miserable about the whole situation. After a short pep talk, in which I was like "look here young lady, stop being a baby" and "DIGBY IS GOING TO BE FINE", I started realizing that a lot of other people have this problem too. It shows through on a LOT of posts all over the internet. I figured a PSA was timely and applicable!
DeleteNewer reader, just wanted to chime in and say this is a great post. Thanks, I needed to hear this today :)
ReplyDeleteAww yay! Well welcome :D I'm glad you enjoyed it! I needed it myself earlier in the week so I figured I can't be the only one!
Deletei LOVE it! nobody can possibly care more about our accomplishments and goals than we do - so we might as well enjoy the good moments, however they might arrive :)
ReplyDelete<3 Agreed!
DeleteSo brand new reader here but standing ovation for this post! All of it. Yes. Now, to preach it to myself regularly...
ReplyDeleteHaha yes! That's the hard part!!
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