Trust Your Gut
I went around the arena, listening to the clinician as he offered pieces of advice and subtle cues to add – more pressure in the outside rein here, more flexion through my ankle there. I plodded around like a potato on my horse’s back and he was clearly not having any of it. After a while, I transitioned him a walk and the clinician went silent. Either what they were saying just wasn’t clicking in my brain or I was just too dense to understand the concept. My horse was tense – I could hear him chomping nervously on the bit. He jigged in place instead of walked. Everything we’d done in the minutes before to try to build him up into harder work had stressed him mentally… to the max.
As a rider who paid to participate in the clinic with an upper-level trainer, I felt a short wave of embarrassment overtake me. I’m a lower-level rider. I’m producing this horse myself. I was here to learn – as much as one can in a 45-minute session with a trainer who doesn’t know me, my background or my horse. And I did learn. Truly, I did. But no matter how good this clinician was, he wasn’t going to fix all my problems that day.
IMO.
I pulled my horse down into the walk because we’d had enough. A younger version of myself would have just muscled though, likely manhandling the horse in a last-ditch effort to try to look like I was worth something. But this older, wiser and slightly pudgier version of me was there for my horse and no one else. Soldiering on through the exercise wasn’t going to help either one of us. There was no pushing him into success. The success came from realizing my horse had hit his limit, and calling it a day so we could process and learn from what we’d just struggled through. I trusted my gut that I knew what was best for my horse.
I love going to clinics and getting the chance to learn from some of the best in our sport. I pick up tidbits of information each time, and I work with a trainer who knows me, my horse, and our strengths and weaknesses, longer term. But I’m the one with the reins in my hands. It look a long time to listen to my horse and trust my gut – knowing when to make a decision independently based on what my horse needs in that moment. And I’m glad I did that day.
This hot take originally published in the Heels Down Spark in June 2021. Get more conversation starters in your inbox every weekday morning by subscribing to the Spark now.