When I was 10 years old I got to compete in my first horse show. My horse, Vincent, and I had been preparing for 6 long months and were ready to get our feet wet at our first "fun" show. The day started out actually pretty well: we had won our Showmanship and Walk-Trot class and felt ready to conquer the Egg and Spoon class.
For those who've never attended a "fun" show, the Egg and Spoon class is basically an egg and spoon race on horses. The announcer gives you commands, and the rider who is the last person to lose the egg off their spoon wins. Well being on the high from our "big wins" Vincent and I received got our egg and spoon and prepared to win another class.
The class started with about 20 other horse and riders and after a series of walks, trots, stops, only 4 remained, Vincent and I being one of them. My egg hadn't even wobbled once, and I felt I had this class in the bag. Then the announcer said a 4 letter word that still haunts me to this day: lope.
Now, I had only been loping for a couple weeks, but not wanting to purposefully drop my egg and lose I stuck in my little spur and gave the kiss command. After about 2 strides of loping I watched heartbroken as my precious egg wobbled then tumbled off of my spoon and cracked on the dirt below us. More focused on the descent of my egg, I forgot all about my little spur that was still dug hard into Vincent's side.
Here's the thing about spurs: they work great until you forget to release the pressure, and surprisingly my little leg was putting in more pressure than Vincent and myself anticipated. Vincent quickly became agitated with me, and it wasn't long before I was getting thrown into the air in the middle of the arena, landing hard on my back in the dirt. Realizing what he had done, Vincent stopped about 4 feet from me and stood patiently/nervously waiting for what was to come.
As I laid in the dirt and dust I soon began to feel the loud deep sobs come from deep inside me. My back hurt bad. I was filthy. I was humiliated. I was mad. I was stunned. I was confused. I was scared. How could things have gone so wrong in such short of time?
Luckily, it didn't take about 2 minutes before my dad was running into the arena to my rescue. He didn't say a word but simply helped me up, brushed off the dirt on my back, gave me a boost back into the saddle, and led me and Vincent out of the arena.
To say that I left that arena and went right back to loping as if nothing happened would be a lie. It took A LOT of late night evenings with my instructor and even more bouts of courage to even get me to lope at home let alone a show (which was still an inner fear during my show career even 8 years later). However, we did get there eventually and there are 3 key things I took from that day that I apply to every day life.
1. Don't dwell on a falling egg- If I had paid more attention to my actions and less on a little insignificant egg, I would probably not have fallen flat on my ass (literally). That egg can relate to so many other little hiccups in life we encounter. If we dwell solely on those little things, it can lead to missing the big picture or even cause a bigger problem. It's best to just leave them in the dust behind us.
2. When you're down, you can reach out for help- No matter how hard/fast life brings you down, there will always be someone to reach out a hand to help you back up. Don't be too proud or embarrassed to grab onto that hand and find your bearings. They don't need to baby you or feel sorry for you. They need to help you up and then push you to reach your potential.
3. Always get back into the saddle- After getting bucked off half of me wanted to leave that show and never get on another horse again. However, the other half knew that if I did not get back into that saddle right away I would become a "quitter" and find ways to back out when things got tough. It might take one day, one week, or even one year but things will work out if you stick with it.
For those who've never attended a "fun" show, the Egg and Spoon class is basically an egg and spoon race on horses. The announcer gives you commands, and the rider who is the last person to lose the egg off their spoon wins. Well being on the high from our "big wins" Vincent and I received got our egg and spoon and prepared to win another class.
The class started with about 20 other horse and riders and after a series of walks, trots, stops, only 4 remained, Vincent and I being one of them. My egg hadn't even wobbled once, and I felt I had this class in the bag. Then the announcer said a 4 letter word that still haunts me to this day: lope.
Now, I had only been loping for a couple weeks, but not wanting to purposefully drop my egg and lose I stuck in my little spur and gave the kiss command. After about 2 strides of loping I watched heartbroken as my precious egg wobbled then tumbled off of my spoon and cracked on the dirt below us. More focused on the descent of my egg, I forgot all about my little spur that was still dug hard into Vincent's side.
Here's the thing about spurs: they work great until you forget to release the pressure, and surprisingly my little leg was putting in more pressure than Vincent and myself anticipated. Vincent quickly became agitated with me, and it wasn't long before I was getting thrown into the air in the middle of the arena, landing hard on my back in the dirt. Realizing what he had done, Vincent stopped about 4 feet from me and stood patiently/nervously waiting for what was to come.
As I laid in the dirt and dust I soon began to feel the loud deep sobs come from deep inside me. My back hurt bad. I was filthy. I was humiliated. I was mad. I was stunned. I was confused. I was scared. How could things have gone so wrong in such short of time?
Luckily, it didn't take about 2 minutes before my dad was running into the arena to my rescue. He didn't say a word but simply helped me up, brushed off the dirt on my back, gave me a boost back into the saddle, and led me and Vincent out of the arena.
To say that I left that arena and went right back to loping as if nothing happened would be a lie. It took A LOT of late night evenings with my instructor and even more bouts of courage to even get me to lope at home let alone a show (which was still an inner fear during my show career even 8 years later). However, we did get there eventually and there are 3 key things I took from that day that I apply to every day life.
1. Don't dwell on a falling egg- If I had paid more attention to my actions and less on a little insignificant egg, I would probably not have fallen flat on my ass (literally). That egg can relate to so many other little hiccups in life we encounter. If we dwell solely on those little things, it can lead to missing the big picture or even cause a bigger problem. It's best to just leave them in the dust behind us.
2. When you're down, you can reach out for help- No matter how hard/fast life brings you down, there will always be someone to reach out a hand to help you back up. Don't be too proud or embarrassed to grab onto that hand and find your bearings. They don't need to baby you or feel sorry for you. They need to help you up and then push you to reach your potential.
3. Always get back into the saddle- After getting bucked off half of me wanted to leave that show and never get on another horse again. However, the other half knew that if I did not get back into that saddle right away I would become a "quitter" and find ways to back out when things got tough. It might take one day, one week, or even one year but things will work out if you stick with it.