Facts over Fear

Good morning and happy December! My theme lately seems to be talking about my experiences as a horse trainer and broker so, I figured why stop now? When customers come to talk about training or even when they come to buy a new horse, it seems as though they are embarrassed to admit when they are scared. Whether their horse bucked them off previously or its just been a long time since riding, many times our customers show up with fear. I imagine they themselves are okay with their fear it’s more admitting to others (especially who ride for a living) that is the embarrassing factor. What I try to tell people is no matter what people say everyone has days they are scared. John Wayne even made a famous quote out of it.
My story insert today is dedicated to a recent training horse I had in for a month “Peppy”. Peppy came in due to bucking his owner off. When he showed up we had a horse show going on so, I didn’t get to communicate much with his owner or spend anytime with Peppy. The next morning when I went to work him for the first time, I started with ground work and I was instantly impressed. He was responsive, respectful and quiet as could be. We worked on softness and even played with some obstacles. After about 30 mins I decided it was time to tack him up, I tacked him at the arena “just in case”. He stood like a soldier. I did about 30 more minutes of ground work with my back cinch tightened up fully expecting him to have some sort of reaction… nothing. I even said out loud “I have no clue why you are here buddy, you’re great”. With probably too much confidence I walk over and just as I’m pulling myself up into the saddle Peppy explodes. Kicked me in the knee amongst his explosion. I was shocked. After some choice words… sorry Peppy… and significant more work on softening I told myself I needed to try again, that’s why he is here after all. I felt that instant pang in my stomach.. I had convinced myself to be scared. Peppy had convinced me to be scared and I do this for a living!! After taking off my spurs, wild rag and anything else I thought could possibly be a hazard I forced myself to swallow my fear and be a calm steady hand for Peppy. I climbed back up there and kept his head softened to my knee. We made many circles like that and eventually I felt his back come down and we rode like it never happened. When I got off, I felt like a million bucks. Not because I did anything special in my training but, because I put facts over fear. I squished my fear. The facts are, I know a horse thats soft and has its head to the riders knee can’t buck, I also know I taught Peppy how to do that and do it well, I know I am strong enough to sit with Peppy as he navigates through his feelings, and most of all I know if I don’t work through this now, I never will. Peppy turned out to be one of my favorite trainers that I have had, he is just like all of us, quirky!
The rest of the month I never had fear working with Peppy. There were days he wanted to buck again but, I knew the facts and I stuck to them. While Peppy gave me a reason that day to be nervous there are also days I get nervous just because. There doesn’t seem to be a rhyme or reason as to why, it’s just how I woke up that day. We are all human. Horses or no horses, when you’re scared I encourage you to slow down, take a deep breath and think about it, what are the facts? What would you tell someone to do that was in your same situation? We don’t all have to be John Wayne (as if we could).. but, we do need to #getgritty
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