While sitting here whining to myself about how tired I am because I couldn’t sleep last night and how sore my legs are from yesterday’s quite interesting ride, I realized a couple of things.

• I don’t have the time to be a whiny little crybaby. Why? Because I have a horse to train. He depends on me to teach him what he needs to know to be successful.  Our success at shows counts on my hours spent at the barn.  I count on me to hold myself accountable and just show up.  And sometimes, I count on a select few others to hold me accountable too.
• Judges at the show don’t care if I was too tired to go to the barn, all they care about is how we represent ourselves in that 10 minutes we are in front of them. All the preparation for weeks, months, years even that goes on behind the scenes is represented in a 10 minute class.  That really puts things into perspective, doesn’t it?  You have very little time in front of the judge to show them what you and your horse can do.  If you show up unprepared because you were “too tired” or “too sore” to put in the work behind the scenes, that’s just an excuse for the lazy and weak.
• Maybe I should work on my 2 point a little more and I wouldn’t be quite as sore after spending a good 20 minutes in said position while Fiz trotted and galloped around with the perception that he did not need to yield to the new bit I was trying. But hey, it wasn’t a total fail as he did so on the correct leads both directions.  Some day, when he doesn’t have show shoes on, I’m going to get him in a big open field and see how fast he can run, since that’s his favorite!

As told to me earlier today by my very understanding man, “suck it up buttercup.” And that’s exactly what I am going to do.  That’s what every AOT needs to do in order to be successful.  Stop making excuses.  Stop whining.  Get to the barn and put in the work.  Your horse will thank you.  You will thank yourself later.  Your coffee / monster / redbull / 5 hour energy/ whatever you use to keep you going – inspired moments of greatness can be discussed later over a bottle of wine with friends. That’s all the motivational speaking I’ve got in me for now folks.  Maybe my next post will actually include some useful training information.  Until then, carry on friends.