Back in February, we introduced Shannon Lilley as EN’s newest guest blogger. With Ballingowan Pizzaz, Shannon represented the USA at the 2011 Pan Ams, helping win the team gold medal. Unfortunately, just after her EN debut, Shannon had emergency back surgery to repair her L5 disk in her spinal column. Doctors expect her to make a full recovery but she could potentially be out of riding for up to 6 months. Despite the injury and resulting change of plans to her competition season, Shannon remains in good spirits with a healthy perspective on life…something we should all keep in mind. Thank you for writing, Shannon, and thank you for reading.
Greetings from the west coast!
I realize it has been a very long time since my last post but I am back. John wrote about my situation six weeks ago and while I have no desire to talk about my situation, I do feel that being injured forces a person to go through a period of reflection and we should all be so lucky. As riders, or moreover, professionals, we live our lives for the horse and the sport of Eventing allowing ourselves to get very caught up in reaching the competitive goal for that season or doing what’s right to impress selectors, coaches, etc that we forget about the fact that we are so lucky to make our living doing what we love to do. With that comes a special kind of journey to get to those goals and the people that surround you in life have everything to do with you getting through the journey. Sometimes that journey takes you down a path where you are on a team with four fantastic people and you win a gold medal; other times you may not have such a fortunate path but no matter what there is an equal amount of good that will come out of it.
I find myself thinking the same thought Boyd Martin thought, “It could be worse.” Day in and day out I often think things could be worse. At the beginning of February I was debating the path my horses and I should take this spring, and questioning what was right. Do I goes east because that is ‘what will look good’ or do I stay out west and be competitive while still being a part of our business, which is really important to me. I felt conflicted for awhile but decided what the right thing was and was ready stick with my plan. Eight days later I woke up and had a much larger predicament on my hands. Later that evening I was rushed into emergency back surgery. Let’s just say, I now realize that plans are definitely meant to be broken and there are so many other important things in life that what my spring schedule is going to be.
I wake up every day and feel very fortunate that I can go to the barn, walk around, brush my horses(the top half), teach all our wonderful clients, and yes, I actually get to go to a horse show this upcoming weekend. So things could be a lot worse… I will someday get to ride again, hopefully sooner rather than later, and hopefully will be able to function through my day like I used to but, if not, it’s okay because it could be a lot worse.
After hearing the devastating news of Amy Tryon this past week, I am also reminded how so very important it is to have this attitude. Amy was an inspiration to us all. She was an incredible competitor, horse woman, and person and will truly be missed by the Eventing community. I hope she enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed watching her. The great Jerry rice expressed his sentiments in his hall of fame speech when he said, “I was always so busy training hard, running routes, studying film, practicing all the time to be better that I never took the time to enjoy the experience or the victories.” We, as riders, may always think it is about winning and, although it helps, it is about the journey. We don’t always get to choose our path but no matter what, there is a way to enjoy the experience of traveling down it.
Like I said, I get to go to Twin Rivers this weekend to help Dayna coach and cheer on our Area VI Young Riders as they prepare for their last qualifier this spring so you will be hearing more updates from me!
Go Eventing!
