Hitching Post Farm May 17th
Normally when I am competing, I don’t hear random songs playing in my head. Although today, after competing at Hitching Post Farm, the Beach Boys, Wouldn’t It Be Nice…starting playing in the background of my mind. I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be nice if we all had horses who went down centerline perfectly, and jumped each jump on cross country without hesitation, and proceeded by following up with a lovely stadium round, all the while riding to the best of our ability? Insert hysterical laughter HERE. I always come back to this inevitable reality: even though we are addicted and mentally driven event riders, nobody ever said that eventing was as easy as pie…if it were, everyone would be tied for first place.
I spoke with several buddies today at Hitching Post. One girl said that her horse struggles in dressage, but loves to jump. I spoke with a prelim rider who had a run out on xc. I spoke with a training rider who said she crawled over the last in and out in show jumping. In other words, we all have our off days. We try and we try and we try. We work from sun up until sun down. We do our homework, we practice diligently, and just when we think we have the secret formula, we find something new in our ride that requires tweaking, or altering. This process of rearranging our puzzle pieces can be simultaneously infuriating and alluring.
Again, wouldn’t it be nice to have a perfect ride in all THREE phases? Perhaps this does occur for some competitors. Or perhaps this is a rare occurrence for anyone other than William Fox Pitt? Regardless, we win some and we lose some. If I am going to be perfectly honest here, most of us are not going to win every single event that we enter. Obviously competing does not revolve around blue ribbons, nor should it. A blue ribbon should act as icing on the cake, IF you were happy with how you and your horse performed as a team. Similarly, if you won, but felt like your ride was horrific, what use is the color blue in this instance, other than providing short lived psychological satisfaction?
Valonia…last jump school before HPF
In my opinion, learning how to cope with losing, or coming out in the bottom is far more critical than being a good winner. Learning how to be a good loser is equally as important, because at one time or another, we will all fall under this category. Competing today was a bag of mixed emotions for me. I was pleased, confused, exhausted, excited and slightly bummed out. However, feeling and/or looking completely miserable and being totally unapproachable are not desirable traits.
Even though being a sore loser seems easier at times, at the end of the day, if you and your horse are still alive, walking around, breathing and are generally in normal functioning condition, we/I/you have nothing to be that upset about. There are always more competitions and there are always going to be more opportunities. In theory, eventing offers a slew of possibilities, with more doors at every corner. On the other hand, your attitude, or general demeanor after a less than perfect outing WILL be remembered and might actually start slamming doors that lead towards opportunities. I am not pointing fingers here, but rather speaking out loud, in hopes that my own advice will resonate internally, and that others who have been in similar situations can relate and move forward!
