Ella Rak impressed us with her writing ability and fun style so much that she made it to the Final Four of EN’s 2013 Blogger Contest. As with the rest of the finalists, we invited Ella to contribute a weekly piece to the site. Thanks to Ella for writing, and thank you for reading.
Photo via: The Wonderful World of Taffy
From Ella:
Ready for Blast Off
As the summer wraps to a close, Labor Day is a reminder for me that tomorrow I have to make the dreaded transition back to hiding all things horse-related and pretend to be a normal person for 8 hours a day. As a student/equestrian, this acts as my ‘new year,’ a time for reflection on the past summer and year, and planning for the seasons to come (sometimes I forget that the Omnibus isn’t released for September through June…). Riding is truly a balancing act, no matter what is on the other side of the scale, and we all have to start planning on how to squeeze every last drop of the forever waning daylight that we can.
For me, balancing obsessing over live scores and going to school involves making lots of schedules I probably won’t stick too, and attempting to follow them until I again realize that if you make a schedule with horses, the horses will find a way to break it. I try to set goals at every stage, so that when I can’t reach the biggest ones, I always have a backup I can achieve (then a backup for the backup and so on, down to the ones I have no excuse not to reach, like reading Eventing Nation every day). Setting small goals is especially important when you have a million other tasks mandated out of your control, because even if you weren’t able to make it to that event, at least now you don’t fall off as soon as your stirrups are taken away. Being the irrational pony clubber I am, I keep a riding log so I can remember and compile all the things I learn each ride, making each time you get to sit on your horse all the more useful. If I am going to drive two hours and give up a decent chunk of sleep, it better be worth it!
Separating horses from everything else is a major challenge for me, hard as I may try, so along with goals for the upcoming season, I also have to set boundaries. Going to events every other weekend and riding 6 days a week is personally unrealistic to manage with everything else while still staying sane, and realizing where to draw that line for each person is crucial in keeping the scales even. I know if I get 5 good rides a week I should be happy, and plan my goals accordingly. Setting these boundaries is not just time-related, but also effort-related. I may be guilty of thinking more about my barn plan for the HA or what the next event is going to be, that I lose focus, so I have to set rewards for getting stuff done. ‘If I finish this paper then I get 10 minutes on Sport Horse Nation…’ and things of that sort work very well, though explaining your doodles will forever be a challenge. I also like to think about it like different hats, when you are wearing your breeches you have free rein to wander about in your horsey- mind, but when you clean up and put on normal clothes, the façade must hold up a little deeper than superficially. You can always find ways to slip your ‘equestrian chic’ into the day to day, and anyone who says, “Your ride safe bracelet doesn’t go with that” is wrong.
That leaves the reflection on the goals and achievements of the past year. History repeats itself, so looking back on the previous year is just as important as planning for the new one, with riding being no exception. Whipping out last year’s checklist is a good place to start, but I know far too well that setting goals with horses often must be done discreetly. A friend’s horse would find a way to injure herself of pull a shoe before every event, so we adopted the plan that if you don’t use the words “show” or “event” around them, and substituted the word “carrot” it would work, and low and behold it did (results not proven, but might as well try!). Other than that sometimes tricking your horse does work, that goes to show you that sometimes you have to look at things as a whole realize what you have achieved, even if there is no box to check off for it. Recalibrating your system to make that new plan of attack will be worth it in the long run, even if it does mean accepting that your string of incredibly bad luck will have to end at some point.
Enjoy the barbeques and barn splendor of today while you can, tomorrow the new year begins.
