Jon and I both knew that his first Eventing Nation blog post would be tough to top. But, he has given it a valiant effort and as i try to tell all of our writers–it’s not about making one perfect post, it’s about the body of work. If you don’t know Jon, he’s a 4* eventer, a statesman, a truly good guy, and someone I am very proud to call a long time friend. Jon along with his wife Jenn and their son Caiden operate Holling Eventing out of beautiful Willow Run Farm in Ocala, FL.
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Photo by Samantha Clark
From Jon:
Eventing is by design a goal oriented sport. The way it is organized, with various levels of difficulty and qualifications, makes the competitor strive to improve. I believe that is a good thing. I can’t think of one truly successful person who just allowed life to happen to them. Just think of the most successful person you know. I guarantee that they are a driven person. I even talk about this with my own students when we walk the cross country course. I tell my students to be sure to not let the course happen to them, but instead go out and attack the course.
Most of the young riders I teach have the dream of riding for their country at the Olympics. I also aspire to achieve that goal so we share in the pursuit. However, it is important to have multiple and progressive goals in addition to this one. When I first decided to go for it and try to become a professional in this sport, I got all kinds of advice from my friends who were already pros. One of those people was my good friend Kyle Carter. Kyle has given me numerous pieces of advice over the years. Shockingly, some of it has even been useful! The most relevant thing that he ever told me was to be sure that I enjoy riding the novice through preliminary horses as much as I enjoy riding the Intermediate and Advanced horses. His point was that unless you get extremely lucky, you will be riding far more young or green horses than you will upper level ones. I take this into account every day as I head out to my barn or to teach a clinic. It is far too easy to get caught up in the big dream of the Olympics and forget to appreciate where you are and the small successes that brought you to this point.
If I can pass along one piece of advice to future competitors in this sport it would be too enjoy the daily process. This could be the training of a young horse, or the improvement of your seasoned competitor. When you train a young horse and help it to understand how to go “on the bit” or to calmly jump a fence, you need to appreciate that you set a goal and that you were successful in seeing it through. I see many students get frustrated with their horses because they are simply green. Be certain when you step into the stirrups for the day, that you remind yourself how fortunate you are to be riding at all. Then set out what your goals are for that day. They may be as simple as teaching your horse to walk calmly around the ring, or to trot around the show jumps without spooking. Whatever you feel that horse needs to improve its understanding and ability to do its job should be your goal for the day. If you take that simple idea forward on a daily basis you will in the end discover you have a very educated, and even more importantly, happy horse. Whatever your long term goals may be, don’t forget to set logical and progressive short term goals. Your horse will thank you. You will find that when you learn to appreciate the daily small successes, the larger aspirations will become closer to a reality.
