Keeping an open Mind

Finally today the rain had stopped and I was excited to go out and work with Spade. Unfortunately his round pen was too wet. The ground in Spades pen is the only area on the place that is not sand. It must be a mixture of clay or something because it is really slick and it always takes an extra day to dry out. This would bum me out but I know that he is very close to the point that I can saddle him and start riding so I am not going to be to worried about the ground soon. I really don't like days off, I have a tendency to over think on days I can't do anything. I usually read to much Facebook and get to many ideas of what I can do next. I think that many of the mustang trainers will agree with me that the battle in your mind is more then half the battle. In competition in general you have to believe in yourself and try to keep up your confidence, but with this type of competition it is a rare thing and people have more then enough to say. It would shock you at the comments that I have heard from different people...good and bad. Mustangs haven't ever had a decent reputation. Even the few famous ones are coined as flukes. This opens the door for all the naysayers. I can't tell you how many times I have heard "What do you want a mustang for???" or "Your crazy" which normally comes after I explain why I have a mustang. On the other hand I have tons of support, which are most of you that keep up with Spade here on the blog. I am thankful for those people because it give me emotional ammo when the negative thoughts try to creep in. The truth is that this is a really awesome competition and I am super excited if I even make a show with Spade at it. Even that is worth all that I have learned so far. Even now I can see HUGE differences in the way that I train just because of what Spade has taught me. It is a challenge to keep believing that I can compete in this. I have never been a real fan of judged competitions. It is very easy to feel inadequate and to fold under the pressure of someone else rating every move. It is like taking a test and I have never been a test taker. Then to see some of the amazing trainers that i will be competing against? Whoa. I would much rather run against a clock. One of the things that I do enjoy is the discipline that it takes to train and compete at this level. I have said many times through this that every "trainer" should try to train one of these guys before they consider themselves professional. I am not going to say they are all that much harder but they will reveal holes in your own training that the domestic horses overlook.  In the last few years I have realized that in barrel racing even at a high level, the training that is required is at a much lower standard then most other disciplines. I have seen a few local barrel racers that break colts so well they could compete in any horse show and I have also seen NFR qualifiers that when asked to change leads or lope on a loose rein and they can't do it. I had the opportunity to take a lesson a few years ago from a trainer/competitor that is on the Olympic Dressage Team. She gave me a little perspective. There is more to horsemanship then just a point and go or to win a check. It is all on how you leave your horse at the end of the day. I spent a half an hour learning how to get a dressage horse from a trot to a canter. It took me that half hour and $100 dollar lesson charge to realize that I didn't ride as well as I thought. Since then I have made it my mission to learn different training technics from multiple disciplines. I believe that there is something that we can learn from every discipline that would make a better horse. In rodeo in general there seems to be an attitude or an ego that everyone knows all they need to know about riding if they have been competing for five or six years. Truth is it takes 20 years for some of us to figure out that we have only scratched the surface. Some never get it. I was recently at a large barrel race and I saw the same scenario come though the gates time and time again. The rider would come out give the horse the completely wrong cue and then snatch and spank them like it was the horses fault. I have to tell you this has always bothered me but that day it brought me to tears. All I could think about was Spade and all the instincts that he came with and all the new faces of emotions that he had showed me that these animals have. I realized that most of these horses lived in fear and worked in flight mode. And at the end of the day they would be left confused and frustrated in their stalls all for the lack of riding skills of their owner. Thankfully we ride a very forgiving and loving breed of horse. The said part is that most riders will drive back to their barns complaining about how stupid their horses are and not even look into the fact that they are the ones that are creating the problem. Their horse is only listening to cues or the lack thereof and trying to please. And most of the issues aren't what happened in the pen, it stems all the way back to lack of horsemanship in the training and the maintenance of the horse. I tell my students all the time...it is really easy to buy a winner and go make some money but it isn't easy to maintain a winner. A winning horse has to have a balanced mind and a solid routine to stay the way they are.
Sorry about the small tangent but things like this is the reason that I am competing in this challenge. I want to become the best trainer I have in me. When I entered this event I decided that all egos aside I was here to learn. Whether I think someone is better then me or not I will listen to all their ideas and most of all listen to Spade. I also listen to the One that created him, because he knows this horse better than anyone ever will. My main job is to keep an open mind and an open heart to anyone that wants to share and then make my decision on what is best for Spade. So far by doing that I have learned alot and made some really great friends in the process.

An old barrel friend of mine once told me "There will always be some that is better than you and some that are not, but don't let anyone say they worked harder."