Winning IS everything!

Three weeks! Wow it is catching up! I have been working day and night on Spade. They last few days we have been working on his circling problem. I am so thankful for the many eyes we have around here that can tell what Spade and I are doing right and wrong. This was a hard thing to fix but I think we are almost there. I was upset at Spade in the beginning and frustrated that he wouldn't slow down. He was also running away in the turns. Later that night I got on a training horse and started having the same two problems with her. I quickly realized that it was me and the way I was riding. Not sure what changed but I am riding the colts differently then I normally do. I am having a lack of shoulder control and a lack of speed control. I finally figured out that for one I am running around holding by breath. For those that don't ride. If you hold your breath the horse runs faster. But it isn't easy to talk your self into breathing while running circles. Not sure why I am doing it but I am working on my riding skills to stop it. I still have a long way to go. Mary hopped on him the other night and felt him out. She realized that the shoulder leading problem that he had was even when he was walking and trotting. I thought that it was just a problem at the lope. She told me how she fixes this issue and it was the same thing that someone else told me earlier that day. Since I have never had this issue before then I came at it with an open mind and tried it. Last night I pulled him out and he was much better. So the drill worked. I will work on it again tonight to see how he does. Once I get him loping and doing the majority of the required moves then I will start on Magpie again. I am feeling the pressure from all sides. I really want to do well and I know that I have a very short time to finish him. He is such a great horse. He is by far the best trained horse on my place when it comes to the basics. There are things that I am going on him that I wouldn't even try on some of my barrel horses. I hope we get it all soon. The thing that I keep learning over and over is when things aren't working out for you there is nothing wrong with saying that you need help. It seems to be our nature in this part of the country to have the "leave me alone, I've got it" attitude. Over the last few years I have watched people that have that attitude go "no where quick". A good trainer once told me that if you want to be a great trainer then you hang out with great trainers. That is true, but I always add... "and pay attention". When I started this mustang challenge I saw there where many trainers that did things that I have never seen before. Some were very intriguing to me. I decided from the beginning that I would listen and watch with an open mind and then let my gut (which is usually the Holy Spirit talking.) tell me if I needed to learn that technic or not. Since I have been that way I have learned more in the last few months then I have in years. It is all about mentorship. Whether you believe it or not we all need mentors. I always say that we all have Paul's, Barnabas', and Timothy's in our life. The Paul's are the ones we look up too. The Barnabas' are the ones that are our peers that we lean on, and the Timothy's are the ones that we lead. If you think about it you have all three in your life. I know I have them in training and in my spiritual life. I have a wonderful young lady that has learned my way to succeed in barrels, she is like a little sponge. The Timothy's in your life are like extended children to you. Her success is my success. To make it better I have seen her grow in the Lord and find her way to a great youth group where she is a winner in life as well.  I have a great friend in my church that lives her life like I think that God wants us to live. I use her for my own accountability. Sometimes she doesn't even know it. She is one of my Barnabas'.  Then I have many trainers over the years that have helped me in my training. One of them I lost to cancer when I was a teenager, but there are times that I ride I can hear her voice in my mind as I am teaching Spade new things. I believe that we all have people that guide us whether they are present or not. Words that people say can out live them by a hundred years. We all thrive off of good influence and we all fail from bad influence. The Paul's in your life I believe are most important. They are the ones that influence you the most. I try to make sure that the people that I am learning from are not only the best at what they do that they also rely on the Lord to guide there decisions. In the long run if you pick the wrong Paul you could not only effect your life but all the little Timothy's under you.  So my question today is who is your influence? Jesus should be the main influence in our life, that is a given, but who you are around on a daily basis has an effect on who you are. I would love to give you a specific verse but really if you read in the new testament in the Bible any of Paul's letters to the church it seems to be a recurring theme to watch who you hang out with and who you allow in your midst. God takes this very serious as well.  In fact at one point Paul said, "Follow me as I follow Christ"(1 Cor 11:1) Find some one that is like Christ in the good times and the bad, in the secret and in the open. A person that has a relationship with the Lord and lives like He commands us will only benefit you in your life. I didn't mean to get on a soap box here but I know how important it is to learn to be a winner in the arena and outside the arena. And the people that you hang with can make you win or loose. Choose to win!