Having Faith in Yourself

Wow, is that a powerful statement. This is no easy task. To have faith in yourself and trust yourself to know what is best for you. That is a hard thing to achieve on a daily basis, day in and day out.  Some days you feel like climbing under a rock and hiding out until the storm passes, or when you feel like the walls are caving in sometimes. The intensity of the stress from daily everyday monotony takes over. You become robotic and do what is needed to get things done. You learn to muddle through the best you can with a smile on your face. It will all get better tomorrow. It’s another day and a new beginning. Those are the days when you unwrap what faith lies within yourself. You know you must do your best to know what is right for you and your loved ones. Those loved ones include our horses. It is sometimes hard to make the judgment call. To know what to do as a trainer to bring a horse to a solid training foundation so the horse can retain and then begin to learn. For those horses who have had a bad start, bad rap, bad ownership, or just generally are spoiled or lazy sometimes that task seems monumental. Horse training has helped me in so many other areas of my life. The decisions alone have made me grow up so fast and become incredibly responsible. I find myself trying to instill this need to help others who are coming up the ranks, or learning how to ride, or just strictly need guidance in their daily life. Horse training and riding in general have really shaped me into who I am today. Its discipline, hard work and determination have been instrumental, but most of all it taught me to have faith in myself. To believe that against all odds, when I feel like I am at this alone, I just have to dig a little deeper to keep pushing on. My goals and dreams seem so far away but, little by little, I start to chisel away at them, piece by piece. But, isn’t that true with any part of life? Are horses the secret to giving us the faith we need to become better for those we care about? Are they our teachers in life? We struggle with the daily issues of every day life, bills, jobs, children, family, and spouses. All of those things that bring us such joy at moments can bring us such moments of confusion or even hurt as to why they are not cooperating , listening, lending a hand, giving us a break, a reward, a compliment. Why is the pressure on to make everyone happy? You go about your business every day. You try to do right by everyone but you feel the nudge or the push and pull. You feel confined and you are looking for relief to get away from what seems like it is insignificant. Why is that task so important to someone else? It’s really not that important to you. You have other priorities that are far more appropriate for that time, and yet you’re backed into a corner with no way out. You have to make a decision, and you are scared if it’s wrong, you will feel even worse. The spiral of thoughts begins, muscles tremble and quiver and you feel your heart rate rise. You take a guess as to what you think is correct only to find you are stuck repeating what you just did because you are being are asked to repeat  something that wasn’t your idea in the first place. You struggle again, and you feel the tension building, you make another guess and you are let down one more time, only to find that it is now or never. You must make the correct choice. You finally have guessed what they all needed from you. It wasn’t at all what you thought; In fact you aren’t even sure what you did to receive that nice compliment you got and a pat on the back for a job well done.  The cycle begins again. Does any of this sound familiar?? It may sound a little extreme, but this is your horse’s mind talking. This is how they rationalize things that we set out for them to accomplish. We set goals, standards, and we look for things to get better, make improvement and get to the top of our priority list. The horse, in all its amazing glory, could really care less. We are what sets the high standards. We are the ones who need to reach the goals. For horses, it is a funny thing to think about but, in all their wisdom and understanding, maybe they have most of their faith in us. They rely on us to make decisions for them. The best care, the best riding, the best of everything. They look to us for guidance, and look for the standard that we set in which they need to follow. If we don’t have faith in ourselves to do right by the horse, then how is the horse supposed to do right by our requests. Having faith in your partner is one of those things we all seem to take for granted. We get so wrapped up in the bigger picture and the higher standard that we forget what we are dealing with. When the pressure begins to build we need to allow the horse to make the decision and have a little faith in what they can accomplish. This is true for all life’s lessons. Sometimes when you feel like things are caving in around you, just have a little faith…your horse does. When the pressure is on and you need to make a decision, have a little faith…your horse does. When your loved ones just don’t quite understand what you are trying to say or they don’t understand your point of view, just have a little faith…your horse does.If you feel like you have instilled all these wonderful values in someone and they have let you down because they make mistakes, yes… have a little faith…your horse does. The next time you feel like you need a boost, a change of heart, a bout of courage, a moment to remind someone what they stand for, a minute to just be you to digest what you are and how you got to this moment, have a little faith in what you do, how you got there, and who you are. You are not alone. Give your horse a great big hug and tell them it is because of their faith in you that you are who you are today!