Making Strides: The Good, The Bad, and (Sometimes) The Ugly

I’m one of those people that spends a lot of time searching through the “Inspirational Quotes” section of Pinterest. Everyone knows the boards I’m talking about. The ones chocked full of reminders to “believe in ourselves”, “be confident”, and “to stop living in the past”. I literally have an entire board devoted solely to “Sayings For Life”. I’m pushing well over four hundred pins on that board alone (it’s still not beating my Disney board though. That one has one thousand pins at least). That’s why most of my post to this blog include a quote of some kind, either at the beginning, somewhere in the middle, or at the end. I just have too many good, applicable ones to choose from!

I’m finding out, though, that where I’m gleaning true inspiration isn’t on the endless boards of feel good quotes on Pinterest, but from real life experiences. And for me, there is no place I have seen this better than at the barn.

Some of my favorite quotes I have saved online have to do with the idea of progressing. Whether it is progressing through a skill, a job, or even just life in general; I am a person that thrives on progress. I think that’s why I love teaching so much. Being able to work with a student over a prolonged period of time and seeing them move from “point A” to “point B” is one of the most satisfying things I have had the pleasure of doing in my life. I just love the feeling I get when one of my students learns a new skill or meets a goal that we have set out for them! There’s nothing better to me as an instructor!

So one day, when I was racking my brain trying to think of a topic for a new blog post, I started to ponder upon just how different the road to success is for each and every student that I have in my classes. It always amazes me how some of my students have been able to whiz right through the skills and progress quickly while in the same class I have some that need more nurturing and practice to be able to achieve the same end result. This realization really stopped me in my tracks and made me think about how many different roads I have traversed and how many hurdles I had overcame with each of my students in the past year of riding. While it makes me smile to think about how much each of them has blossomed and grown since I started teaching, it also made me grimace a bit to think about just how flabbergasting some days were. And how I wouldn’t change any of it for anything!

One of the amazing things about progress is that it isn’t something that has to be achieved quickly, but once started, for maximum results, you have to be willing to stick with it for the long haul. There have been many days in the past year when my job is still going well after classes have ended for the day. I can’t tell you how many nights on my forty-five minute drives home from the barn that I have spent deep in thought about how to overcome a hurdle that I have come up against with a student. My iPhone permanently has the words “therapeutic riding” programmed into its predictive text bar from all the hours I have spent scanning through articles and websites to find ideas to help my riders progress. As teachers, our jobs never truly end when we leave the arena. But I think we can all agree that we wouldn’t have it any other way.

But let me say, it’s the best feeling in the world when one of my students finally “gets it”. Trotting without a hand hold, building up the muscles needed to sit up straight in the saddle, riding off lead for the first time; I can’t even tell you how often I just stand in the middle of the arena and say to myself: “Wow! Look how far these riders have come!”

Now, that’s not to say all progress is easy and comes without any headaches involved. There have been many times in the past year that I have had to remind myself to be patient with my students and allow them to learn and grow at their own paces. Progress isn’t something you can force. It’s something you nurture and allow to blossom on its own time and in its own way. No two riders will progress in the same way and at the same speed. If you say they will, you’re fooling yourself. It just doesn’t happen like that.

In the past year I have endured temper tantrums, whining, screaming, you name it; I’ve probably seen it in at least one of my classes while working through a skill. And I’ll admit, there have been times where my excitement to see a student progress has gone over the top. That in itself though is a chance to personally progress in my own life in the way of reminding myself that we each grow in our own way and on our own time.

As I said earlier, I like to include a quote in each of my blog posts. So without further ado, let’s turn it back over to my “Sayings For Life” Pinterest board to finish us out with one of my favorite sayings:

“Don’t compare your chapter 1 with someone else’s chapter 20”.