Re: Fw: RC: endurance prospect, etc.

["Maggie Mieske" <mmieske@netonecom.net>]

I do have a couple of comments to make to Whitney and Tom...if you have not
been following the thread (I have been accused of not including snippets
but there isn't just ONE thing I want to reply to)....Whitney doesn't want
to push her horse to win and Tom is saying To Win is to Win....
ok...I still love the motto "to finish is to win"....but I sure don't mind
winning in addition to finishing if my horse and I are capable of doing it
and doing it well (in that my horse is sound and happy doing it).
My story is this...after that accident I mentioned on my horse earlier in
the thread on helmets....I lost A LOT of confidence...didn't really realize
it.  My husband/pit crew would often ask me what was wrong?  Why was I
going so slow?  I could do better...made me mad as hell cuz I felt he was
being too competitive and after all, "I" was the rider, not him!!!  Took me
a long time to realize this about myself.  I had always been fearless when
I was younger and now that I was older and in light of my spill, I was
simply afraid.  The fighting I was doing with my horse at the beginning of
a ride was MY fault, not my horse's fault.  I was holding him back.  When I
gradually started to let him "do his own thing", he amazed me!  He may not
be a national competitor but he certainly is nothing for me to be ashamed
of either!!  I have worked on letting him do his own thing even on
conditioning rides (not quite the same thing but I had to consciously
practice getting over that fear of going too fast) and I feel we have both
progressed wonderfully.  I can now "ask" him for a bit more and I usually
get it.  Sometimes he "asks" me for more and I let him.  I can't wait to
see what we do this year...I don't expect to blow away the competition but
I do expect we will present a good showing with perhaps some top ten
placings (with more than TEN riders!) and I expect my confidence to grow. 
I am not saying that you are necessarily afraid, Whitney, so please don't
think I am trying to judge you.  But it's food for thought.  Are you riding
to your horse's ability or to your ability (or perhaps level of comfort
might be better stated?)?  That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!  :)


Maggie Mieske
Mieske's Silver Lining
10601 S. Richards Rd.
McBain, Michigan 49657
http://www.netonecom.net/~mmieske
mmieske@netonecom.net