EC Blog – Be Patient

 By Emily Tuma of 17 Hands Fit

This guy is my best bud.

He can be a literal pain in my Butt (like I still have the hematoma or scar tissue from our incident in May that probably will be there for life) but goodness, I love him so much.

We have come sooooo far together. I really wasn’t a very confident rider when I got with him. I mean, I could be tough enough but there were large gaps in my skill sets and understanding of riding.

We have literally reared up, bucked, ran the other direction and everything in between in so many classes the last 5 years.

But we have stuck it out. We have gone back to the drawing board. And we have worked together to find what works.

Showmanship is still our weakest class and a class he has historically tried to nibble and bite me in almost every class.

But this show, I showed in showmanship 4 times and 3 of the 4 times he did NOT try to get mouthy.

Our journey with our horses is hardly ever linear, even if we have the most talented horse and the most talented trainers.

There are always going to be peaks and dips, setbacks and highs. It’s a learning process and a journey.

And what I have found, is if you stick it out, you will see tremendous growth. Not just with your horse or even as a rider, but it carries into so many other areas.

So if there’s one thing I can impart, it’s this: be patient. And don’t expect it to come overnight or every time.

Thank you to Emily Tuma of 17 Hands Fit for sharing her experiences with The Perfect Machine, aka Bentley.  If you have an EC Blog you’d like to submit for consideration, please email Delores.Kuhlwein@EquineChronicle.com