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Making sense of a double-nickel
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| (Wednesday, 11 August 2010) Written by heather |
| This past weekend I rode in a horseshow and got franklyhorrible scores. I felt the scores werefair and reflected accurately my riding of each test. Were I to have considered my goal for theshow to win my classes, it would have been an unsatisfying outcome. So, on the long drive home (always longer when the scoresare low), I had to remind myself that a dressage test is just that, a"test" of one's ability at a certain point in time. The reality is that my riding has improved alot over the last year and that I simply need to improve some basics andimprove my technical execution. The lowscores reflect my performance during each 7 minute test and don't reflect myability to continue to learn, to improve, and to score better in thefuture. They weren’t my best rides nordid they reflect what I’ve been able to do training at home. While we’re certainly not in the 70% range athome it is still, of course, a bit of a tough lesson and certainly not easy onone's confidence or ego to receive low scores. The teacher in me reminds myself that learning by doing isthe most effective way to learn anything. Distractions over the past summer have made it more challenging to focuson riding and training and being persistent about my daily riding goals. This fact also has bearing on myperformance. The positive side is that,like all athletes (even amateur enthusiasts!), I can work to refocus, controlmy thinking, and continue to work towards peak performance. Ultimately, as trite as it sounds, theprocess of setting a goal, learning new skills, and seeking to achieve a goalis very rewarding. That may not be asapparent when looking at the test where I earned a double-nickel, but the show’soutcome was still very rewarding and satisfying. |
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I'm still wearing mine.... Are you?
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| (Monday, 26 July 2010) Written by heather |
| S ummer heat will challenge any athlete, especially perhaps us amateurs, to stay motivated and focused in our training. With record heat and humidity this month, it's been incredibly hard to find a good time to ride. It's also becoming more of a challenge to find clothes that breathe. And, of course, while it's never a question about wearing my helmet for each and every ride, these days I finish my rides looking like a wet rat. Last summer, my work schedule allowed me to ride in the morning (I was on the first horse by 6 am!). I loved it and riding first thing in the morning made the entire day seem like a fun day at camp! This summer, my work schedule hasn't allowed morning rides so I try to find time to ride in the evening. At first, I'd schedule rides at 5:30, then 6:00 pm. Over the last month, I pushed my rides back to 7 pm. Finally, last week, I began my first ride of the day at 8:45 pm!! It was still so hot and humid that I only rode for a short time. I'm now wondering about my friends and all riders who were inspired to *begin* wearing their helmets after Courtney's accident this past spring. Thankfully, Courtney is still with us although her road ahead will be filled with hard work (which I am absolutely confident she'll dominate!). I hope that riders inspired to begin wearing helmets after learning of Courtney's accident will continue to wear them even when it's not convenient or when the heat makes it uncomfortable. While I've regularly worn my helmet since returning to riding after college, not all of my friends do. So, I'll quote Courntey's most recent blog post: "Who knows if a helmet would have saved me; I couldn’t have made the horse not trip, but I KNOW any protection is good protection. We all know and accept that big animals are unpredictable. Let’s face it, s*#t happens. I happen to be an example of that, and all I can say is, WEAR A HELMET!" (source: courtneykingdressage.com ) |
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Hello world! Getting by with help from my friends and others too
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| (Tuesday, 22 June 2010) Written by heather |
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Some of you may have noticed that the site was offline for several days this week. I took the site down to troubleshoot a technical issue, specifically that I suddenly began getting a lot of spam in my admin email account. After thorough research, I’ve determined that the spam can’t be due to anything on my end of the administration – all modules, components, and security patches are up-to-date. So, I’ve determined that the problem has to reside on the side of the email server which I don’t control.
“How does this relate to dressage?,” you ask. Well, truth be told, probably very little. However, the situation of being faced with a sudden and unexpected performance issue and having to work hard to find a solution is probably familiar to most dressage riders. I know that I’ve had days/weeks/even longer when my happy training routine was upset by a problem that I didn’t see coming and was challenged to understand.
For my little technical issue, I’ve tried to be patient and to examine each potential cause in isolation. The same process usually works for me when I’m trying to get to the bottom of a riding or training problem but I do find the patience harder to come by then. ;-) I’ve contacted outside help for the technical issue and while they couldn’t fix the problem and their proposed solution didn’t work, I realize that simply discussing the issue with an informed assistant did help me see some new possible solutions I hadn’t considered before.
So, as I continue to work through my technical issue, I’ll try to remember too that patience, diligence, and staying open to help will get me closer to a solution. I’m sure the same strategy will help me the next time I get stuck on a training issue.
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