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If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change-Wayne Dyer
Don’t Hold a Grudge
Photo by Mike Darrow
If you know anything about judging or scribing reining, western riding, or trail, you know that each individual maneuver is given a score ranging from -1 ½ to +1 ½ in half point increments. A -1 ½ represents an Extremely Poor maneuver…you know…the kind of thing that makes you wish you had located the nearest exit in case the horse appears to be headed for your lap. On the other hand, a +1 ½ is an Excellent maneuver, which may be accompanied by the heavens opening, a chorus of angels, and a plate of chocolate chip cookies (still warm). Oddly enough, a 0 just means you were Correct. You did it right. It was fine, but no one is scared and there are no angels, and sadly, no cookies.
Each maneuver is scored separately, and just to shake things up a bit, each maneuver could also earn penalty points…even in the case of a positive maneuver score (WHAAAT?). For example, the horse takes a few steps into a spin, freezes up (earning a 2 point penalty), but then settles in and knocks out 4 of the best spins ever (there are those angels/cookies again). That horse should incur both the 2 point AND a plus on the maneuver. All of these penalties and maneuvers scores are added to 70 in the end, and that is your final score.
I learned how to score Reining from my friend Trevor Walton. He is an NRHA carded judge, has scribed some of the biggest Reining shows out there, and always puts horses first. Which makes him an Excellent, +1 ½, human…but I digress. One thing I always hear him saying when talking about scoring horses is this: ”don’t hold a grudge.”
What he means is…just because you score a horse a -1 on their spins does not mean that you can’t score them a +1 on their circles to the right if they earn it. Every maneuver is a new “ballgame” so to speak. A new opportunity to make a good impression, and to succeed. And even if you screw up one of them, it doesn’t mean that you can’t wake up those angels 30 seconds later. This is also why sometimes, when all you focus on is one maneuver, you may wonder why a horse that botched that particular issue goes on to win the class, when YOUR horse didn’t botch that maneuver. (Harumph). This scoring system is the reason why…you can always go on to do better next time, and the time after that. It’s about the pattern as a whole…not one piece of it.
Naturally, as with all things horse related, there are some pretty important life lessons to be found in this scoring system. If you screw up one phase of your life, there is always, always, another opportunity to do better. To plus your next maneuver. To score a 70 or better, thus making yourself above average. And, there is always another horse show if you manage to DQ yourself completely. There is always the opportunity to apologize to a friend, to do something for someone else, to encourage someone…even a total stranger.
As a relevant and very current example, in many cases, this election cycle has brought out the worst in people. But if you think abut it, it’s one maneuver in a much larger pattern. Despite what we might want to think, the world probably won’t end if our preferred candidate doesn’t get elected. And our friends should still be our friends when this is over, no matter how many penalty points they have incurred with their “crazy, misguided, uniformed viewpoints” in the last year and a half. If they were our friends before, they really should still be our friends. We always have the opportunity to do better.
As usual, Trevor is right. Don’t hold a grudge. And make it a +1 1/2 day!
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