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If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change-Wayne Dyer
When is Zero Greater Than Sixty-Five?
By Karen Waite
It would appear I’ve lost the ability to count to 2. Or 3. Or at all. While there is every reason to think this is a temporary situation, it doesn’t make it any less annoying, especially when you’re showing a Reining horse and you’re actually a pretty competitive person. If you spin the wrong number of times, you’re off pattern, disqualified, Penalty score zeroed. Peace OUT. But sometimes a zero beats a 65…and I’m sure you’re thinking “Wow. She really can’t count.”. I’ll explain.
Photo credit: Kristy Stecker
While it may look easy on TV, Reining is actually anything BUT easy. Especially if you’ve spent your entire life riding horses who were supposed to go sort of slow(ish). There are lots of things to change…using your legs once again becomes a form of encouragement (or lead changes), as opposed to a braking mechanism. But it’s not just the physical motor skills that need to change, it’s the mental skills as well. From a Sport Psychology/self-talk perspective, I’ve spent years telling myself to “slow down, relax, think through the next element, relax, focus, relax…” so much so that’s it’s second nature. And yes, all of that is handy in the Reining pen, too, but something was missing…
This entire show season, I’ve been working to find that missing “thing”. It’s a little bit of energy, a little bit of “let go of her”, and to be honest, I was getting a bit frustrated with the search. I mean, it felt like I WAS going fast. It felt like I WAS letting her go, at least until I looked at the videos and realized that no. My runs were still pretty “Horsemanshippy”, with about a 50% success rate, given that I’ve been DQ-ing half the time, purely as a result of miscounting, or misdirecting spins. Sigh. Good thing that Grit Isn’t Just For Chickens.
At a recent show, I was holding to my usual “50% success rate” program. I completed a run, managed to stay on pattern, and marked a 65. It was correct, but in all honesty the best description I could give was “meh”. My next run, I was planning to spark it up a bit. So I did…and spun an extra time, once again “earning” a 0. UGH. NOOOOOO. Not AGAIN!!! At this rate, I’ll be a Green Reiner FOREVER! A veritable evergreen…the pine tree of Reining! (At least that’s how it feels.)
I always find it interesting when news people interview athletes and ask them what they were thinking at a critical moment. In all honesty, at that level, they probably were only thinking strategy if anything, because muscle memory is an actual thing. Once you get the motor skills down, it’s (almost) all mental. But given that I’m a beginner in this sport, I’m still thinking an awful lot… ”Hands here, legs here, no, not there, HERE. Cue for this now. Wait..WHAT? Where are we? Was that two?”…the chatter almost never stops. But part way through that extra spin, when I realized that yes, it WAS in fact EXTRA, a switch went off in my head. I distinctly remember thinking “Well, you’ve got a set of circles, a figure eight, some roll backs, and a stop to go. You may as well ACTUALLY GO, DINGBAT, GO! What have you got to lose? You’ve already blown it.” So I did. And had the most fun I’ve ever had while DQing. Actually, it felt better than some Showmanship and rail classes that I actually DID win. I came out of the pen happy and feeling like I had ACTUALLY accomplished something. Much more so than the accurate yet boring, “meh” 65 run. And I didn’t die, or even sustain serious injury. In fact, I got better.
The next run I marked a personal best 68. And that never would have happened without that 0. Sure, there are plenty of things that I could have done better in that 68 run (obviously), but it was that 0 that made the 68 possible. So sometimes, a zero really DOES beat a 65.
4 Comments on “When is Zero Greater Than Sixty-Five?”
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I luv your comparisons, I am going to try to do both disciplines at the same time….hope my muscle memory doesn’t let me down and my focus is up to it. Next year is the challenge year..woohoo.
Good luck and enjoy, Deb!
I love the authenticity and humor in your writing! It really sets you apart. Please keep it up!
Thank you! I really appreciate your taking the time to comment!