Hard things are hard.

I am (gulp) working on the Grand Prix dressage with three horses currently. This feels ridiculous to say, and maybe like something I should say when I have successfully shown the Grand Prix in front of real people. But in order for me to get to that place, I need to work on it, so hence - I am working on the Grand Prix.

One of the harder moves for me to learn is the one-tempi change. It happens very fast and requires me to be very precise, yet relaxed, and maintain a very high quality canter. With Anton, we have worked up to 11 on a good day. With Bella, we are quite good at doing two at a time, and have only recently started working on stringing more together.

Because they’re hard for me, it makes me want to practice them more. (Be aware of that instinct! It can lead us to over-drilling an exercise.) In the day before a lesson, I was working on them with Bella and felt frustrated. Nothing was really working, I felt like I was just frustrating Bella with my ineptitude, and was questioning whether I should be doing this at all.

And then I had my lesson. I refocused on the canter (uphill, straight, balanced, and STEADY), refocused on having clear aids, and voila - a happy horse and good one-tempis. Turns out, it’s all about the quality of the canter and the clarity of the aids.

In my rides since my lesson, I have maintained focus on the quality of the gaits and rewarding effort generously, and things are going well. So while this is a story about riding the quality of the gait, keeping it steady, and recognizing when the quality deteriorates (it’s all about the quality of the gait!), this is also a simpler message: hard things are hard.

Grand Prix dressage is hard. All dressage is hard. Jumping a course smoothly is hard. Teaching a nervous horse to go down the trail calmly is hard. These things may be simple, but they are not easy. Different things are hard for each of us, and we may reach that hard spot at different times. When we reach it, we may wonder if we are doing something wrong, asking too much, or aren’t good enough. That’s why it’s so important to have a good team of people (instructor, vet, farrier, horse friends!) to help make sure we are moving along correctly and comfortably. And then, when we know we’re on a good path and feeling all right in our bodies, I hope you can take comfort in knowing that hard things are hard. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither is an athlete. There is nothing wrong with that. The difficulty of the challenge should not dissuade us from pursuing it. As Earl Nightingale said, “Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.”