The Goodness of Today

Often in the past I have made the mistake of missing a singular good thing from a ride. Anyone who has had a lesson with me knows I don't watch the clock. Sometimes a lesson is long and sometimes it is short. What I'm looking to see is that my student solidifies a feel for one good thing of importance. What these same students don't know is that my own riding sessions are briefer by comparison. In my wisdom gained from years of learning from mistakes, I now realize the beauty of taking small steps with horses. But it is more than just small steps....it is about finding one good and important thing to be happy with for today. Years ago I would lose myself in the moment and not give my horse the chance to know early on how satisfied I was with him. The more horses I had to ride the easier it was to learn this important lesson. I did not have time to get so lost in the ride as though it was my only chance to get something right. I often tell my students(especially the ones that look so hungry for more by the end or those who look dissatisfied with themselves) that they need more horses to ride. This will bring riding and training into a better perspective. It is not so much the brevity of the ride as in quickly looking for that 'goodness' of the day! Why do we wait so long to show our horses we are happy with them? These are emotional animals that seek our approval.
You see, living in this moment is right, but by thinking only of this moment we have the tendency to lose perspective about tomorrow. And really what we see in our horse at this moment is a product of what just happened in the last moment....and the moment before that....essentially, what happened yesterday. And so our failure is not recognizing cycles of regression where the ills of this moment never heal because we don't think about tomorrow.
Start today to look at your horse as a function of what happened yesterday. See what he sees----the same 'you' who rode him yesterday. He doesn't bear grudges but you may need to make a truce with him(and yourself!) to only find his 'goodness' for today, forgive and leave behind what did not go right yesterday. ACKNOWLEDGE his 'good' of the day, BE HAPPY with it, really LET HIM KNOW your approval! And then leave him with a piece of peace that will carry into tomorrow. For tomorrow is really all we have. This moment has just passed and yesterday's good already had its chance to carry into today. Knowing that today forms tomorrow should be our most important lesson. In this way horses grow and improve and every tomorrow will present a foundation of all the 'good' of yesterday. Nothing of importance will be lost and everything that matters will be gained.

Perfection: The Enemy of Good

A doctor once told me that when he was in medical school one of his professors told him, "George, always remember: Perfection is the enemy of good!" He told me this when we were working so hard at a clinic to solve a medical issue. The motto of his story was that when we achieve some good, we should be content to leave it alone. Very often our fussing over it in search of perfection actually ruins the good and we head for a setback.
How often do we do things in our riding a few times too many? Or perhaps we don't really have enough time to devote to a quality ride but we get on anyway, trying to reinforce the progress we made the day before and we end up messing up the good with our hurriedness. Or we feel the pressure of a competition coming up so we practice more and harder and things start getting worse! Perfection is really an impossibility! Think about it. Unless we are talking about a perfect world in heaven we really can never achieve perfection. Should we then give up trying? No! What we should do is aim for 'good'-----and then leave good alone. 'Good' IS possible! Let's all seek good and leave the perfection part to God.