Never, never, -N E V E R- Give Up - All This Time
Here's a wonderfully inspirational YouTube video from matrixmare, watch it and keep on trying!
"We've come a long way, and he's taught me so much. If there's one thing that Tiny can teach us all, it's that appearances mean nothing and you -can- beat the odds.
It's so hard to believe that that gangly, unbalanced, u g l y horse at the beginning of the video is the same horse as the one at the end. He had an ewe neck, enlarged right knee (with not one, but two splints popped on it), a short neck, and long, wobbly legs. It may not be as obvious under tack, but he was seriously an ugly duckling. But eventually he grew into a beautiful horse with a lot of elbow grease and muscle building. But it was a long, long road.
Over the years, we have had a lot of setbacks and I have doubted his abilities, and so have trainers I have come across. Those quotes in the middle are things people have said to me about Tiny.
I sure am glad I didn't listen to them!
There were times we couldn't make it around a 2'3 course to save our lives. At one point, I got run away with over cross rails and had 5 rails down in one course over that height. With perseverance, we've moved up to jumping 3'6-3'9 courses regularly. But it definitely took a lot of time and patience, and most of all humility on my part!
And the dressage... don't get me started. That is our weakest subject. I was told once by a renowned instructor that my horse will never be good enough to do prelim (ie, first) level dressage for the B Pony Club rating. Silly me, I let that stick in the back of my mind for a long time and it became a road block in our progression. Eventually things started falling into place and we finally mastered the ever-elusive counter canter and trot leg yield, which were a pipe dream for the longest time!
No matter what breed your horse is, what their breeding is, or what your background is, you CAN beat the odds. You CAN succeed. You just gotta believe in yourself and your horse and do the work that's involved and you CAN have a winner. Even on your bad days, know that it WILL get better. I have had too many bad days to count, and even when I was crying my eyes out and considering selling my horse of a lifetime, there was still this little voice in the back of my head that told me to try again the next day. And things got better.
So if you're stuck in a rut, please don't give up hope. It's not the end of the world. Use that experience to make yourself a better person or horseman. Winners are just losers that kept on trying!"
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