Asking for help

For the longest time, I've been convinced that if I couldn't train this beautiful, talented, sweet mare to be a fun riding horse, I had no business riding.  After all, I'm a fairly decent rider and she's a smartypants, so between the two of us we should be able to figure it out, right?  And of course, if we can't, it's my fault!

I've recently become convinced that I'm an idiot.

Just because I know how to ride a horse that's already been taught the basic aids doesn't mean I know a darn thing about teaching Ms. Mare what I mean when I do X-Y-Z.  I haven't gotten to where I am without help, so there is NO SHAME in asking for more.

Sadly, I get so wrapped up in my own mind that finding the right kind of help- the kind the is actually helpful- is very challenging.  It's easy to find people that can ride well.  It's easy to find people that get results from their teaching.  It's hard for me to find someone that can ride well and can teach ME.  My stubborn streak and flairs of anxiety make for an interesting combination, to say the least.

Enter Casey.

I met Casey when I was working at the farm where I bought Ms. Mare several years ago.  That's the same farm where I learned what little I know about starting horses, and where Casey had been working for years.  I left the farm about 10 months after buying Ms. Mare, but Casey and I have stayed close friends.  Casey will tell you she doesn't know much about training.  She'll tell you she's not good at cantering, that she doesn't even know how to jump, and that she's never taught lessons before.

Casey is EXACTLY what I need.

See, Casey understands two very important things- me and Ms. Mare.  Ms Mare is, in fact, quite a bit like Casey's own WonderPony, which is a major added bonus.  I like the WonderPony.  She's a fun ride, game for anything, and so full of try it just breaks your heart if she can't accomplish something.  That's the kind of ride I want Ms. Mare to be, but we're so scatterbrained at the moment that when she looks to me for guidance, I totally lose my cool and we both just melt down into a mane-tossing, eyes-streaming mess.  Does that sound like fun?  Yeah, I don't think so either.

So, I did the smart thing.  I talked to Casey, who is having a rather challenging time with her animals at the moment (we'll talk about the WonderPony and her mysterious lameness some other time), and is lacking a mount she can work with.  Casey is a teacher at heart- she enjoys the art of explaining what needs to be done in a way that the pupil (in this case, Ms. Mare) can understand.  So she's going to come explain the facts of being a good riding horse to Ms. Mare a couple times a week, and she's going to come out a third time a week to explain to me and Ms. Mare how to make our partnership work, or show me what they've been working on, or some combination of the above.  I'm going to get a mare that understands my garbled attempts at speaking equine, Ms. Mare is going to get a personalized and private education, and Casey gets ponytime on a horse that she enjoys working with.

I'm excited to find out how much of an idiot I've been.