Equestrian Athletes Podcast Deirdre Rose Sabo

 
Opportunity and Horses

There comes a time in your riding career that you need to decide what you want from the endless hours, money, and energy you are putting into your art and sport. Why do you ride? Why do you cope with the heartache that follows horses? Why do you break your body down? Why do you add this stress to your life? In the midst of all this negative, there is a positive that shines brighter. If there was not, you would not be reading this article. If the negative overtakes the positive, then you would no longer be riding and striving.
If the answer to your questions is, “because I could not live without it,” then you are in the right place. You are here seeking strategies to better yourself and looking for ways to hone your craft. You realize that there is more for you. You know that you can achieve even greater success, if only you had the guidance to show you how.
Here comes some tough love. Tough love is a concept that only people who strive understand. They seek out this type of advice because they already know the answer. Sometimes it takes hearing it for you to grasp it and push forward. This tough love is going to home in on MISSED OPPORTUNITIES.
Opportunities are all around us every day of our life. The opportunity to become better at what we do, to become braver, stronger, more resilient, more compassionate, more subtle, more understanding, gain more knowledge, gain more insight, etc. The opportunity to move forward in growth is always presented to us. Unfortunately, us humans miss many of these opportunities because we have not trained ourselves to consistently look for them. We have a false idea that we are stuck where we are currently.
Mindset plays a large role in recognizing opportunities and making undesirable circumstances work for you. Some switches that you can make to recognize the opportunity in any situation.
1. Horse is nervous for seemingly no reason, which is making you uneasy = a chance to work on exercises and tools you can use in the future to redirect the energy quickly.
2. You are tired, but you have to pick up all of the jumps out of the arena still = you train your body to push past perceived limits which in return widens your comfort zone making you capable of so much more.
3. You have to ride a horse who is hard to sit = you learn how to adjust to different movement and feel the parts of your body that are weaker and need to be worked outside of the saddle. You learn which muscles actually support your body.
4. Your back hurts, yet you still have to ride = You can find what the root cause of your pain is by concentrating on what makes it worse. You can develop exercises before, during, and after the ride that help with the pain. You never know when you are going to wake up at a competition with pain. Might as well figure out how to help it at home first.

Watch Deirdre on TV Show Equine Strides (http://farmnranch.tv/programs/equine-strides/) on FarmNRanch.TV (http://farmnranch.tv/)
 
 
Motivation is a fleeting force that drives us towards a task that we wish to complete. This force is the source of many discussions. How do we keep motivation alive? How do you find motivation? What can we do to find the ability to push forward with the lack of motivation?
I recently found myself in the middle of an arena crying. Why? It was lightly raining on me, I was trying to fight off pneumonia, the IRS was looming around my mind like a ghost, and my health insurance said they would not cover my last hospital visit. So, I stood in the middle of an arena crying while ground working all of the horses. Where did the motivation come from? If I was so upset…sick…miserable, why did I not just call it a day? Why keep pushing?
Did the motivation come from a need or desire to make money? The short answer is no. The reason money driven goals do not hold steady is because they do not serve a greater purpose. Let’s be real for a second…we need money. Money is the road to our needs and desires. Money can be used for self, for others, and for our animals. Why is it that money is not a sustainable driving force? The answer is, because money in a means and not a destination. Money is in constant flow, it is a means of which to accomplish. The goal may be to own a yacht. To own a yacht, that person will have to make…. say 1.2 million a year. The money is the means to own a yacht where that person can relax, where his family can relax and make memories, and where he can entertain friends. He works hard for the yacht and the memories made there…not the money. For me, money pays for feed, a truck, a trailer, well-fitting tack, footing, show fees, fuel, and everything else needed to make me and those around more successful in work and training. Money is a tool to get where we need, but not a reason for working hard. Money is a byproduct of hard work.
Did the motivation come from obligation to my clients? Yes, in a way it did. Was this the full motivation, no. Obligation to others is a big part of motivation. A community is a great place to push one another. Of course, I did not want to let my clients down. I wanted them to know that they could count on me, but that does not explain why I worked my own horses that day. Why not push the horses that belong to me aside? What other force beside community had to be at work here?
Did I have something to prove? Yes, to myself and my students and clients. I had to prove that I could perform. I had to prove to myself that when my main goal of competing for the USA rolled around that I could do it no matter the circumstances. I had to prove to my body that while I will take care of it, that there were things to be done and I had to be able to heal while getting SOMETHING done (note: I was not on a horse, but ground working instead, this is compromise…we all know I didn’t need another hospital bill). I had to prove to myself that I could work under physical and mental distress. That I am stronger than distress.

Why you need to schedule in recovery.  The physical reasons your body and your horse's body must rest.

Learn why you MUST schedule self care into your daily life.

How horses teach us to let go to gain more control.
Sorry everyone, I have having some sound difficulties.  Hopefully will have this straightened out by the next podcast.  Hey, I am a horse trainer, not a tech savvy genius.

Stop using the excuse of "not enough time."  Dig down and find the real reason you do not want to perform a certain activity.  If you want something, you have to chose to make time for it.