I’ve always been one of those people who thinks I can… maybe even when I shouldn’t.
When I was a kid, I was relentless in my dreams. And, to be honest, before I grew into adulthood and splashed cold water all over my ambitions, many of my childhood improbable goals did come true…
Hmmmm.
Kids often understand that there was a very vague line between the possible and the impossible… All things, to kids, are possible.
Anyway, most of the time I’m still like the little engine that could… “I think I can , I think I can…”
Or maybe I’m more like a little Jack Russel Terrier that just becomes relentless until someone gives in and throws the ball…
-Back to the story:
Sometimes I just leap.
And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t…
Yup that’s me.. for better or for worse.
BUT FIRST…
Since I know this about myself, I have little sayings all around my desk that help me keep myself motivated and positive.
My favorite little cheerleader is a coaster I have on my desk that has a saying on it from ALICE IN WONDERLAND. Do you know this one?
“Alice laughed. ‘There’s no use trying,’ she said. ‘One can’t believe impossible things.’
I daresay you haven’t had much practice,’ said the Queen. ‘When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
I read it to myself every day before I set my hot beverage over the message.
Another one of my constant reminders is this necklace I bought for myself at Christmas from my fav, Sweetbird Studio.
I bought this for myself at Christmas. It says, “Aim High”.
It says, “Aim High”.
The necklace is almost bigger than I am so I haven’t worn it. But, I do hang it off of my computer’s monitor.
OK, so what is my point here?
My point is that all this motivation may have gotten me to aim a little too high.
Dunno…
This is what I did.
IT IS TOMMIE TURVEY’S FAULT!
So I watched the Superbowl Budweiser Clydesdale commercial and then wrote about it. I was so impressed with the Clyde trainer, Tommie Turvey, that I went to his site in hopes of figuring out a way to contact him so I could interview him.
Tommie Turvey and his Clyde.
This is one of his other horses…
Well, of course I got carried away and looked through every facet of his website.
Clinics, performances, videos, photos… and lookey lookey what have we here… “Training devices”.
Aha!
I need some of that!
I need some of the Tommie Turvey juju to help me train Rojo! (as if…)
So, I bit.
I finally bought one of those neck rein rings that I have wanted for a really long time but had no idea how to use or who to use it on. I still don’t.
Perfect!
And no, I didn’t purchase the neck reining training video that goes with it. That would have been too smart.
Nope, I’m gonna just dive in – blind.
I DID IT. I bought one.
What motivated me to purchase this particular neck rein ring now was because it was made of horse hair – which would be natural in an unnatural way (when it rubs against the neck) – and because I liked the leather handle part.
Yup. I bought one. Silly me! I actually think Rojo and I are going to be stars in our own arena… one show a day, twice on weekends. I daydream about that…
ROJO
The fact that I haven’t ridden Rojo in months (long story – too much work, ‘make hay while the sun shines’ etc…), it makes totally no sense that I would purchase this for him.
Except, that I think I can…
…and I always aim high.
Ha! This should be interesting… ;)
HORSE AND MAN is a blog in growth… if you like this, please pass it around!
Copyright
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Have you ever heard of Linda Tellington and her T-touch method?
They also use a “liberty neck ring” for riding at liberty- and she describes how to use it in the following pdf which I think you might find very interesting: http://www.ttouch.com/PDFs/neckringBalanceRein.pdf
Way back in 1969 they did a bridleless jumping demonstration using 2 stallions and 2 geldings. They’ve been doing this for a long time. (they worked with Justin Thyme – olympic gold medal 3 day eventing team in 1989) Umm .. just in case you don’t have time to check it out for yourself, the most important thing to establish BEFORE taking the bridle off is “whoa” (lol)
Wishing you nothing but success – and am looking forward to hearing how it goes :)
Go for it! You’re going to rock it!
You are So inspiring. AND you make me smile and laugh ( in a good way). Thanks So much for your Blog’s. I have also wanted to use a neck ring and now i too am going to look into those really cool ones that Turvey has.
Yee ha! FUN!!!!!!!!!
I got to see Tommie Turvey and Josh Lyons a few years back having fun and amazing us with their connection with their horses. Great show and Tommie really looks like he loves what he does. Good luck !!!
I sometimes have to giggle at the ‘new’ inventions for equestrian’s. My sister and I used to make these out of bindertwine, tied in a knot. We were to short to put on bridles but we could get those on. We later ‘graduated to old leadropes and duct tape. haha. That was over a half century ago. Yep, nothing ‘new’ here, depending on your ‘inventiveness.