When I was looking through quotes and testimonials clients have given me permission to use for the new Clients Say section on my website, I was struck by something that always encourages me when I think about it:
Riders who are successfully learning, growing and reaching goals come in all shapes, sizes, ages and abilities.
My years working with the long term athlete development model in Canada, reinforced what I have noticed training people: it’s not about fitting some external definition of the right rider body, beauty or even success. It’s about using everything you’ve got (your physical, mental, emotional, spiritual assets- and the horse you have) to be the best version of you that you can be….for the moment. That means that the training and managing of what you have, changes depending on your age and other conditions. That also means you are off the hook for trying to get back your inner 24 year old, when you are 52.
We all had a dream- and it’s still there in the heart of your inner younger person. It might change in details to become more realistic and achievable, but it doesn’t have to go away entirely.
I’m in my mid-40’s. I missed the boat on Junior/Young Riders two decades ago, so now I’ll be very blessed when I eventually reach my goal of riding a respectable FEI test on a horse I trained. I train my body with the long term in view because at the rate I’m going, I’m going to need joint mobility and health well into my 60’s to reach that goal. Unless I do something crazy when my PhD is completed, like take a year off just to ride. I have friends and acquaintances a decade or two or three older than me who inspire me to be ‘like buy valium https://handsfreehealth.com/hfhealth/buy-cialis-online/ india them when I grow up’. I’ve met very accomplished para-athletes as well.
It’s about focusing on what you DO have, and doing everything you can. Celebrate what you have, don’t mourn what you don’t have or lost. Get out there and be the best you today…and then tomorrow do it again. If getting fitter, maybe even losing some weight, or reaching some exciting goal like running in an event are on your list…be kind, patient and relentlessly persistent with yourself.
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When I work with someone along their goal journey, I feel enormously privileged. Sometimes I’m there to help a rider with a particular issue for a brief period (like a physiotherapist), and other times I am in and out of their life for a longer time as their body and training needs evolve. I don’t believe in sacrificing wellbeing (balance, health in every way for you and your horse) for a fleeting moment of public glory. While interviewing Olympic gold medalist, para-equestrian Lauren Barwick, for a magazine article once, she really brought home an important point: even a public glory moment as big as that is nothing compared to why you do what you do from the inside, and all the moments that happen before and afterwards.
Your moment can be as private as enjoying the sound of your horses eating, or the feeling of riding without back pain. The joy and meaning to YOU of the obstacles you overcome is infinitely meaningful, and worth it.
And, as I like to say ‘if you keep training your inner athlete, eventually she’ll show up on the outside too’.
Do it. Be it. Celebrate.