The What-If Monster

One of the first instructors I ever had remains my favorite and most influential instructor to this day. When you realize that I took lessons with this woman over ten years ago, you can understand how impressive this is. I truly believe this one instructor is responsible for every good basic riding skill I have today. My balanced seat, strong leg, and soft hands all came from her. I also truly believe that she is one of the best riding instructors I have ever had, and probably will ever have. I'm actually now thinking I would like to dedicate a blog post to her in the future, but not this one. This blog post is about one specific memory from her lessons. A creature she introduced to me because I was always nervous about something, and a creature she patiently and continuously helped me defeat: The WHAT-IF monster.

The WHAT-IF monster is easily any rider's worst enemy. He can strike at any time, and if the rider is unprepared, he or she will be instantly defeated. 

The WHAT-IF monster is always ready to attack.

The WHAT-IF monster works like this: most riders have some fears or nervousness about certain aspects of riding or horses, and the WHAT-IF monster feeds on those fears. For example, a rider nervous about cantering is a prime target for the WHAT-IF monster. He takes hold of that fear and turns it into WHAT-IFs. What if the horse canters too fast? What if I can't stop him? What if he decides to buck? What if he doesn't pick up the right lead? What if... You can see where the WHAT-IF monster can easily turn a nervous rider into rigid mess of fear.

The WHAT-IF monster keeps trying to take hold of me. Every time I try something new with JJ, I can feel the WHAT-IF monster creeping in. What if he takes off on the lunge line? What if he rears on cross-ties? What if he spooks at the cars on the road/the kids in the neighboring yard/the other horses and riders in the ring/the jumps in the ring? What if he bucks with the saddle on? But so far I have forced myself to quell the monster and pursue the groundwork. JUST DO IT, I have to tell myself. Because if I don't, no one else will. And if no one does, he'll never be an eventing superstar simply because he was never given the chance. So JUST DO IT.

Because SO WHAT if he takes off on the lunge line?! He's enclosed in the ring anyway, which is currently surrounded by about 7' tall snow banks, so he sure as hell isn't escaping that. SO WHAT if he rears on cross-ties? Maybe he would smash his head on the barn ceiling and decide rearing is just a terrible idea and never do it again.

It's quite a bit harder to quell the WHAT-IF monster when it comes to actually getting on JJs back. What if he takes off running? Rears? Bucks? Throws me? But so what! SO WHAT. I've been riding for 15ish years and I've ridden rears and bucks and I've been thrown too, and I'm still alive and I still love horses and riding, so SO WHAT. I'm not necessarily close to getting on JJs back, but the SO WHAT soldier needs to be in training starting now, so that when the time comes the SO WHAT soldier can defeat the WHAT-IF monster.

The SO-WHAT Soldier uses a Shrinking Ray on the WHAT-IF monster.