This time next week I will be at White Fences Equestrian with Biasini for our first show of the winter season. Am I nervous? Or am I excited? Being nervous is something that has never worked well for me in my work life or my personal life. So I choose not to be nervous and to focus on being excited! It’s a fine line between nervousness and excitement. I understand that. But to me excitement is positive and nervousness is negative.
For me nervousness stems from feeling that I am not prepared, not ready, uncertain, weak. If I examine each of those feelings I find that I am prepared, ready and certain. I certainly do not feel weak. Can things still go wrong? Of course they can. There can be any number of things I cannot control; weather, changes in the show ground , other people’s dramas. I have to just let that stuff go and concentrate on own tasks.
It comes down to a question of Attitude. My attitude toward the things that I cannot control . This is what dictates how I will respond. I have a good Plan A and I also have a good Plan B. If necessary I can come up with a Plan C! If things do go according to plan then that’s a bonus! So I can be excited! Excited about putting all the hard work and training into action. Excited about getting into the show ring and executing the movements of the test and enjoying it. That is something to get excited about.
What about my horse? How does Biasini feel? Is he nervous? Is he excited? For those of you who have read Biasini Speaks you will already know he lives in the present moment. He is not either nervous or excited about something happening as far away as next week! But what about on the day? If I am nervous he will pick that up from me. I will transmit my nervousness to him and for a horse nervousness leads to the desire to flee from danger. That danger could be anywhere in the ring or in the warm up. So if I transmit nervousness to Biasini the result will not be good. But what about excitement?
Biasini can pick up my excitement. If it is a confident excitement where I am alert but not forcing or overdoing my communications to Biasini he will also feel confident and be ready to listen and go with me. But that communication is not automatic. I must have set my mental dial to “confident excitement” before we go into the ring.
When we are in the ring, going through the test, it is just the two of us. Just Biasini and me. The outside world will stay outside. Only we will be “on the inside.” of that ring. I am excited about that!
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