In the second article of Stephanie Lynn’s series, “10 Steps to the Winner’s Circle”, Lynn discusses how doing your homework is crucial to success in the show pen.
In 1982, I quit school at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire and went to work for Lynn Palm. Two years of undergraduate classes yielded passing grades but certainly less than stellar marks. My heart was just not that into it. Riding horses consumed my every thought leaving little time for reading textbooks or class preparation. As you can imagine, my father was furious. Disappointed in the decision, he vowed not to pay for any of my future needs, hoping this would keep me in college. It did not. But I would return…
Two years after I left to work for Lynn, I moved to Argyle, Texas, hung my shingle outside a 32 stall barn and enrolled in the University of North Texas in Denton. Texas was the land of longhorn steer, the Dallas Cowboys and every great western pleasure horse trainer known to our industry. I was a single young woman riding hunt seat horses where ropers ruled, halter champions were born and bred and membership was required for entry into every establishment, including a bar!
I may have been a long way from home but two years of working for Lynn Salvatori Palm taught me about hard work. The time also taught me the benefit of doing my homework. A horse under Lynn’s care never advanced to level two until he or she understood level one. We never simply hooked a horse to a cart and gee hawed off into the sunset.
Your success is hitched to purposeful practice
