In the sixth article of Stephanie Lynn’s series, “10 Steps to the Winner’s Circle”, Lynn discusses how “being correct first, then good before great” is important to your success in the show pen.
If you read earlier chapters in this series, you will remember that I had to pay tuition for college because I chose to quit school when my parents had been willing to pay for it. Instead, I chose to work for a horse trainer. Eventually, I paid for university by training horses, giving riding lessons and going to horse shows. For three and a half years I attended classes offered only on Tuesdays and Thursdays allowing plenty of time to get to and from horse shows. This came to an abrupt halt during my last semester. Horse show attendance all but ceased during that last semester as I finally caught up on those courses offered only on Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays.
To make up the lost income, I increased my up-down riding lesson program. At the height of my beginner riding lesson career, 42 kids rotated through my barn every week. In that time, I put many children on horses for their first ride. Combined with the last 35 plus years of introducing and teaching riding to students of all levels, there have been only a handful of students that I would call prodigies. The rest, like me, had to learn it the hard way. We had to be taught to keep our heels down, to pick up our diagonals or leads, to understand when to pull and when to let go. We developed soft hands, built strong seat and legs, grew into insightful riders and cultivated a keen sense of feel. None of us started out a plus one and a half.
In every scored class within the AQHA, NSBA, APHA, NRHA, NRCHA or NCHA a zero denotes an average or correct maneuver (I am sure there are other associations that do the same that are unmentioned). It sounds quite lackluster; something worthy only of the underachiever. But the first step to earning a higher score in any event is to first be correct.
I always think of it like the doctor’s Hippocratic Oath “first do no harm”. As a rider, a horseman, we too, should be held to such a high standard. Our highest priority should be to first do no harm to the horses that do so much good. In and effort to succeed in that quest, we must first be correct. If we are always correct as riders, we shall do no harm, thereby fulfilling our Horseman’s Hippocratic Oath to do no harm.
Riders should keep a couple of things in mind. First, if you are just starting out, it may take more time than our world of instant gratification would like you to believe. Second, to be correct, average is not a bad thing. And third, to be correct is the first step in becoming great. No matter what your field of study, you cannot skip this step. No one, I repeat, no one, skips this step. Not Tiger Woods, not Michael Jordan, not Muhammad Ali, not the great Olympian equestrian rider. Every single accomplished person, at some time in their lives, were good before they were great.
About Stephanie Lynn: Professional Horseman Stephanie Lynn coached her first AQHA World Champion in 1988. She has since coached, trained and shown World, Congress and Honor Roll horses across disciplines. She is a judge for AQHA, NSBA and APHA and has judged World Championship shows for each association. Most recently, Stephanie is the author of The Good Rider Series and A Lifetime Affair: Lessons Learned Living My Passion. The Good Rider Series is a library of resource material that is both practical and applicable in the barn and show ring for riders. Stephanie can always be reached through her website: http://www.stephanielynn.net to answer your questions, schedule a clinic or lesson.
