06/01/2026
Sunday reading and musings led my husband to say, "see, doesn't that make you feel better?"
We've been talking about and prepping for facility improvements. Progress here feels painstakingly slow. We buy "run down" farms and do all the work simply because we have to. Newly into our second year here, we feel like we lost over 6 months of good work due to priorities that needed tending and weather complications. I know we both often feel daunted by it.
Then I read this passage:
"The [tennis] club produced more top-twenty-ranked women than the US......when I visited in December 2006, the club ressembled a set for a Mad Max movie: shotgun shacks, diesel-shimmering puddles, and a surrounding Forrest filled with large, hungry and disconcertingly speedy dogs." - The Talent Code, Daniel Coyle
The focus on technique at this tennis school was the driving factor for attendance, not the facility itself. The instructor demanded "unmounted practice" - mental rehersal and imitation, for perfection.
And tennis doesn't involve a communication dance with a thousand pound partner. How much more should we be focused on technique over "how it looks" for the welfare of our horse and our own safety?
How often do we get our priorities wrong, influenced by what the world around us says? I am proud of our facility, we have worked incredibly hard to be able to share it with others. Yes, there are improvements to be made, but learning in a grass arena that isn't perfectly level is an amazing way to become a true horseman because it requires technique. A curated riding experience does not develop deep skill and will not build the next generation in horsemanship.
We are behind the rest of the athletic world in HOW we teach because we focus on how it looks. Why does the US not produce as many top riders? I would argue this is a piece of the puzzle.
