Adversity - Diversity

It’s too hot out. It’s to windy. It’s too cold. It’s raining. It’s snowing. Here is a list of reasonable excuses not to ride your horse right? Maybe. But not in my barn. “If you wait for perfect scenarios to work your colt, they will only be able to perform in perfect settings” To hot? If you ever even phantomly dream about competing in the states. There is NO SUCH THING as to hot. Think of Cheyenne or Caldwell, where it reaches 45 degrees Celsius during the day, and your expected to perform, at peak, mid day. I actually knew a lady, who made the NFR at a later age, and she was making a point of riding her horse at the hottest part of the day. Everyone else was not even riding due to the extreme heat. Who do you think won at the end of the day? I asked her why? What’s the logic behind this? Because everyone, even though she was winning everything, thought she had lost her mind. Her answer was brilliant. “If My horse can exercise for an hour at the hottest part of the day, for him to run for 17 seconds at any part of the day will be a breeze”. She was conditioning him to the heat. A human and equine body can do amazing things, they can temperature regulate when exposed to things enough. Think of someone in Florida, how they can handle the heat every day. Why? Because their blood is thinner. In Canada because we deal with such extreme cold, people who live in Canada life long without travel actually have thicker blood, which helps to keep them warm. Horses have the same concept. Which is why horses from the southern states take so long to climatize to our Canadian weather. Too cold? Helllloooo Canada. We stall indoors, and ride in a heated building, so I realize we are fortunate in that instance. However, they are NOT going to cancel a rodeo because it’s “too cold”. The last year I qualified for the Canadian Finals Rodeo, it was -38 Celsius without the wind chill, it had rained 4 inches, and was a totally different “rodeo”. Were they going to cancel the show because of the extreme cold? No. It went on, and we had to preserver through it. Not once did a fan say... we should cancel and reschedule this multi million dollar event for next weekend when it’s suppose to be warmer. Too rainy? I have to admit, I hate riding in the rain. But the biggest outdoor rodeo in the world, “the Calgary stampede” generally flash floods and is not only a slop hole, but you as a competitor are expected to be there through, rain, mud, hail , and lightning. And bring your A game. I actually make a point of hauling my young horses to “safe” mud ground, and getting them on different textures and teach them how to handle it. So when we show up to an event and it’s muddy, or raining I know I can trust my colts to work with confidence, because they are prepared for it. Can you for a second imagine bringing a 4 year old who’s only been rode on perfect conditions, to a cold rainy wet rodeo. Holy heart attack. Basically my theory is to pre pare for the unexpected. If you do that, you manage to diversify your horses performance potential. Not only does it help your horse, it helps YOUR mental game, because you are not panicked about the mud. You know exactly how to ride your horse, and how he/she is going to handle the muddy conditions. Or the windy conditions. Or the heat. Along with the weather, I think as a side note this includes hauling. If you always stay at home, your horses never learn to haul well. Stall them. Let them have their panick at home. Let them learn to eat and drink, in a stall, in a pen beside the trailer, heck even let them eat and drink in the trailer. There is nothing worse than going to a show, and your prospect washing himself out in the stall, in a rage of terror because he’s never been in one. Or not drinking for days because he’s use to only one water trough. You want your athlete to perform at his or her best, at the show. That’s where you get to “show” your results. And with hauling, I think they need to be tied up. They need to learn to be tied up for the entire day, and that, is perfectly fine. Because when you start to transfer them over to rodeo, there is a large chance that they will be tied to the trailer for long periods of time. Possibly all day and the night too. I don’t know about you, but I paid a lot of money for my trailer.... I would rather they pawed, and kicked anything but that trailer. For the most part, my strategy of diversifying my colts has paid off. I feel that plays a big roll in them being able to show as 4 year olds. They are so used to seeing it all, when they see something new they tend to not be phased by it. It ends up just being “another thing”. 

We love the grind, the excitement and the pleasure of rodeo, but sometimes we fall ill of the preparation. 

“Success is where preparation and opportunity meet.”