JUST THINKING....

Really?  Just thinking?  Well, do yourself a favor and just stop...  just stop!  For the moment, just be...  Just sayin'!

Don't ya think this is gallop worthy?

A very, very wise woman once told me that wandering alone in your mind can be a very dangerous place.  And I believe that somewhere out there Jimmy Wofford once said that intelligence has no place on the back of a horse.  He is a firm believer in KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid.

The title of my blog includes "... a Convicted Overthinker" and I must once again confess that I, in fact, think waaaaaayyyy too much!  Now some of you may be saying to yourself, "Well, for sure, you didn't need to tell us.  Seriously, do you even read your own writings?" 

My jumping lesson yesterday was fantastic!  And not because I didn't have a panic attack, cry or even fall.  Yesterday, I jumped big (novice height).  I jumped complicated (rollbacks, tight turns and bending lines) and we jumped hard (lots of jumps in a course). 

Don't ya think XC rocks?

I could feel Sug's doubt and added the confidence that makes her bold.  And that feeling came sooner and the confidence more real and committed than its been in a long time.  I still sputtered and cursed (just a bit) to keep me committed to making us work when I had doubt...  we jumped and for the most part we jumped well.

This lesson was about being in the moment.  When asked to do a tight bending line to an oxer, I had a moment ...  the vision in my head was a disastrous fall.  I stopped the train of thought, said out loud for me to hear, "We can do this Sug!  Let's do it!"  And, we did... 

Then the jumps went up again...  My brain kicked in...  How am I going to get her past the spooky corner deep enough to make the short turn to angle the vertical enough to avoid the plank in the center, to hit the small vertical to the rollback...  Wait, how should I do the rollback?  Did she want me to do the yellow and then rollback to the vertical?  Wait, how am I going to get the turn to the vertical to make the jump....

Don't ya think... 2013, my year?

And then my eye stopped going forward and looked at how close we were to the standard and Sug, ran out...  And we all know who is at fault for a runout...  right?  The Eventing Trainer said,  "Do it again!  Sug lost confidence in you after saving your butt the last time.  Now you have to tell her that you are committed to helping her..."

My overactive brain went ballistic...  "OMG, you ruined her!  She lost confidence in you!  You are falling apart!  OMG!  She lost confidence!  OMG!"

Shhhhhhh....  take a breath and make it happen...  Shhhh...  Then my Eventing Trainer said the words that makes my mind settle...  "Do this one more time and you can be finished!" 

We did and we were!

{{{{Note to self - Stay in the moment...  its safer that way}}}}