Sometimes We Need to Slow Down
- August 13, 2016
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- Jenn Zeller
Posted in: Featured, Horse Training
Recently I was driving through the outskirts of Fort Worth, Texas. I was pulling a 4 Horse with living quarters — loaded down with two horses, a water tank on top of the hay rack, and of course hay. Cars were moving in and out around me, with no concern for how much room I need to stop, or slow down. It occurred to me that as a rule, we are in way too big of a hurry. As I make my second full season competing on my horse I’ve realized, sometimes you have to slow down to go fast.
Society as a whole is in a hurry when they drive somewhere. We are in a hurry when we go to get anywhere, to our next barrel race, or even in our horse training. We do not take time to enjoy the moment. And as such we miss the good stuff. That moment our horse really tries hard, or makes the move we’ve been working to get, or that split second that we need to think about how to move our horse off our leg and we get it done. We miss it because we aren’t there. We aren’t present. In the moment.
This trip South, to two large barrel races (the Bonus Race Regional Finals and the Glen Rose Summer Classic) both showed me that we’ve reached a place where we can’t even put our cell phones down long enough to warm our horses up appropriately. I’ve mentioned before the need for a warm-up pen steward. Now we need a steward that will not only tell us when to go left or right, but one to gather up cell phones as well! Is there really anything that important that it can’t wait until we’re done warming our horse up? How can we effectively be in the moment to make sure our horse is with us, and ready to work hard for us if we don’t give them our undivided attention?
Maybe I’m just old fashioned. I don’t know. I like my “between the ears” photos as much as anyone, in fact they’ve helped me earn some great notoriety as a photographer, but I try never to take them when I’m in a place that has other people depending upon me to be aware, or when my horse needs me to help him through a rough patch.
That being said, am I the only one who feels like we’ve become addicted to not living the moment, to not witnessing the moment, to not being in the moment, for fear of not sharing the moment with everyone around us — even people we don’t know? This week, while watching the Olympics and Michael Phelps make history, people are on their phones, whether videoing or snapping, or instagramming, I don’t know, but why not just enjoy seeing and being a part of history with your own two eyes? Slow down. Breath in the good stuff.
I don’t have a solution and hopefully I’m not alone in my thoughts. After all, these are just the observations of a simple girl.
Happy Trails!
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Posted in: Featured, Horse Training
About Jenn Zeller
Jenn Zeller is the creative mind and boss lady behind The South Dakota Cowgirl. She is an aspiring horsewoman, photographer, brilliant social media strategist and lover of all things western. After a brief career in the investment world to support her horse habit (and satisfy her...