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Finish what you start

img_4345I heard that phrase over and over as a child.  “You have to finish what you start”.  I didn’t really ponder what that meant until I was an adult.

Now that I’m a Mom of 4 and Grandmother of 3 I have thought about what does that mean in my life.  Sometimes it feels like failure because it didn’t turn out how I had hoped or planned it would turn out.  Sometimes if feels extremely rewarding to breathe deep and say that’s a job well done.

As we are preparing for the final leg of Jacqueline and Pollard’s Image journey to Kentucky Horse Park this phrase once again has been ringing in my head.  I would like to add as a Mother I know that none of your children are just alike and that goes for horses as well.

I have had many horses over the years and none of them are the same.  The horse I have now really could go on a 20 mile competitive trail ride and never miss a beat but do I really want to go on a 20 mile trail ride, I don’t know I ponder that as well.  I bought him for competitive trail riding not for becoming a yard ornament.  So to that I say Finish what I started.

Yesterday was Jacqueline’s final lesson before Kentucky.  They are not the same pair as they were in March at the first horse show.  Although he was a bold racehorse riding him for competition was another story, his brain wasn’t getting it.

When asked why did we buy him the person said oh because he is beautiful I get it.  I chuckled to myself thinking but this person doesn’t know the GRIT that Jacqueline has.  The lessons began immediately and the first horse show came and went without a hitch.  But what happened in April?  Pollard had decided he didn’t like jumping nor did he like being told what to do.  He decided that he liked bucking and refusing to go over jumps.  Jacqueline went backwards in a big way.  She didn’t even go back to the beginning she went back to the basics of teaching him that he is safe and how to trust even though he wanted to explode.  With each lesson and horse show we saw regression beyond where he was already at, Pollard was refusing every jump that he approached and wanted to take off running as if on the track.  Little did Pollard know I’ve seen that look of GRIT on Jacqueline’s face on more than one occasion, actually I’ve seen it a lot when it comes to working with her OTTB’s.

The more Jacqueline dug her heels in per se the more Pollard would take a baby step forward.  But would it be enough to get them to Kentucky to the Retired Racehorse Project Symposium in October?  The entire reason Pollard even came to our farm was because of this project.  Jacqueline wanted to expand her knowledge in the horse industry and advance her career as a junior trainer of the breed she so loves, the OTTB.  A long discussion was had about Pollard’s progress in August with only 12 weeks to go to the competition.  Jacqueline and her coach decided to add the discipline of Dressage as their second ride to help with getting Pollard more exposure and more of the basics.  Jacqueline and I couldn’t imagine not going to Kentucky to compete, that wasn’t on our radar.  I booked our reservations anyway.  I had to give this up to a higher power and ask for the best.  When I’ve said to my children finish what you start I really mean it.  Most of the time it takes GRIT to do that, you have to hold your head up and march forward in the face of great diversity.  Each week since August we can see the light bulb in Pollard’s head getting brighter, I thought one day, he is actually starting to enjoy this.

I think keeping the end result in sight is a part of having that GRIT.  It is a sense of I can do this, it seems so far away and yet it really isn’t.  Pollard is now consistently jumping 2.6 fences and doing training level dressage tests.  In less than one week Jacqueline and Pollard’s Image will compete against 302 other horses to show the horse industry that Thoroughbred’s truly are the King of Sport.  When we were told maybe they should not go to Kentucky to compete he won’t be ready I knew that wasn’t in Jacqueline’s vocabulary.  She decided when she started this she would “finish what she started”.  Along the way she has found that she has what it takes in the Equine industry to train an OTTB for a second career.  We are wishing them the very best and hope you will also.

 

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Proverbs 31:16: “She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands, she plants a vineyard.

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