Life........and Its Lessons........A Little About Purpose

Part 1

From the sound of the comments on this series of posts, I think I need to restate my purpose in these posts. While they may focus on the negative aspects of my time in the horse industry, these incidents are not the whole story about the horse industry or even the whole story about my time working as a groom. They are but a small wedge of information belonging to a bigger picture.

As I said when I first began this series, in the past I have applied a filter of sorts in posting about some of my dealings in the industry. I mostly wrote about the positive side of my experiences chasing my dream. I left out some of the more negative ones. When I did post about negative aspects of the industry, I only posted those things that were not so up close and personal to me with but a few exceptions.

The problem in doing that was I left out a part of the information that has sculpted who I have become in this process. How I treat both people and horses has been affected by all parts of my experience, not just the positive ones. The negative things I've encountered have influenced me as well. I want very much to never treat people or horses in some of the manners I have experienced.

These antidotes are not just information for others to learn from my mistakes. They are reminders to me as well of things I need to consider in my future dealings. Had I paid attention to some of these earlier issues, I might have avoided future pitfalls. Instead I stumbled right in up to my neck because I had not been paying attention to what should have been lessons from the past.

If I could go back and live these first years of my horse experience over, I would do it pretty much the way that I did. While the facility and the trainers didn't seem to appreciate what I did for them, I never would have had Scandalous had I not worked at that farm.

The first two horses I bought on contract were through the trainers at this facility. They certainly did the right thing when it mattered most. The trainers were very flexible in negotiating the terms of that sale to fit my needs as well as being lenient about me making payments when Lindsay got sick. I will be forever grateful to them.

I also learned a great set of horse keeping basics while I worked in this facility. I may not have gotten the benefit of direct learning on my riding skills but I did on lots of other things.

I sucked up tons of information by watching and asking questions. I took every opportunity available to convert the things I was seeing into workable knowledge. I never had problems with these trainers answering my incessant questions that helped me accomplish that task. The very foundation of my my riding skills I learned in those first years I worked as a groom even though I rarely saw the back of a horse.

This learning experience was worth every inconvenience. Again, my point in posting about those things I'd previously left out was for the value of the lessons. I should have applied that information to my future interactions with horse people but I did not so now I am adding that omitted information because it needs to be incorporated to avoid future pitfalls.

It was not and is not my intention to point the finger at anyone specifically. We are all human and we all make mistakes. We all do things we are not proud of in our interactions with others. Sometimes we get that and strive to improve and other times we don't. Horse people are no different in that way. These posts are no way intended as a slam on the horse industry.

What is my concern is to tell the whole story of my journey chasing my dream. I now see the error that avoiding those negative aspects has caused for me. Talking in generalities of what could and might happen is just not as effective a learning tool as talking about personal experiences....... at least that's what I have found to be true for me.

By relaying my personal stories as I've made my way through some of these obstacles I'm hoping things might get better both for me and maybe others travelling the same road. There are so many lessons in life, I sure hope not to have to learn them all the hard way.

I will continue on in this series telling more of those things that I had previously left out. I believe it is the culmination of these incidents that led me to my current predicament. How it all turns out, I guess only time will tell....

To be continued.............

A Little More about Work



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