Katie Lindsay: Chasing the Elusive "AHA" Moment

Into each life, hopefully, some AHA moments shall fall. "So Katie, now WTF are you babbling about?" you may ask! This topic came about following a somewhat well lubricated dinner conversation I was having with a local trainer during which we touched upon, (among a zillion other things), the science/art whatever of teaching people how to ride a horse and guiding them toward a goal of improving their craft. We also spent some time analyzing instant gratification and fulfilling of ambition vis a vis achieving long term and genuine learning. Deep, eh? The next day, I started thinking about all the stuff we had discussed and subsequently made several mental U'ies to apply it to other aspects of equestrian sport, somewhat related to, but not the exclusive domain of actually riding a horse. 

A teacher/trainer/coach can only do so much. He can impart his knowledge 24/7 until he is blue in the face, but until the student successfully ingests this knowledge, struggles to assimilate it and make it his own, understands it, and transforms it into action, nothing happens (except in some cases frustration and a rapid depletion of a bank account.) This can be a very personal and sometimes lonely process, but when the desired sequence of events actually occurs, it is by my definition, the ultimate AHA moment. 

AHA moments do not as a rule happen serendipitously. The student must work at it and concentrate on trying to understand what his teacher is trying to impart. Great students spend hours on their own using the tools they have hopefully learned in order to achieve a goal. It is frequently hard, boring and discouraging work, but when the AHA moment occurs, it is a major rush. 

 

I remember "Mongo," an amazingly talented, versatile and thoroughly quirky Thoroughbred I acquired as a two year old and had for many years. We foxhunted and won tons in the hunter ring, but when I decided to start eventing him, we were faced with that dirty D word, Dressage. He hated it. So did I. Sitting his trot was pure agony. The clinicians I rode with and teachers I took lessons from all studied him, shook their heads gravely, and talked about "softening him and having him give me his back." I would nod wisely as if I knew what the hell they were talking about and resume the hour's torture. (In retrospect, I'm sure it was way harder on him than on me, but at the time, I didn't much care. I hurt too much!) One day, I stopped in the middle of a hack and out of the blue decided that by God, THIS-WAS-GOING-TO-BE-THE-DAY that the big breakthrough would occur. Do or die. (As I recall, we were in a lovely quarry which sadly has since turned into a forest of McMansions.) Somehow, "it" happened and lo and behold, I was sitting on a soft, responsive and most of all, comfortable horse. Wow. What a glorious AHA moment that wouldn't have happened had I not forced myself to make the words I'd been hearing my own. Sadly, in our society of instant fixes, fewer and fewer people seem to be willing to take the time and invest the sweat equity to really learn something and instead go after the Holy Grail that just may be found in the next trainer barn down the road. 

I'm sure teachers have AHA moments too, moments when a student who has been a dim 40 watter suddenly sprouts a virtual light bulb over his head and "gets it." I know horses have them, and it's a delight when it happens. 

Turning to my field of expertise - and I use that term very lightly because the more "expert" one becomes, the more one realizes that he doesn't really know jack! I've been an organizer for a couple of decades, but it was really only in the last five years that I had my own personal AHA moment. In 2005, I spent some time in the hospital, and when I came home, I was faced with the challenge of putting on a CIC 1, 2 and 3 Star and a national Advanced through Training competition in several weeks. Ugh. Daunting enough when feeling good! My AHA moment happened when I realized that there were other people who could be trusted to do a job as well as and usually better than I could. For ages, I'd been advised to delegate more, and like with my Dressage lessons, I'd agree solemnly and go right on doing what I'd always done - most everything. I discovered that I really liked delegating, and thanks to a great team, the events since that day have run better and better - and I haven't needed a total tune up and severe R and R when they were over. AHA moment at its very best! 

May your AHA moments be pleasurable and lead to long lasting success! I need a nap. 

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