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March 19, 2017: Clear Intent

Spring approaches, creeps along, drags her heels, one step at time, does not want to put in an appearance/arrive early. If spring arrived early, she would have to greet late comers. Spring is an introvert. Spring would much rather be late and slip in the room unnoticed.

In the meantime, I wait for spring and better outside weather. The wind is again blowing strong, I can hear the roaring. I am inside, keeping busy. This is a form of meditation for me, keeping busy keeps me focused, on track, increases the likelihood of good things coming into being.


The March agility course

Right now keeping busy is not a matter of necessity because my plate is not all that full. It’s now more of an exercise and I hope not an exercise in futility. I am not yet at the point at which I can be less busy and still focused on the positives.

This is pretty tough. The upcoming June clinics are on my mind. Can’t help but think of the biggest what if of all, which is that they don’t fill? Right now, at this very minute, the Pony Club people are hosting their own Centered Riding clinic, and this is going to have an impact on our numbers. This is a small horse community, and there are only so many riders interested in Centered Riding.

So what if these clinics don’t fill? We have instructors and riders coming from out of state. What am I to tell them? Eeeek.

What to do? The answer is quite simple. For now, keep busy, and keep focused on the task at hand, which is filling the slots. There is a saving grace to having to do administrativa.

This morning, with the above in mind, I worked on the June Centered Riding clinic administrative. I drew up two schedules, the first one, which is going to be pasted on Facebook, is a day-by-day clinic schedule. And the second is Susan Harris and Peggy Brown’s itinerary for when they are here. I also checked with Pete – the clinics are slowly filling up. The trail class has ten riders, the jumping class 6 riders, the western dressage class 4, and the English dressage class two riders. I just have to keep contacting people and letting them know about this.

Ironically, what I am doing mentally, which is attempting to stay in focus, does have something to do with one of Sally Swift’s Centered Riding principles, and this is Clear Intent. The premise behind Clear Intent is that in order for something to come to be, one must envision it. It’s most useful when riding a horse because the horses’ movements are directed by the riders. The horses take their cues from us because their prefrontal cortexes are not as fully developed as ours are. We are in charge because we have to be.

And generally, in life, clear intent gets us to where we want to want to be and enables us to get done what we need to get done. So if say that I focus my energies on what I perceive to be inequities, then I am wasting valuable time, time that will be better spent on getting done what I need to get done. I have said this before in other dispatches, but it seems to me that my saying it here, differently, reiterates what I’m getting at.

In this case, getting the schedules together was the best thing that I could have done because in the process of doing this, I further envisioned what this clinic is going to be like. And in further envisioning what this clinic is going to be like, I brought it one step closer to becoming a reality. And in bringing it one step closer to becoming a reality I further insured that this is really going to happen.

Next: 79. 3/20/17: The Horse and Human Life: Using the Clicker

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