When Trying Harder Makes It Worse
The question had shifted without me noticing.
I wasn’t asking Is something wrong? anymore.
I was asking How do I manage this?
Confidence, DVDs, and the Illusion of Progress
January ended with momentum. I was moving forward. I just hadn’t yet learned the difference between forward motion and actual direction.
Apprenticeship
By early February, I’d worked Tex through thirty sessions.
The mechanics were improving. I thought that meant we were ready.
What I didn’t yet understand was the difference between repetition and understanding.
Horse Trading Is a Strange Business
When we got back to the house and untacked the horses, I knew I wasn’t just looking anymore. Standing there in that quiet corral, I stopped pretending. I didn’t just want a horse. I was ready to take responsibility for one.
Confidence in Strange Places
For the first time in eight weeks, I wasn’t managing Charlie. I was riding him.
It felt like learning a word in a language I didn’t yet speak.
Becoming a Student Again
Dusty got me in the saddle, but it took Charlie—and a stack of RFD-TV horsemanship shows—to turn me into a student again.
Dusty Steps In
After Vandy died, the yard felt empty. Then Dusty arrived—a younger, well-trained horse who pulled me deeper into horsemanship than I ever expected. This chapter is where everything began to shift.
The Thousand Pounds of Quiet Energy
In 1979, Ranae brought home a colt named Vandy. I didn’t know it yet, but that horse would shape our home, our marriage, and the direction of my life in ways I wouldn’t understand until he was gone.