Storm is the sort of horse that makes people stop and stare. When he is moving, especially free, he has awesome movement and presence; he has the ‘X’ factor. So, he should be the competition horse of my dreams… Right?

And here is the kicker…it has just never happened.

His breeding and conformation is good, he feels awesome to ride and I can even sit his lengthened trot! But we have never really got the competition thing together.  Due to a series of life events, he has had to go on the back burner, and then when I do have the consistent time, he has managed to gain another “issue”. Strange and seemingly random swellings are his speciality.

For so long now, I have felt to blame for his lack of progress, the absence of rosettes and titles that a horse like him should supposedly have. The pressure I have put on myself to go out and show what he can really do has been a constant niggle at the back of my mind. Until the other day…

As I was walking him to his stall for the night, again failing to do anything with him, I thought, why the stress? Yes, he may be capable of the higher level movements, but does he care?

Does he care that he does not know how to piaffe on command? I doubt it.

Does he care he is not out at shows every weekend? I think he is probably pleased he is not.

Do I love just being with him, and working on his manners and ground work, and enhancing his way of going under saddle?  Yes.

So, do I have plans for him? Yes, of course I do. Would I like to go to competitions with him? It might be nice. Does it matter if I do not? No!

So I am letting go of the pressure I put on myself to make this awesome horse a “winning machine”, and to just enjoy the process of discovering what we can do together, even if no one else ever sees it.