A Good Dose of Failure

For everyone who watched, rode or supported the Training 3 Day at Galway last weekend, I’m sure you agree that it was a truly remarkable experience. Many of the riders had never competed in a “classic” before, many were obviously concerned and nervous, some made mistakes. But, I was impressed with my peers – the adult riders willing to try something new, to move out of their comfort zones and to experience something difficult. This is hard to do, especially when you know failure could be right around the corner. And, in our sport, failure can be rather public…

My personal experience with failure happened in the second Intermediate ride of my career, in the form of a fall on cross-country. Not really a big dramatic wild fall, just sort of a stupid leaning topple. Blast. And that’s not really what I said…but you get the idea. As my trainer said, minutes later, “You can beat yourself up on the way to the barn, but then it’s over, ok?” So, it’s over. But, lingering in my mind is a persistent question: Why, when I have so many means of being successful and gaining recognition for my success (such as career, home life, other hobbies), do I choose to participate in a sport in which I experience such obvious public failures, humiliation even?

Maybe the weekend experience on my other horse holds the answer. My younger horse and I did pretty well in the placings, but what we really liked was his newly developed abilities to stay balanced over most of the fences. This balance has been difficult to develop, slowly improving as he has become stronger and a bit wiser. While not so public, this success was extremely important to me, and I came away from the show with a huge sense of accomplishment.

My husband, Mark, says it best: “Nothing like a good dose of failure”. He recently took up acting, you see, and he is regularly turned down for parts. He sees these rejections as a rebalancing of life, and it’s educational, important and cause for introspection. Hmmm. Could it be that experiencing public failure is the best way to understand our limits and to improve? After all, there is nothing better to make you keenly aware of a poor jump position than a fall, right?

Maybe, as adult riders, we have all experienced a certain amount of success in our lives. After all, this sport is expensive, so we must have accomplished some sort of career or other goals to afford the time and cost. We all enjoy the feeling of public success, of course, but perhaps it’s not the most important aspect of this activity. Maybe the possibility of public failure is important to us…providing a sort of overall balance in our lives. Meanwhile, our faults are presented in the most obvious way, so that we can figure things out and improve.

My congratulations go to all adult riders in the Galway Event and especially to those in the Training 3 Day. You rocked it! And some of us had our regular dose of failure…but those first few jumps were the best of my life!!