Team Players=Life Lessons

The hardest part about being on a Dressage Team is being on a Team. Learning to share, support and encourage one another, demonstrate leadership, compassion and empathy...these are tough attributes for adults, let alone 17 and 18 year old young women! The NAJYRC is a crash course in sportsmanship and I will tell you this, it is a successful program! Our Region 3 girls are friends, but not everything goes smoothly here...and learning to communicate your frustrations and disappointments is how we learn to be good sports. It is also how we learn to be supportive of our fellow human beings. Life lessons!

Teamwork. Who would be with Jess when she was schooling in the main arena today? Karen arrived at 11:35 this morning and the Region 3 schooling time in the main arena was from 11:45-12:30. Hmmmm....this was going to be complicated. Stacy Jenkins, McKenzie's mom, stepped in as "mom" while I picked Karen up at the airport and Trainers Tami Crawford and Melissa Taylor kept on eye on Jess and Coda to make sure their schooling was going as planned. Karen arrived with 10 minutes to work with Jess and Coda before their time in the Show arena expired!

The "Jog" has everything to do with presenting your horse. Hand walking the horses to the lower arena took 10 minutes and upon arrival, the the girls and their horses were put in a holding pattern, much like what the airport does with airplanes when they don't have a gate for them or there is bad weather...they had to circle...circle...circle until their "go" time! Coda was fabulous until he had to line up for his "go" and then he started up with the "bad horse" behavior. Jess was getting frustrated with him, which only made him act up more. We gave Jess a break and had Lauren Knopp's wonderful groom, Alberto, walk Coda until he calmed down. It worked, and when Jess took over she did a fantastic job "jogging" Coda for the Vets. He passed!

Following the Jog, the Chef d'Equipes get together and do the "Draw" for the ride times. It seemed like it took an eternity (and in reality, it did!), but finally our "Chef", Sue, arrived to report the outcome. Our order of go was a tough draw with the Junior Team riding first beginning on Thursday at 7:30 a.m. No one wants to be the first rider out for the judges...Ever! However, Ellen Wall was randomly drawn to ride first in the competition. She is confident, a tough competitor and, bolstered by her team, can do anything she BELIEVES she can do. Competition is 1/3 confidence, 1/3 skill and 1/3 luck! Go Ellen!

One final thought before I (finally) take a shower and crawl into bed:

Teamwork is all about putting your needs behind someone else's needs. It is recognizing that achieving YOUR goals depends on your team mates achieving THEIR goals. Sometimes the "winners" are the ones who learn the lessons along the way...