What’s so Funny?

One of the most important things I’ve figured out in my life I learned while riding on the rated circuit. I had so many people waiting on my results, waiting to tell me what to do better the next time, or what I should have done the last time. Not surprisingly, all that pressure added up pretty quickly. Being someone who doesn’t handle chronic stress very well, I finally found a way of coping with all the demands that were being made of me: I laughed everything off.

I crashed my pony in 2012 at our first pony jumper show; I asked for a long one and we ate the jump for dinner-Rita was fine, I ended up in the hospital. Somehow I woke up laughing about it. At Devon last year, we stopped at a jump during the final class, and I hit the dirt in front of the biggest crowd I have ever ridden in front of. But yet again, I was laughing. In fact, I was laughing even as i was dangling under that pony trying to climb back on.

After starting bull riding, I started hearing the saying “If you ain’t grinning, you ain’t winning.” In that case, I must be one heck of a winner.