Bustin' on through that Comfort Zone: Equidays Part 1

If you haven't heard, I've been invited to be a clinician at Equidays, New Zealand's biggest equestrian festival.  This is pretty huge for me, and I'm super pumped to bring positive reinforcement training to Equidays in a really practical and accessible way.   My goal is to show the audience that this is something they can (and should!) all implement to some degree into their training programmes, no matter their chosen discipline or level of experience.  

But wait! There's more.  On the last night of Equidays there is a new night show, called Equidays Top Talent.  So the OTHER thing that's happened, is that Hokey Pokey and I have been selected as one of the finalists to perform on the night.  This involves a performance in the indoor arena, in front of grandstands full of people, complete with lights and music.  ("Woooah nelly!" thinks me, while lying awake at 3am. This is waaay outside my comfort zone!) I am by nature a teacher, not a performer.  However, I have discovered that I harbour a deeply stubborn streak that makes an appearance when I'm scared of something, insists that I won't give in and makes me dig my heels in and do it anyway.  Who knew.  But yeah, suffice to say this is not a small thing for me.  So as there's little to be gained by putting on a show of confident nonchalance, I will be blogging about the process between now and then.   That will hopefully help me to work through my feelings and also might provide some interesting reading or learning for you guys.

As I break through my comfort zones ("stretching" is for sissies! (just kidding)) I am, according to the wonderful Jane Pike from Confident Rider, "a Neural Highway Ninja".  Who am I to disagree with that?! She says, "Basically, all those neural networks in your body are connecting up new pathways, joining the dots together and building both your mental and physical muscles in ways that will allow you to get out there and repeat the same task much more ease-fully in the future. You getting out there and actually doing it- not thinking about it, talking about it, or drinking coffee about it- is the only way that you are going to make this happen. The only way."   (Yes ma'am).

The main reason I'm nervous is that this is all rather last minute and I have not had the chance to prepare Hokey by getting him out and about much.  He has hardly been in an indoor arena before, let alone a huge enclosed arena at night with packed grandstands, lighting and sound systems!  So I am not really abiding by the clicker trainers mantra of "set them up for success", by any stretch.  

However, it is what it is, and we're doing it, so I have to find a way to make it work as best I can.  

So over the upcoming weeks I will blog about my stress and butterflies and attempts at mental re-framing, as well as my training plans and what I'm doing in a practical sense to prepare Hokey (albeit rather late in the piece) for all this.

Wish me luck!
xx Bex