I’m currently reading Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s seminal work, Flow, and it’s adding a deeper layer of understanding to the whole idea of “process” vs “outcome” goals that I’ve been exploring the last few years.
Csikszentmihalyi was a pioneer of positive psychology, and is often referenced in books on everything from mindfulness to behavioral economics to business leadership. His research is all about the psychological concept of flow, a highly focused mental state conducive to optimal experience.
step 1 toward going out on fun adventures: wake princess from her midday slumber! and behold! the snow is almost all gone!
In particular, he explains that this flow state is a function of the proportional intersection between ‘challenge’ and ‘skill’ levels. And that imbalances, whether they be from an activity that’s too easy for one’s skill level, or too challenging, make it harder to get completely into the moment.
And he defines a new word (for me, at least): the ‘autotelic’ experience. He observes that so much of what we do, we do because we feel like we have to or should, for various extrinsic reasons. Autotelic is about the intrinsic value — doing something for its own sake vs any future reward. A “freely chosen discipline” rather than a restraint.
“will rise for cookies!!!”
I think this is part of what makes horses so special — what draws so many people to horsey experiences, that they lend themselves in some important and meaningful way to finding that flow state. To just getting into the moment, letting everything else melt away and disappear.
And this is also probably why we see so much variety in the nature and contour of those experiences across the horsey spectrum. There are infinite ways to get fulfillment from our interactions with horses.
fast forward a couple hours and we’ve arrived at Loch Moy’s derby course!! Ms Thing is a water feature expert now, even when it’s dotted with icebergs lol
Like with anything, tho, we’re still susceptible to external pressures. Perhaps especially if we are pursuing experiences that involve sport and competition, which by definition have clear rules and guidelines and metrics for success.
And at least for me, sometimes it’s been hard to separate my attention from what may come as a result of my effort, vs focusing on the effort itself, if that makes sense.
getting right to business with a bebe coop
For a time with Charlie, I had significant personal and emotional investment in some outcome-specific goals that ultimately we did not succeed in achieving. In retrospect, it’s easy to see that all along the way, I did not fully appreciate or took for granted some very special experiences bc I was too caught up in what they meant for our hoped-for future achievements.
And since then, there’s been a bit of a ‘hangover’ effect on my ability to get back into competing without still being influenced by those same external pressures.
tiny telephone pole bc nothing is a big deal <3
So basically from the first with Doozy, I’ve really tried to wipe the board clean. To focus on enjoying the journey, the process of our growth and development together. To prioritize expanding our education and skills, while also accepting that where we are in any given moment is good enough. We’re doing the things for the sake of doing the things, and that’s enough!
loch moy has such an amazing collection of roll tops at basically all sizes
Obvi let’s be real, tho — I’m not saying that to act like we’ve actually mastered that intention LOL. No. Absolutely not.
It’s an empowering frame of mind, tho, and is probably directly responsible for me waking up in the middle of the night and going, “ooooooh I should go to Loch Moy tomorrow!” lol… As one does, apparently.
A week’s worth of warm weather finally cleared out most of the snow, and actually Loch Moy was all set up to host a derby this weekend (at which I was slated to volunteer), but another snowstorm forecast for yesterday cancelled those plans. Saturday was still gorgeous, tho, and everything was all set — so obvi we should take advantage, and build on the momentum from our recent lesson with Dan!
just me and my Fire Horse, all the time in the world and the whole place to ourselves!
Granted, the downside of these sorts of impulsive plans is that not everybody is on the same electrical jolt LOL. So I wasn’t able to twist anybody else’s arm into joining us. C’est la vie tho!
Honestly I often prefer schooling on my own anyway if it isn’t a lesson. I like doing things on my own timing, and moving from spot to spot across the facility fluidly depending on what feels right, vs the ‘stop-and-go’ of waiting for folks or taking turns, etc. Tho obvi I wasn’t totally alone — naturally it’s a schooling facility with a steward and emergency protocols, rest assured.
Anyway, tho, it ended up being perfect. Perfect weather, perfect footing, paid for with a volunteer pass, AND we had the whole place to ourselves! It had apparently been a mad house earlier in the day, but by the time we arrived at 3:30, there was only one other rider still expected on the schedule. Perfect!!
We got ready at an unhurried pace, tho realistically Doozy is already so used to shipping out for lessons, that still ends up being about 20min between arriving and swinging a leg over. Then we moseyed thru the enormous derby rings and got on with our warm up.
just did one pass up the banks on this day
I also opted to turn on my interval timer app, which I don’t always do for xc trips like this, but use almost every ride at home. And it was useful too! Mostly for the warm up — The first 5 minutes definitely dinged sooner than I expected. Sometimes I think my tendency is to get a bit bogged down in the preliminaries of a ride, vs kinda just getting on with the actual riding, so that was a useful observation.
then into the next ring — and more fantastically chunky inviting roll tops!
Obvi I tried to do Dan justice with our warm up too. Trying to recreate the same level of “on the aids” that he demanded, and also establishing my own solid steady posture and form. I won’t try to claim that we achieved ANY of that to a level that would have satisfied him (lol), but things felt good enough to me. Doozy was a touch explosive in the warm up, but only just a touch.
And everything clicked right into gear when I started pointing her at itty bitty fences. Realistically, it’ll probably be easier for me to achieve what Dan is trying to establish for us within the jumping, vs just the warm up alone. Doozy is such a unique creature — she’s fairly insecure despite her bravery, and is always anticipating.
So when I’m just trying to trot around, her mind is already eight steps ahead, thinking about cantering and jumping and what have you. But once we start jumping, it’s like she just settles in. Like, ‘ahh, yes, here we are.’
we’ve jumped all these fences before, and everything felt comfortable and easy <3
So once we actually got going, I was able to continue some of that transition practice — like interspersing walk transitions from trot, or almost walk transitions. And trot transitions from canter, or almost trot transitions. Ms Thing is learning her half halts, guys! So exciting lol…
And also practiced stopping straight after fences, or almost stopping but then proceeding.
catching yet another lovely roll top cruisin’ around the course
And she was honestly perfect. We weren’t always super straight bc, real talk, I mostly decided where to go next on the fly, so my turns and lines weren’t always perfect. Doozy didn’t care, tho.
She jumped whatever was in front of her, from trot or canter, perfectly. What a mare!
oooh and a sliiiightly taller brushed up coop to finish!
Of particular note — she kept her shape the whole entire time we were jumping. Like, ok, perhaps a step here or there on the landing side of fences when I wanted to bring her back. But exactly zero moments of losing shape on the approach to fences. Which you may recall was a big part of our hardships at both St Augustine and schooling at Shawan last year.
To me, that is an enormous win, and hugely encouraging. Bc when she’s not turning herself inside out, inverting and deer leaping, I swear she’s literally the world’s easiest horse to jump!
extremely pleased with this mare, she just has the most incredible feeling to the jumps!
And because she felt so easy, patient, balanced and steady, we could string nice little courses together, catching all the chunky BN roll tops Loch Moy has to offer! We mostly did long sweeping turns across the full arena, one jump at a time, prioritizing steady rhythm and tempo.
No muss, no fuss, just connected and cruisin <3
video here! didn’t trim the clips quite as aggressively as i often do,
but it’s a nice representation of how we approached the jumping
And I was especially proud of myself bc after one little mini course, we were about 20min into the ride which… Realistically when I’m not in a lesson and things are going well, my rides are really only ever 20-25min… And I thought about being finished.
Except, I spied a nice brushed up BN coop that honestly looked a *smidge* intimidating to me, even tho objectively I knew we could do it. I also objectively know that I often finish a ride a little early, preferring to “wish we’d done more,” vs the alternative… But here was our chance to just do one last little course!
paused for a cookie at the judge’s booth, maybe an investment in future good juju LOL
It was good practice too, bc Doozy is used to my habit of the “short ‘n sweet” ride too. But picking up and proceeding is as much a skill unto itself as anything else is.
So we picked back up with intention, established our connection on the aids again (hilariously you can sorta hear Doozy grunting in the video but then she just settles right in again). And then went and jumped our final little loop as easy as pie!
Even tho the brush jump rode straight toward the parking lot, where the day’s last trailer had arrived and was unloading. Even tho there was spooky noisy stuff. Nbd. Just went and did it, good mare!
warm enough to get sweaty after only about a half hour ride!!
So obvi we finished on that note, and headed back out to the parking lot to chat with the last rider (whom I know from volunteering) before feeding Doozy her dinner at the trailer, packing up and going home.
dinner at the trailer is always a nice finishing touch LOL
It’s always so funny afterward, when I edit the video and take screen-grabs, there’s always this temptation to feel like, “oh I should have jumped this jump or that jump too, or why didn’t I try the ditch, or or or…” As if there’s some pre-defined metric for “making the most” of a ride.
But. Eh. Maybe instead of thinking in terms of ‘maximizing,’ I’ll try instead to integrate Csikszentmihalyi’s concepts with an old motto from my grandfather, that it’s better to ‘optimize’ vs ‘maximize’ — that enjoying the activity for itself is the reward. And we’ll just grow from here!
"I think this is part of what makes horses so special — what draws so many people to horsey experiences, that they lend themselves in some important and meaningful way to finding that flow state. To just getting into the moment, letting everything else melt away and disappear." SO TRUE!
Well done both of you for getting out there and doing the thing AND adding the final challenge with the brushy coop. OMG the iceberg littered water though, sheesh!
"I think this is part of what makes horses so special — what draws so many people to horsey experiences, that they lend themselves in some important and meaningful way to finding that flow state. To just getting into the moment, letting everything else melt away and disappear." SO TRUE!
ReplyDeleteWell done both of you for getting out there and doing the thing AND adding the final challenge with the brushy coop. OMG the iceberg littered water though, sheesh!