All in life must balance itself in some way or other, I tend to find. Yesterday I had the most shocking awful riding lesson in about a year on the lovely Rocky. I have only ridden him twice before and both times found him a wonderful little horse....a push button pony they would call him if he was a little shorter in stance. Not last night however, as I struggled with canter transitions for fully 40 minutes on him. As my difficulties turned to despair my technique went from bad to worse, and I wound up looking like I was dancing the funky chicken on his back. So badly wrong and so humiliating -I don't take failure well in any aspect of my life, if ever there is a chink in my armour, this is it.I dismounted sweaty, with cramp in my right calf and ready to chuck in riding all together....whats the point, thought I, if I am still as poorly as this after all this time? What if I am one of those riders who can only ever ride a great horse. Is that a bad thing?
Anyhow, last nights despair over, the dark cloud has passed and today I took to paper and effortlessly drew a pen and ink of a gorgeous horse called Hudson. It was just one of those days you sit and draw, no hesitation or indecision.... do they call it 'flow'? Whatever it is I was in the zone.
I wondered how one thing I love can come so easy and another thing I love feel so impossibly hard.....then I realised that this was just the artists equivalent of a good riding day. Now I just have to relish the moment and hold onto the feeling....... magic.
Maybe I could bottle it and sell it on my Etsy as handmade elixir of creativity?
