I have been reading a lot lately about the power of positive intention and how what it can do in your life. I firmly believe that your thoughts and and feelings become your actions and create the life around you. It’s a harder pill to swallow when you realize that the life you have created isn’t the one you would have chosen had you realized you in fact were the one who was creating it, but it’s a wonderful feeling of freedom and personal power when you realize that the only one writing the story of your life is you and you can choose what’s going to be in that story.

I was walking this morning thinking of proofs in my life that I am able to create positive intentions. What have I truly believed I am capable of, have trusted in fully, and then allowed that process to manifest itself?

My thoughts turned to Pirate my awesome pony and all the amazing things that we were able to do together. People had little faith in us – I was inexperienced and he was a rebel ranch pony. Yet we would go out and jump the moon and compete in classes that we were told were way beyond this. How did we succeed? We both believed strongly that we could do it. And then we went and did it.

Years ago I competed in tetrathalon through my Pony Club. I loved it and although I wasn’t a very strong runner, I was pretty good and swimming and shooting and always was at the top in the riding portion. The reason for my success in the riding was because of the amazing partnership I had with my 14.2hh welsh/arab pony Pirate. He was one tough little dude who had no fear and really loved running and jumping. We worked well together and trusted each other in a full and complete way that does not happen with many relationships. To say I trusted him with my life is a literal statement. There were many times where we could have been in life or death wrecks and we trusted each other to work our way safely out of them.

The cross country course for tetrathalon had a 20 second window that you were supposed to finish in in order to not have any penalty points. People got their stop watches ready (this was the 80s – that was it for technology) and prepared and stressed about the window. I knew that there was no way I was ever going to be able to hold onto Pirate and fiddle with my watch at the same time, so the first time we competed I decided that Pirate and I had a really good cross country pace, that we always had a blast out on the course, and that we would just go and let it be.

Well, this decision lead to a clear round and a time right smack in the middle of that 20 second window. This was an amazing accomplishment we achieved every single time we competed in tetrathalon with one exception.

One year at Nationals we were flying around the course when suddenly Pirate ran out from a jump. It was one of the more “normal” jumps on the course and I couldn’t figure out what had set him off. We turned around and flew at it again and finished that course without any more hiccups. In fact – that course was one of the most amazing rides I ever had with him. And it was a huge example of our trust. One of the jumps was a wagon, and as he was landing he misstepped and landed face first. Both my feet touched ground on either side of him and I remember sitting there while he gathered his legs underneath him and he leaped up, galloping on like nothing had ever happened. The final jump was one that had been used in steeplechases and although we were only jumping 3’3″ with the brush it was well over 5′ (the horses were expected to drag their feet through the brush). We galloped up to it and finally got to the point where neither of us could see over to the other side of the jump. He went right up to it and then stopped. He stopped long enough that I had time to think, well I guess this is it – the jump was too high. Suddenly I felt a huge surge of power from underneath and next thing I knew we were flying through the air, clearing that jump like it was nothing.

We went through the finish and I found out that we not only had that refusal but also had a 20 second penalty. Later on one of the other parents came to the judges and showed them a video he had happened to be taking (and this was a huge coincidence because in 1987 people weren’t just standing around taking videos of everything). On the video you could see a small child run out in front of the jump we were heading towards. While I hadn’t seen him, Pirate obviously did and that was why he swerved away from the jump. The amount of time we were over the 20 second window was exactly as long as it had taken for us to turn around. So, had the child run-in not happened we would once again have had a perfect time.

I learned many things from this competition. One was that because I decided that Pirate and I were going to always be right in the 20 second window we were. I didn’t fuss or force it, I just knew that was our pace time and that was how we rolled so we would make it on time. I had the positive intention of being within the window and then just went and allowed it to happen. Another was that sometimes things don’t go according to plan (kid in front of jump) and that I would not have wanted to win at the expense of that kid’s safety – I was thankful Pirate made the decision of safety. Finally I learned how important it is to have a partner you trust fully to run with. Having someone who you know so well, trust so fully and enjoy so freely makes any experience one that is truly cherished.