How Stephanie Has Changed My Life

She fell off Odin(The Black horse below) the first time and got up and punched the him with a perfect right cross( elbow even with the ground and everything in perfect boxing form) in the nose.  She had just been dumped into pricker-bushes and almost hurt badly, falling off a 6 ft. high horse onto a log and pricker bushes.

 

Odin our first horse dumped Stephanie 8 times but Stephanie never gave up on her dreams

 

 How This Adventure Got Started

It all started when I was in the office of a local banker.    Stephanie called me up out of the blue, and asks me if it would be OK if she got a horse she saw on YouTube named Odin.

That should have been my first warning. Tip #1 Never buy a horse sight unseen off YouTube.

She asked if I would help her by carrying out the transaction with the banker, using her account, as she was busy working as a nurse in the hospital, and she was afraid the deal would be lost unless she bought right away.

I said, “Sure,” without thinking.

Tip #2:  If the deal for a horse is good today it will be good later.

I was in a new relationship with her, so being young-ish(47 at the time)  and dumb,

I said Yes to just about everything she asked.

 

Little did I know what I was getting into as a life as a “groom.”  Not in the marital sense

but as the person that helps her with her equestrian events on Weekends.

 

 

 I am Brina’s and Stephanie’s Sugar Daddy.

Now before you get the wrong idea, I am the person that feeds sugar to Brina while Stephanie gets on her horse . LOL

Stephanie pays for most of her own equestrian expenses and there are many.

I bought Brina for her.  Here previous owner Mary knew Stephanie and she tragically died of cancer.  It was Mary’s wish that Brina go to a good home and that she continue to compete in shows.  She absolutely did.

She has competed at the national level at the USDF national finals, and just last Weekend competed and qualified for the 2015 Regional competitions at First Level

 

It has been a wild ride of ups and downs( she has fallen at least 8 times on Odin that I know of but never on Brina) There have been lots of tears and lots of smiles in here equestrian adventure, but she never quits.  Instead she finds a way to figure it out.  She is the definition of intestinal fortitude.

Watching her grow as a rider has been an amazing experience.  The top picture above is of her and I with her second horse Brina.

This is the horse she is riding now proving “them”(the naysayers) Wrong.

She won high point award with a 70.7% in First-level Test Three, this past Saturday, at Fields  and Fences Equestrian Center in Gurnee, IL.  Stephanie and Brina got first place about four times and the High point award for First Level.  She actually beat some of the open riders( the professionals that get paid to teach riding)

 

 

Stephanie proved them all wrong, and last year drove herself up to the event and competed.  This year I was able to be with her, along with her family and friends from work, and she won  four of those blue ribbons, and one of those High Point awards( the multiple color ribbons) only one year after her instructor of the past told her she “was not ready”  Wrong thing to say to Stephanie.  That just makes here find a way to make it happen.  She is amazing!

 

 

Tip #2: Never buy a horse unless you get it Vet checked and have ridden it on at least two separate occasions

 

Odin had short pasterns bones so he was not able to be a Dressage horse for very long.   He was a great horse for Stephanie to learn on and she loves her first horse Odin dearly.  The two are inseparable.  Most people would sell a horse that has arthritis, but not Stephanie.  There is an ole saying, “ya dance with the one that brung ya” from the country-western folks.  That was never truer for Stephanie.  Odin is part of the family.  But he can not compete now he is a pleasure horse only.  He lives in the lap of luxury, not having to work and eating and playing with mares and his other horse friends all day long.

That is how we got Brina.

Odin developed arthritis because of his confirmation or bone structure.

 

The motion of his short bones does not allow for natural cushioning of a horse foot fall,  that has the right bone and ligament structure.

When we bought Odin , we did not know what we did not know.  We learned by making mistakes.

Unfortunately that is how humans sometimes learn.  To go from good to great you have to make about 10,000 hours of mistakes they say.  We certainly have put in the hours and number of mistakes and it is starting to pay off for Stephanie as an equestrian USDF Dressage rider.

 

But, you also have top learn how to be positive.  We are very lucky to have Odin, the class clown in our lives.  He is a “great social horse.”

He is now our 1600 lb. 17.3 hands-high,  pet.  He even grew a Mustache, now we call him “Pierre” The Great French Lover of all the Mares LOL

We will put Odin in a pasture when he can no longer be a trail horse and he will live out his life as a happy, well-taken care of horse.

 

But for Miss Brina and Stephanie there are still the following levels of Equestrian Competition to accomplish:

1) Second Level Dressage

2) Third Level Dressage

3) Fourth Level Dressage

4) Intermediare

5) Pre St.George

6) Grand Prix

7) FEI/CDI ( honestly I get confused which is which here) Higher level near Olympic level lots of International competiition etc. ect.

 

So why am I writing this blog post about what I learned from Stephanie?

1) She is the love of my life for the rest of my life

2) I am very proud of her recent accomplishments

3) I have learned a ton about what kind of mindset it takes to be a champion in life and in Dressage from her

4) I have a blog that allows me to express my passions and my inner thoughts, or my expertise, or the expertise of others that I have learned from, and I want to share it with the World.

Being a “groom” is a funny world.  We work hard and play harder.  You get to cater to the whims of multiple Type A personality types, when she and they are in multi-tasking mode on steroids, that is what Dressage is like.

Sit on top of a 1600lb animal and without moving, communicate with that animal to dance and want to.

It is an amazing sport for both horse and rider.   It takes an perfect relationship between horse and rider to build champions.

I am very lucky to get to be around this word and this greatness in character and personality.

 

I scoop a lot of poop, and shine a lot of shoes and feed my fair share of sugar cubes, and I wouldn’t trade it for the World.  This is my Weekend hobby LOL

Plus, I get to do all this while building a business.

 

This blog is part of my marketing agency business. While this post is very personal, most of them are valuable sales and marketing lessons I learned, from my many mentors over the years, or by purchasing, using, and learning from these products, learning the strategies and tactics from them that help me sell pretty much anything online, and make a living at it while I am in the process of learning about it.  You can too.

You will never know it all there is too much to learn and you will always be learning as it is always evolving and people are always innovating online marketing.

Your results will vary. To see average earnings example click here yourlastjobever.com/income

Perfect business for me!  I get to always be learning which I love.  Always keep the mind of a beginner.

 

If you would like you own blog so you can blog about horses or anything else that you are passionate about:

click here and get one for only $25 per month.  Unlike unpaid blogs, you can sell anything you want( as long as it’s  compliant with federal FTC laws) on this blog.  Plus, it is pretty easy to use, looks good, and comes with amazing sales and marketing training.

These are the kind of mindsets that network marketers can learn from what Stephanie has taught me by being herself:

1) never listen to people that tell you you can’t do something

2) Never quit even when you fall, get back on “that horse”

3) persistence until you are a champion on the leader boards of your company

4) kindness, compassion, humility along the way

 

These are the things I learned from the love of my life Stephanie.  I hope they help inspire you too.  Believe in yourself and you can accomplish great things in life.  99% of being in business for yourself is the mindset of a champion like Stephanie.

If you would like to use this platform and it’s products to help your business grow click here and join for only $25

P.S. Here is My Why.  I am building Stephanie a ranch with many acres that her horses as Brina will have a foal(baby horse) or other horses we will buy at least one more horse after Brina get’s too old to do Dressage.  It takes about 17 years to get through all the levels.  Some equestrians at the Olympics are in their 70’s in Dressage.  You may one day see Stephanie at the Olympics or she will have bred the horse that goes there from Brina or her baby…You never know.

That is why I am in this business.  To make sure “my Stephanie” is taken care of well after I am no longer on this physical plane and because success at that level is more important to me than breathing. Here is my vision board for that Ranch.

 

 

If you understand what I am saying you are one of us.  Join us here, we have a blast being marketers.