Well, it’s been quite a few months since I blogged. Six months has just flown by, despite my best efforts to slow it down… and I wasn’t even training a young horse. Seems I have been doing allot of Facebookin’, Web radio interviews, sponsor/exhibitor pitching and planning every little piece of minutia required for the Challenge.
Of course it is another midnight and I’m up again for the next few hours. Seems like a routine since I came up with this crazy idea. It’s a routine I hope ends soon. What a beautiful vision 7 – 8 straight hours of sleep is. I can only hope and pray.
Would I do this again? You betcha! Do I have any regrets? Well some. Hardest has been the slow adoption by the marketing partners. Living in the digital, entrepreneurial Northwest you come to expect that a good idea get’s embraced and acted on before the rocket takes off. Having worked in marketing communications for 30 years, for all kinds of BIG and small companies, you’d think I’d know how conservative folks can be. I don’t fault managers for being cautious, that’s their job. But I surely respect and want to honor those companies like Tarter Farm & Ranch, Spalding Labs and Parelli Natural Horsemanship that saw the vision and came on early. Cowboy Dressage and Craig Cameron Horsemanship saw it too. The typical, traditional equestrian event fare is easy to embrace, but what’s this thing, just for women, that’s never been done before?
I know others will “get vision” when they see what we all accomplish the first weekend of October in this Year of the Horse Woman.
I also have to thank those who have encouraged me, supported me, put up with me and comforted me for the last year and a half. My life partners Karen and Kira. My chief sounding board and business crutch, Dorothy, without whom I could not have taken this bold, new business adventure. My sons Patrick and Brendan. The dedicated interns who slaved away to get get “real experience.” And the boarders and students of the Northwest Natural Horsemanship Center who have helped “keep things going” while I was sometimes a bit distant. Thank you all.
I know that the great financial and emotional burden that the American Horsewoman’s Challenge has brought to bear WILL be rewarded. Not because everyone keeps telling me so, but because I know it is the right time, the right place and the right thing to do.
I do not talk much about my belief systems and religion, but I do tell those who are interested that I believe that the afterlife is the present life you live while you are here. What I do now and how I influence, educate and inspire others is my afterlife that is carried forward and lives on in the ones I touched and the ones they will touch, having been influenced my me. So, if I die of exhaustion, somebody carry on…please :)
I want to wish all the competitors and their equine partners a safe journey this coming week and thank you all for trusting and encouraging all of us here at NWNHC. We will continue to do our best to honor your commitment and earn your respect so you can pass along these lessons to those humans and horses you touch in your lifetime.
Good night. God speed.
Hutch