My daughter takes horseback riding lessons and yesterday, she earned a prestigious Dusty Bottom Award. So what is a Dusty Bottom award you may be wondering? These are certificates given to young riders at the stables where she takes her lessons when they fall or are tossed from their horse’s back and hit the sand in the arena – thus creating the dusty bottom.
Falling off the Horse
Falling off the horse is as important to a young rider’s education as riding a horse is. In fact, it may be one of the most important lessons a rider can learn. Having ridden for years and been tossed a fair number of times myself – when you get tossed off a horse – the first step after making sure you are okay is to get back on the horse.
This teaches commitment, perseverance and determination. I give high marks to my daughter’s riding instructor who made sure she was fine before helping her to remount and giving her the advice that falling makes her a better rider. Because it’s true, falling does make you a better rider. If you fall off once and you learn how you did it and why you did it, you rarely make the same mistake again.
Sometimes falling can make us afraid too – we don’t want to do it again and learning to overcome that fear is equally important.
Failure – An Object Life Lesson
We’re all afraid of failure, we’re afraid to mess up and we’re afraid to make a mistake. But when we make a mistake or we fall, we can choose to learn from it. You do this in all aspects of your life and fitness is no exception whether you are involved in sports, academics, work or even your home life. Failure should not mean the end of effort.
Valorie talked about “Meet the Robinsons” over in the Disney blog recently and I have seen the movie as has my daughter and she took one thing away from it that I am distinctly proud of – the motto: Keep Moving Forward — no matter the mistakes, no matter how much the ‘experiments’ didn’t work or even how many failures you encounter – you have to keep moving forward.
I’m very proud of my daughter’s Dusty Bottom award and I’m very proud of her – because she got back on the horse and she kept moving forward.
Do you have a Dusty Bottom award that you are proud of?
Related Articles:
Summer Sports – Camps and Alternatives
Attention Parents: Exercise Can Help Your Kids Get Better Grades