Denny Emerson - Begin and Begin Again: The Bright Optimism of Reinventing Life with Horses

BEGIN

and Begin Again

A lso by

D enny E merson

How Good Riders Get Good
Know Better to Do Better

D enny E merson

BEGIN

and Begin Again

The Bright Optimism
of Reinventing Life with Horses

First published in 2021 by

Trafalgar Square Books

North Pomfret, Vermont 05053

Copyright 2021 Denny Emerson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, by any means, without written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer quoting brief excerpts for a review in a magazine, newspaper, or website.

Disclaimer of Liability

The author and publisher shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book. While the book is as accurate as the author can make it, there may be errors, omissions, and inaccuracies.

Trafalgar Square Books encourages the use of approved safety helmets in all equestrian sports and activities.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Emerson, Denny, author.

Title: Begin and begin again : the bright optimism of reinventing life with horses.

Description: North Pomfret, Vermont : Trafalgar Square Books, 2021. | Includes index. | Summary: "In his third book, renowned horseman Denny Emerson once again masterfully intertwines his entertaining reflections from a life embedded in the equestrian world with serious philosophical questions faced by the industry today and practical advice honed by his immense experience. Here he explores all the different ways we begin a life with horses, or begin it over again, and how that constant reinvention is integral to our ability to keep horses a part of our lives over time"-- Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021031933 (print) | LCCN 2021031934 (ebook) | ISBN 9781646010394 (paperback) | ISBN 9781646010400 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Horsemanship--Psychological aspects.

Classification: LCC SF309 E63 2021 (print) | LCC SF309 (ebook) | DDC 798.2--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021031933

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021031934

All photographs courtesy of Denny Emerson except: p. 1 (skumer/Adobe Stock); p. 16 (Terri Cage /Adobe Stock); p. 42 (Rhett Savoie); p. 43 (Rebecca Didier); p. 67 (horsemen/Adobe Stock); p. 68 (Talitha/Adobe Stock); p. 97 inset (clixphoto.com); p. 114 (Stefan Voegeli/Adobe Stock); p. 131 (Lindle Sutton); p. 161 (Kendall Szumilas); p. 171 (Ashley Neuhof); p. 176 (Melissa A. Priblo Chapman); p. 193 (Leslie Ellis)

Book design by Katarzyna MisiukanisCeliska ( https://misiukanis-artstudio.com )

Cover design by RM Didier

Index by Andrea M. Jones ( www.jonesliteraryservice.com )

Typefaces: Eskorte Latin, Impact, Metropolis and Lato

Printed in China

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

D edication

To May Emerson

who, sooner rather than later,
understood what it means
to be a horsewoman.

CONTENTS

Begin and Begin Again

Special appreciation, once again, to the linguistics, grammar, and editing experts who created the finished product from the raw manuscript stage, including my my friend, Strafford, Vermont, neighbor and editor Anne Adams, and the crew at Trafalgar Square Books in North Pomfret, Vermont: Caroline Robbins, Martha Cook, Rebecca Didier, Kim Cook, Amy Wilson, Lizzie Gray, Marilyn Tobin, and freelance designer Katarzyna Misiukanis-Celiska.

If it takes a village to raise a child;
it takes a small city to publish a book.
My gratitude and thanks.

D enny E merson

You cant go back and change the beginning,
but you can start where you are
and change the ending.

C.S. L ewis

Theres no rule that says someone has to ride or drive or have a hands-on connection to get joy from horses.

_ Three, Two, One

Without conscious intent, I wrote a backward trilogy. My first book about riding is called How Good Riders Get Good. It is based on my decades of upper-level competing, and its oriented toward those readers who might want more insight into what goes into becoming an elite rider.

The book deals with how all sorts of small, medium, and big choicessome made almost daily and without much thoughtcan lead either toward or away from riding goals.

Then, a few years later, I wrote a second book, Know Better to Do Better. This book has a broader and more diverse aim, and in many instances, I discuss strategies and training techniques that I would now go back and do differently if I had one of those magical do-over buttons. I talked about various horses, how I worked with them, and how I would do it differently if I had a second chance with them.

This, the third book, Begin and Begin Again, was triggered by the realization that we actually do have that do-over button, and it is right here, right now, at our fingertips, and all we have to do is choose to push the button.

Henry David Thoreau ended Walden with these famous words: Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star. Each new dawn offers an opportunity for a new beginning, if only we are awake enough to be aware. Too often, I think, we are caught up in what we did yesterday, and the day before that, which can hide the possibilities of positive change.

I wrote this third book of my backward trilogy to explore the ways to turn those hidden possibilities into realities.

Much like my riding career over the past 70 yearsfull of zigs and zags, twists and turnsthis book is not one that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. This book is about the many ways we can start out with horses, each one as valid as any otherso long as we dont hurt the horseand then, as our circumstances change, how we can reinvent or revisit that association.

_ That Little Prefix

There is power and potential in the little prefix re.

The primary definitions of re that I found by consulting various dictionaries include again, once more, afresh, anew, and back to an original place.

Now there are a few re words that have negative connotations, such as retire and retreat, but most of them possess the hope of doing something over, only this time, doing it better: Restore, revive, reinvigorate, renew, repair, reinvent, and revitalize are some of the optimistic ways of using the re prefix.

Sure, we have the choice to retreat. We may even retire. But doing so does not preclude the chance to reinstate our fixation with horses, perhaps in some different form, but true to the original passion.