I can say that I have really experienced an “emergent” year as a professional rider.
I think every professional in any sport, or really any field, needs to define what their profession means- morally, ethically, and of what it is composed. (I know this is strange syntax, but I need more coffee)
For me there are three parts to being Megan Kepferle, Professional Equestrian;
MegKep, Horseman; MegKep, Coach; and MegKep,Competitor
As a horseman, and what should be the pillar of all professionals, I have the most experience. I am naturally empathetic, sometimes to a fault; and have spent the last 26423 years caring for horses. The last 6 of them for horses performing under extreme competitive pressure. I have learned how to put animal welfare far in front of my own, and I do not say this for applause, I say it because it is my driving factor as a professional, and it is something that cannot be untaught. I am very proud of this trait, and I hold others to an extremely high standard, sometimes so much that I have to remind myself that they, too must be taught. Which is one of my responsibilities as a coach:
As a coach, something that comes fairly natural to me, I have seen my business gro
w and continue to grow -and this is pretty fulfilling. I love working with people and making them better. I love being coached, I love coaching, I love when my students succeed, and I love when my students learn to trust me. I think as a coach I have come a long way, but I also think I have a long way to go. But not without improving my life as a competitor…
As a competitor, I am the greenest. I am naturally quite competitive in all aspects of my life (stubborn?) and love winning. But I have less experience competing than I do coaching. I have spent the last three seasons competing my mare, Caherconree Cooley. There have been many times where I have second guessed myself as a competitor, because my inner horseman was waving a giant red/white/pirate flag, and I simply did not have enough experience as a competitor to feel comfortable making decisions in that moment that I knew cost me results. This past weekend I was experiencing a lot of moments with my mare that were frustrating, and I had a moment somewhere around the second to last stride before jump 5 that I had a choice between competing and being empathetic. My voice of empathy is so much louder, it may always hold me back from being a top competitor. It is frustrating for me right now, as I am trying to move up the levels and prove to myself I am capable to make those decisions (cue: Pdutty physically placing Happy through the flags @ Olympics).
Finding my balance between these three components will be a career-long struggle. My deer friend (get it??) Lynn Symansky said, “ah yes, welcome to the constant struggle of balancing clients and self-improvement”. And if I, in turn, never learn how to be a better competitor than I am a horseman or a coach, I will learn to live with that. I have decided (with guidance of many more experienced than I ) after this weekend, that my special mare is not meant for me in eventing. She is a serious jumper and will go further in that career, and I will go further in mine with another horse. As a competitor it is a huge blow to the ego. But as a horseman I believe now I am making the right decision. As a coach, well, now I have more time for my students!
As I turn the next page of my unwritten career book, I look forward to learning how to trust my competitor as much as I trust my coach and my horseman. And I am really, really excited to see Teagan’s show jumping career unfold with someone awesome #hearteyes, and I am going to try REALLY hard not to send her to her new home with a lengthy list of how exactly she likes to be taken care of….
A Coach, A Horseman, and A Competitor walk into a bar…. I don’t know how the rest of that joke goes, but my horse is for sale…
