Today I watched a YouTube video from the account ‘Art2Ride.’ Well, I watched part of it. I got there because I was looking for solutions to a horse pulling while lunging and YouTube is a brilliant suckhole of clicking and watching and rewarding curiosity with endorphins, and whoops, there you are. Watching some fancy Southern California dude in $300 breeches and $700 boots lunge a young warmblood who is stretching and building topline and preparing for a career of concentrating very hard at going around in circles.

The Internet is a terrifying, overwhelming place. I didn’t have the internet the first time I was a horseman. I went by feel. I listened to my instructors. I watched my friends. I did not micromanage or obsess. Now, I can spent 4 hours of the day just trying to figure out the correct way to half-halt according to every “expert” who has working fingers and access to the World Wide Web.

Before you know it, I’ve forgotten what I’m even looking for, and I’m not any closer to having a lunging session where the mustang does not pull when I ask for a canter. Crap. I circle back and chant the reminder: keep it simple, go back to the foundation, be happy with small steps, and spend more time in the arena than on the internet. In short, get a grip, start where YOU and your horse are, not where the fancy internet stars look to be.