After watching the movie Secretariat last night for the second time I am compelled to write about what exploded in my heart after viewing the movie. We all have a race to run! Some choose the fast track, some like a moderate pace, and some just go along like a turtle covered in a hard shell, ready to retract their head and legs at the first sign of a struggle! Let's explore today the world of horse racing, different types of tracks and the preparation that horse owners take to prepare a 1,000 + pound animal to run and win and see what we can learn from a horse!
We all have our own race to run, many hurdles to jump, oceans to swim, and mountains to climb! Run your race with passion, perseverance, and bulldog tenacity....at the end of your life you will want to know you did all that you could to finish your race strong! That is what I want to talk to you about today, the elements it takes to developing the race horse in you so that you might finish strong!
Let's look at the life and story of this horse called Secretariat and his owner, Penny Chenery! She had been a housewife that without a moment to prepare was called into the arena of saving the legacy of her father's farm with a horse they named Secretariat! She was living in another state and had a husband and four children. When faced with the overwhelming debt from her parents farm, and everything else that goes into managing an estate not to mention a horse racing farm, after her mother died while her father suffered with dementia, the story of this woman and horse is more than just captivating it is extrodinary!
What would you do if your mom died, father was mentally failing, and their debt was in the millions? Here is what this woman did! Instead of doing what the average Joe does, she did what champions do, she took the only thing she had that was good and ran with it with everything inside of her! She had no experience, no money, no support, yet she walked into an arena, took ownership of the challenge and hit it head on, leaving heads spiraling in many directions!
Here are some of the things she did. She found the best trainer that she could find, then asked him to find the most ambitious rider that he knew of. She studied up on history, who's who, discovered her assets and stacked them as high as she could. She spoke what she believed in, even when everyone else was speaking the exact opposite! Although many times I am sure she felt all alone, fearful, doubtful and many other things, she never wavered in her attitude of fortitude! She handled people with grace, kindness, yet fierce determination, with an uncompromising heart of courage and faith.
Now let's talk about her horse. Many believe that what we do with animals makes no difference. Animals are insignificant and our job is to dominate them. She took a different approach, she loved her horse, believed in her horse, and took in every aspect of his training, feeding, vet care, teeth care, and management very seriously. He in return ran! He was born to run, showed off and loved attention. He was a horse that typically started out in last place and then at the end of the race breezed by them all.
He was a horse that had heart. I have ridden many horses in my day, yet I have only ridden one horse with heart and a second horse that cried out to be understood. I loved her and the more I loved her the better she got, I started out treating her like an animal and in the end, she was a friend. She would do things for me that she would not do for anyone else. Secretariat appeared to love to run, but it seemed as though he captured the heart of his owner and she believed he could run, and outrun them all.
The records that he holds today puts him in a class like non-other. Here is what I believe, nothing is more powerful in the universe than words with heart! She had words and a heart that changed her life, and the future of not only her family but a horse and an entire horse industry. The bible says: Proverbs 18:21: life and death are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat it's fruit! She ate the fruit of words with heart! For the last race of the Triple Crown, the longest race of the three, they decided to train him hard, knowing if they didn't he would not be able to make it. He was not a distant runner, he started out in last, took a moment to gain momentum, then blew by everyone, then won. That was his style, his makeup, the way he worked best. In this last race he had to have the endurance to stay ahead of the rest. The way he had always run, would not work with the competition that he was facing.
This is what happened, the rider started him out in front, went head to head with his biggest competition, then sprinted ahead of them all winning by 31 lengths! This is unmatched and unparalleled! Here is the other significant thing with this race, in all the other races when starting out in last place, he finished first but was covered in dirt from the competition. When Secretariat started out in front, he remanded clean and unaffected by the other horses. So many of us wait and watch, wait and watch, wait and watch, to be a champion we watch and then RUN! There is a time to learn, but then a heart of a champion does not need all the facts, all the tests, or all the surveys, they just believe they can and so they do!
Here is one last significant thought, in order to be a champion, when training for the big event you may have to train harder than you ever have before! You may have to come up with new strategies! You may have to push more than you ever have before! When everyone else is taking a vacation, you may have to go into the hardest part of your training! Champions with heart, always size up their challenge and do whatever it takes, on their part, to accomplish the goal! They never give up, never give in, never quit, never throw in the towel, never rest, they push past all odds and plow through to the other side!
If I were you, I would do everything in my power to start saying what you want to be and achieve until you believe it and go for it with a heart of a champion! Why don't you watch this video and check out what a champion should look like!
You have a race to run! I have a race to run! Let us learn from this horse how to win our race and become the champions with heart that we were created to be!
Why revival??? Without a revival of the heart, we can't be the champions we were created to be!
