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Storytelling Fail

"I'm so crap at storytelling."

That was a tweet I saw from someone, and I admit, as a writer, content marketer, and publisher, it hit home with me.

Finding other people's stories--not a problem. It's my own storytelling I could improve on.

Practice makes perfect.

+Alexander Sokolov posted a cool moving photo on Google Plus: The image made me laugh and think about my horse Nahanni. When a horse makes up its mind to go somewhere, no human(s) are going to stop it with a rope. I know this first-hand, and the lesson cost me $75.

Nahanni and I were attending a riding clinic and waiting our turn to go into the arena. I was caught up in watching the other group executing the drills, and by chance, glanced over at my horse with someone else's halter half down her throat. She was bored and decided to eat it. I grabbed it and yanked it away, then foolishly slapped her (more like a light tap) on the nose. Well, any point of contact with her in the way of a slap (or hitting her with reins), no matter how hard, and she'd go into Stubborn 101 mode. When I realized what I had done, it was too late. She started backing up from the fence she was tied to--with two measly pieces of leather. I pleaded with her to stop and tried to pull her back as I desperately worked to untie the reins--which was impossible as she had pulled them so tight, then snap! But of course, once she broke free, she just stood there. She got her point across. I had to borrow a set of reins to finish the day, then stopped in at a saddlery store on the way home to pick up a new set of reins. They were bloody well woven rope and an elephant wouldn't break them. She'd have to break the bridle before those reins broke. The ironic part is those reins had leather straps at the end of them, which I had to take great care to make sure they didn't slap her by accident. The moral of the story is find a story to tell and maybe keep a spare set of reins.
Posted by Debbie Elicksen at 2:55 PM Labels: Debbie Elicksen, Google Plus, horses, storytelling


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