Home Again, Home Again

July 14, 2008

Hello!

As usual, on Monday morning I am spending time in airports in transit home. It pretty much takes me a whole day to get anywhere, since most of my travels take me to either the east or west coast; once you factor in my three hour drive to and from the Denver airport to home, it makes for a long day. But, I enjoy the down time—time to read, catch up on emails, write in the blog. Since I fly so much, I have a fairly high status with the airline and the perks that United offers to its premium flyers takes a lot of the sting out of air travel (no waiting in lines, extra baggage, upgrades to first class).

I am returning from Raleigh NC and the Equine Extravaganza horse expo. It was a fun weekend—although expos involve long, hard days for the people that work there. Generally we have 10-11 hour days “on the floor“ (concrete floor) often followed by a late business dinner. It‘s lots of fun to do my presentations and visit with people all day, but it does take a lot of energy.

This weekend, I emceed the “Trainer‘s Challenge,“ which is a colt starting contest amongst three up-and-coming trainers trying to break into the ‘big time.‘ I enjoyed narrating the contest, telling the audience about the techniques the trainer‘s are using, why they are doing something and pointing out the behavior and responses in each of the horses. That took about an hour and a half all three mornings. On top of that, I did my regular presentations in the coliseum and round pen, plus Q&A/autograph signings; in-between, I spend my time talking to attendees and answering questions, with the occasional business meeting thrown in for good measure. It‘s fun to talk to all the people—one man even told me he wanted to see my newly painted toes (obviously a blog reader!)

On Friday I had three presentations, four on Saturday, two on Sunday. Two presentations is a lot—four is bordering on ridiculous. Although I thoroughly enjoy doing my presentations, the energy it takes for the articulation and being “on stage” for an hour at a time is significant. I‘ve been doing it long enough where I don‘t really have to plan it out or prepare in anyway or stress over it, so that helps. But it‘s no wonder that by Monday, I am ready to chill out with a little alone time where I don‘t have to talk for the whole day; and airports are a great place for that.

I was very pleased this weekend with all the people that told me they were watching Horse Master and really enjoying it. Even though it was a pretty small expo, the number of people mentioning the TV show gave me great encouragement that our viewership is growing tremendously. We are only six months into the show now and I feel pretty good about the growing number of viewers and the fact that we‘ve already won two awards.

A lot of the people that spoke with me this weekend mentioned that they thought I was much funnier in person than on the TV show. I‘ve had the same comments about my videos. It‘s a whole lot easier to crack jokes in front of an audience than when it is just me staring at the camera. If no one laughs back at my jokes, it‘s hard to keep them coming. On the other hand, working in front of a live audience makes it a lot easier, since I get a lot of energy back from the crowd. After a while, the crowd is expecting you to make a joke and sometimes they even laugh at something I didn‘t even intend as a joke. Or they laugh at the silly antics of the horse. Although people come to my clinics and demos for education and information (and I try to make sure they are never disappointed), entertainment is really important too—even if it takes me acting like a clown sometimes. If I can figure out how to do the same thing without a crowd present, just imagine how great the TV show would be! I‘ll have to work on that—maybe we need to film in front if a live audience.

In the meantime, I look forward to getting home this evening—maybe if I am lucky, I‘ll get home in time to ride. Although that is looking doubtful since my Chicago to Denver flight has already been delayed twice and it‘s only 8:00 am. Oh well, you just have to take what comes your way when you travel. Thank god for the Red Carpet Club!