Memoirs of a Riding Instructor

I   heard somewhere that during your lifetime you may effect as many as 800,000 people. That means that you, intentionally or unintentionally, impact the 800,000 people you come in contact with throughout your life. Those people will then go on and effect 800,000 people, and they will effect 800,000 people, and so on, and so on. Kind of scary thinking, huh? So that got me thinking... "How have I been making my impact?"   and more importantly  "How would  I like to effect those 800,000 people?' I have no idea how many people I have already touched, for better or for worse. I have images of childhood friendships, family, business relationships, students, and I'm sure there are quite of few that I didn't even know, or that I was effecting them at all.  Perhaps simply a spectator at a horse show that was touched by something I did or didn't do.  I think back to my earlier post regarding Dara Torres. I have never met her. I never even knew she existed

Gave a lesson to a ten year old who was feeling overwhelmed with school and wanted to have an easy day, and just play and ride. I was letting her show her grandma how she can jump around the field over some simple fences and she got left behind and popped off. Me:  "Hey, you had a great ride today, minus your stunt riding. Sorry you fell off. Today was supposed to be a fun day with no pressure." Kid : (Grinning from ear to ear) "Who said falling off isn't fun?"