Alchemy Handlebars. A Mad Metaphor for Life Right Now

I just got back from an early morning ride on the beach with a friend who I haven’t seen for a few months. It was a beautiful, wild and windy morning and the early sun was warm on our faces. We gabbled and babbled the whole way there and for the entire trot up the lagoon and all the way back – wind, water, dogs and surfers notwithstanding.

At one point, she said something that made me laugh so hard and for so long, that I nearly fell off. Admittedly, there may have been a touch of hysteria in my mood this morning.

Let’s face it, the last few weeks have been a bit crazy for many of us. We’ve had a cold, wet and windy winter. We still have covid breathing down our necks. Tolerance is low, irritability is high. The future is still (amazingly!?) uncertain.

And through it all, us horsey people have been riding, training, practicing and competing as though our lives depended on it. The show calendar has shrunk, expanded, extended and re-engaged to make this time a very busy one for us. After a quiet period of no shows, we now have a plethora of possibilities to choose from. We have to pick and choose our events, so we don’t end up with exhausted and burnt-out horses (and riders).

Back to my giggles this morning…

My friend and I were talking about holidays. Glorious overseas holidays, on golden beaches with shimmering turquoise waters. And local country holidays in rural villages with quaint and charming shops. Then she says, “Do you know this place, I can’t remember the exact name, but it sounds like Alchemy Handlebars?” Said friend is English, from the UK, so I start wracking my brain for an Afrikaans village that sounds like Alchemy Handlebars. Coming up with nothing, I ask, “Whereabouts is this place?”

“Oh there’s one in almost every village. It’s the place you buy things you need from.”

As the penny drops for me, I start laughing. And laughing. Tears streaming down my face, and spluttering with mirth, I finally get it together enough to say, “oh, you mean the Algemeede Handelaar!”

As I rode home alone after we parted, my sense of humour beautifully restored and feeling relaxed and happy, I chuckled to myself about her rough phonetic translation of a “General Dealer” in Afrikaans, to two English words that have a totally different meaning.

Alchemy – the process of taking something ordinary, and transforming it into something extraordinary, sometimes in a way that cannot be explained. Traditionally, we think of alchemy as the process of transforming lead into gold. That ride this morning did that for me, for sure. As I mounted I was feeling like a lead balloon, grumpy from a bad night of not sleeping well. I returned home buoyant and golden, full of fun from the joy of two girls riding their horses on the beach, laughing like hyenas and sharing silly stories.

Handlebars are those items you use to steer a two wheeled vehicle, to make it go the way you want it to. You get to choose your direction, by using your handlebars correctly. I’ve been told before by my riding coach not to use my reins like handlebars – you can’t push one and pull the other. Even on a bicycle, it’s important to have even pressure on both handlebars – balance is everything!

Using a lot of poetic license and some of the lunacy of our hilarity filled ride, I figured that this was actually a perfect metaphor for life right now. We are all “General Dealers” of sorts, buying and selling a variety of attitudes, feelings, moods and actions throughout our lives. How utterly appropriate that we get to choose to be “Alchemy Handlebars” every day. By committing to turn ordinary experiences into extraordinary opportunities to create gold in the interactions we have with one another, and keeping a firm but balanced hold on the handlebars of our lives, we get

to choose the direction we go in, moment by moment.

The more I work with equestrians to help them overcome mindset blocks that stop them from reaching their full potential in the arena, the more I see how practicing good mental skills in your ride also translates to being able to make better overall decisions in your life.

I’m very excited about creating an online course for riders, that explores 9 essential mental skills for sports performance. The Ultimate Guide to More Successful Shows will take you through a journey of personal and equestrian growth as we look at the skills needed for long term rider development, skills needed for show preparation and essential skills during your performance. Starting off with a self-assessment questionnaire of your current level of proficiency in each of 9 areas, you can choose to do this course online and in your own time, or as a guided coaching journey, with other like-minded equestrians. There will be video, as well as written content, along with workbooks and exercises for you to practice each skill.

This course will be available for pre-booking soon.

As always, I am here to help – so get in touch with your questions and let me know which area of mental performance you most want to hear more about.

email me: [email protected], or schedule your free introductory call to discuss

Warm regards

Linda