A good friend of mine is a horse whisper.

For those of you who may have heard of or seen the film ‘the horse whisperer’ starring Robert Redford as Marvin Earl “Monty” Roberts,may be familiar with the role of a horse whisper.

My friend had the good fortune to train and study with Monty Roberts ad has a strong friendship with him.

Roberts believes that horses use a non-verbal language, which he terms “Equus,” and that humans can use this language to communicate with horses. He writes that he realized that they used a discernible, effective and predictable body language to communicate, set boundaries, show fear and express annoyance, relaxation or affection, and that he came to understand that utilizing this silent language would allow training to commence in a much more effective and humane manner, encouraging true partnership between horses and humans.

From his training with Monty and his growing reputation in Wales within the equine ferternity, my friend had the good fortune to be asked to attempt to tame some wild ponies up on the snowdownian mountains in Wales. This was to be televised by on Channel 4 over four episodes.

The ponies where ferral and in danger of becoming extinct because nobody had good reason to keep the breed alive because it was so wild.

It was a big ask but one my friend believed he could do.

Using all the techniques he had been taught by Monty, along with his natural and deep understanding of horses, having been brought up with them all his life, he managed to do the impossible and tame the ponies, to the point that the finale of the programme was to take one of the ponies to a horse show, riden by no other than his 5 year old daughter.

Everything was perfect for the show. The pony was calm, his daughter was confident and so was my friend. Everything had worked. That is until it rained, and the pony went mad!

It was as though it reverted back to its ferral ways, to the point that they cancelled the showing at the horse show.

This is the point that most of us give up on ourselves.

We may go to specialists, or read a book, go on a course, or what ever it is that we feel will turn us into the person we want to be and everything can be going along lovely. Then a few weeks in, something happens that finds us back to our old ways and we throw the towel in, with the belief that nothing has worked and continue along our old path.

Heres what a experienced horseman like my friend did in this same situation.

At first he was human. He kicked a bucket, swore, believed nothing worked, doubted himself and his system and the chance that these ponies could ever really be tame etc.

Then, after the tantrum, he calmed down and re examined the facts. More importantly the variable that made the difference to the ponies calmness that he had missed.

The rain.

With that he simply went back to the ponies and his training ground and implemented his knowledge, incorporating training in the rain or simulated versions of it until the ponies where conditioned to how the rain felt even in an unatural environment like someone on their back!

A few weeks later and my friend was showing the Pony with his daughter riding it again, without concern for the rain or his daughters safety. In fact its testiment to his belief in his system and what can be achieved that he would let his daughter go back on the pony. It came first in class!

The last time I visited him some months later, this pony was in the paddock very happy, calm and content with no other issues.

This is what we must be prepered to do if we are to succeed.

We must start to look at what is ‘the Rain’ that is knocking us back, rather than that we are broken or unchangable.

Most things come down to the basic foundations, just applied to a missed issue, that once identified can just be subjected to the original, basic fundementals again and change will happen.

My friend didnt have a time frame for this particular pony to reach its potential. That would be unfair on the pony.

Even if he had worked on ten similar ponies previously and each took one week to tame, it made little difference to him. ‘It takes as long as it takes’, he told me, ‘but it will happen’.

His philospophy is simple. ‘What I do works, this is a fact. However, how long it takes this little pony to see that is undecided for both of us. If he sticks with me, (it was not really a choice in this intance for the pony as he was not a paying client!) he will get there, whether it takes 2 weeks or 2 years!

And thats it. Forget about 10 minute Abs, 1 hour confidence, or what ever other instant gratification product is being touted.

Fundementals, hard work and self belief is what you need to succeed, and if, up till now, you have failed, the fundementals of what you are pursuing, hard work and self belief are probaly your ‘Rain’ and a good place to start.