Getting Off of My High Horse

Arrogance Is Not My Friend

It seemed like a good idea. We were going horseback riding with some good friends. I do not remember the size or condition of the horse. I do not remember much about him at all except that he was a rather high horse.

The truth is that I was a lot heavier in those days. It was the eighties. I had not reached my peak weight, but neither was I light.

I might add that I had one or two strong opinions and could express them with? pompous vigor and self-righteous surety.?

I knew to mount the stead on the left. it was not the first time I had been on a horse, but it was the last -- so far.

I knew much. I thought I knew even more.

What I did not know, was my horse.

I got on and was situating myself and balancing the load. At that point, it became apparent that no amount of load-balancing would compensate for the reality of the load itself.?

I had exceeded that boy's? weight limit.

Old Paint began to buckle under my load. He bent his knees. He went to the ground. He either could not nor would not carry me. That was the way it was. There was no remedy.

My high horse had rejected me.

It is bad enough to fall off of one's high horse of opinionated splendor, but to be totally rejected by the mount of ascension itself is rather embarrassing.?

There have been many times when my attitudes, premises, ideas, and assertions have not withstood the strength of reality and truth.

There have been other times when I have been bucked off onto the gravel.

Still, I have ridden my high horse with some of the same misplaced confidence that has betrayed me before. I would have been better off riding a pompous jackass since I was acting like one anyway.

It is important to have a point of view. More accurately, it is important to know that we have a point of view, recognize? it, and be able to identify it. That way we can acknowledge it. That way, we and others can compensate for it and understand that others may have different perspectives.

What a wonderful antidote to the disease of high-horse-itis to take an "I might be wrong" pill every morning!

What a magnificent cure to obnoxiousness to admit that we have blind sides! What a marvelous aid to keeping our bones intact, to gently dismount our high horses, take on a little humility, exercise a little restrain, and listen to those who share different views from our own.

I'd like to try riding a horse again one day, but not one too high or too low. I need the right horse and then I need to ride it with a little less pride than the last time.

That way, I might have a little less humiliation when I fall off.

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A great story on pride and falls: