An 11-time world champion spent the past two days in Jamestown teaching horsemanship.
Greg Robinson said he is touring the country to show his brand of working with horses, something different than traditional methods. Robinson said he has found a better way to better communicate by putting in less effort. Robinson said great horsemen master themselves before they master their horses.
“You got to control your anxiety levels, you energy levels, and you have to believe deeply, you know, your intent changes a horse,” Robinson said. “And you don’t have to change your ride, you have to change your mind about how it’s going to go. And it’s amazing the difference it makes.”
Robinson said a great rider is humble, patient and open minded. Robinson said anger does not belong in the saddle, as horses can often pick up on their rider’s emotions.
“That goes back to self-mastery,” Robinson said. “When you feel yourself getting upset, or angry, or anxiety, if you can’t control it, you need to step off your horse for a minute. Just take a walk and come back to it because these animals really do pick up on every single thing about us.”
Robinson’s son, Stallon, accompanies him on tour. Stallon Robinson said he learned about patience early, and his dad helped him put it into practice early.
“If [Greg] saw me getting frustrated, he’d tell me to get off and go to the barn,” Stallon Robinson said. “‘Whatever’s going on with you today has nothing to do with the horse and you’re just picking on him, so get off until you can get your mind right.’ And so that’s always something that’s been a major blessing to me, and something my wife really likes is she says I have the patience of a saint. So I can say I got that from my dad.”
Robinson said his world championships can be credited with the people he has ridden with and a few great horses. Robinson said those horses taught him what it was like to be on a highly tuned athlete and the importance of finding the right feel.
Robinson said winning his championships took years of work. Robinson said he reached a point of consistently placing in the top five or top ten, but first place continued to escape him.
“Once I won the first world title, about 25 or 40 minutes later, I won the second world title,” Robinson said. “And by the end of the week, I had seven of them. And it just went on from there once I broke through that barrier. The first one was hard to get, and the others, I still had to work for them of course and do my job right, but they came a little easier after I won that first one.”