This month I would like to answer a question that likely affects many people, young or old, about succumbing to boredom. This is a very important subject to me as it affects people and horses alike.
Dear Monty:
I am a 13-year-old trail rider that got a horse last fall, 2008, and I'm bored with her. I absolutely dread riding her. But it's not her, she does everything right; she's a wonderful horse but I'm bored. My parents say 'give it awhile,' but I just can't stand riding her. I love her to death but I don't know what to do. I want a new horse, but I need my parents' permission. I'm asking you for your advice on selling her or keeping her?
Brock Thering
Dear Brock,
At 13 years of age, you are entering a whole new phase of life. The teenage years will serve as a time for you to mould your personality for the rest of your life. In this day and age, young people are bombarded with entertainment like we have never known on the face of the earth before your generation. Instant gratification, the fast forward button and a reverence for celebrity has obviously caused young people to succumb to boredom at record speeds.
This, I suggest, is not the fault of young people but far more the result of adults that have created the environment that we have today. I have to say that I feel sorry for our next generation who will find it extremely difficult to be satisfied with anything short of life on the fast track and living with the instant satisfaction of all sorts of entertainment and other distractions brought about in a fast forward fashion. Maybe I am just too old-fashioned to answer this question but I will give it a try.
It is absolutely true that the mindset that you have described is in fact preparing you to be bored with the same girlfriend or even male friends. It certainly is setting you up to be bored with a spouse and even innocent children, who all too often today come into this world only to be raised by a single parent who became bored with their wife or husband. I have no idea what the balance of your life is like, but I have some strong suggestions for you if you have any hope of growing up to be a happy, well-adjusted adult.
By your own admission she is so perfect that you are now bored with her. I have always felt that I made the right choice in a wife and she has been a good partner for our 53 years of marriage. With your mindset I would have been bored with her in the first two years and the 3 children that we were blessed with would have had to be raised by a divorced mother and the 47 foster children that we cared for might well have fallen very short of the accomplishments that they have been able to enjoy. All of this would have been a great shame.
My recommendations would be to look for the positives in your horse and create situations that allow you to enjoy this perfect horse by seeking out exciting new things to do. Once more, I don't know all of the circumstances here but if it is possible, maybe riding in the mountains would be enjoyable. Maybe seeking an education about the things you see in the mountains while riding might be interesting to you. Quite possibly seeking out competition would be exciting for you.
If you were riding with me for the next month or so I guarantee that I can come up with ways that you wouldn't find boring. Put on your thinking cap, son. Enjoy the ways that you are blessed and try to minimize your attempts to seek out instant gratification. You will be blessed with a much happier adulthood if you can learn to appreciate the wonders in our lives rather than to ponder the next exciting change that you can seek out.
Don't feel like the lone ranger, Brock. You belong to a generation that is challenged by the abundance of activities our modern world has created. But when young people allow the mindset you have described to consume them, they are often the victims of boredom to the extent that they are divorced, unemployed, friendless, smokers, drinkers and users of recreational drugs that consume their lives and drag them down when they otherwise had an abundance of talent.
If you choose, please continue to communicate with us and remember that you are a precious human being who has far more things to be excited about than you currently realize. Don't be afraid to seek further advice from me as you desire.
Sincerely,
Monty
