#404: How an Underdog Won the Super Bowl of Horse Competitions: A Lesson on Courage, Authenticity, & Living True to Yourself

Kevin Lowe: Because honestly, when you boil it down.

Kevin Lowe: Tik story today, what it's about, it's about really waking up to who you really and truly are and ultimately finding the courage to step into it even when the stakes are high.

Kevin Lowe: So my friend, I encourage you to get ready, to lean in, to get excited because today's episode is going to move you.

Kevin Lowe: This is episode 404 of Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

Kevin Lowe: Me, I'm your host, Kevin Lowe. And of course, as always, I am absolutely stoked that you are here today.

Kevin Lowe: Now, as one little extra bonus, in case today's episode isn't enough, well, I want you to check out the link at the top of today's show notes, where you can hear this entire story shrunk down into just a song.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah, a custom country song that tells the story of Tik Maynard.

Kevin Lowe: It's called The Horseman's Dance, and is ready for you to listen right now.

Kevin Lowe: So I encourage you first listen to the interview, but then be sure to check out the song for a little extra something just to be sure that you get enough of Tik Maynard in your life.

Kevin Lowe: Why not have it as a song as well?

Podcast Intro with music: I got Grit, Grace, & Inspiration on my mind...

Kevin Lowe: What is going on? And welcome back to Grit, Grace, & Inspiration.

Kevin Lowe: I'm your host, Kevin Lowe.

Kevin Lowe: Today, I have the pleasure of being in the studio with none other than the infamous Mr. Tik Maynard.

Kevin Lowe: Tik, man, what a pleasure to have you here. Welcome to the podcast.

Tik Maynard: Thanks, Kevin. It is an honor and a privilege and a pleasure to be here chatting with you. Thanks for having me.

Kevin Lowe: Absolutely. Well, Tik, I'm excited to get to dive into your story, But, you know, I always say, you know, obviously a story starts at the beginning.

Kevin Lowe: And the question that I would love to start off with is what is your first memory kind of revolve around in regards to horses?

Kevin Lowe: I guess I'm just kind of curious to understand where horses entered the picture for you.

Tik Maynard: Yeah, a lot of, you know, in the horse world, there's a lot of kids that didn't grow up around horses. And you can see that passion in kids sometimes as young as three or four years old, where they want to have a stuffed animal horse.

Tik Maynard: They want to go pet horses.

Tik Maynard: They want to go on pony rides. They want to wear horse t-shirts or pony t-shirts or unicorn t-shirts.

Tik Maynard: But for a few of us, like myself and like some other people out there, we grew up around horses.

Tik Maynard: And I don't even really remember the process of learning to ride.

Tik Maynard: It was just, we always had horses in the backyard. my parents' road, my brother's road, all our neighbors' road.

Tik Maynard: And it was just part of sort of the lifestyle and the culture that we had growing up.

Tik Maynard: Maybe similar to the way that some people, you know, it's what their family does. Maybe they play baseball together or go to church together.

Tik Maynard: And so I was lucky enough to grow up in that environment.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Now, whereabouts did you grow up at?

Tik Maynard: I grew up in a really unique area when it comes to horses.

Tik Maynard: Mostly horses are in quite rural settings, wide open spaces.

Tik Maynard: We think of Texas or Montana or Colorado.

Tik Maynard: We don't usually think of major cities. And I actually grew up in the city of Vancouver in Canada.

Tik Maynard: And there's this very small pocket, maybe about a square mile that is zoned in a way that owners are allowed to have horses right within the city limits of Vancouver.

Tik Maynard: And it's a very unique thing. I've never heard of that in any other North American city that I've heard of.

Tik Maynard: So the lot sizes were not, by a horse standard, the lot sizes were not very big.

Tik Maynard: They were sort of anywhere from one acre to maybe three acres.

Tik Maynard: According to the city standards, where the lots are usually like a quarter acre, they were quite big, but compared to a rural setting where farms and horses usually live, they were quite small.

Tik Maynard: And so a lot of our neighbors had horses, but there was a riding club called Selfland's Riding Club.

Tik Maynard: And so everybody that had horses, they joined the riding club and we would lead our horses or ride our horses along the streets and along sort of the sidewalks.

Tik Maynard: And there were ditches on either side of the street with little fish or minnows or ducks or great blue herons.

Tik Maynard: Of them and we would ride along the road anywhere, depending on where you lived, anywhere from a quarter mile to the full length of that area, South Flint, so it's owned agriculturally. And we would ride over to the riding club.

Tik Maynard: You know, everybody that rode in that area, we all got to know each other and we all kind of shared a space and we were all members of that club.

Tik Maynard: It was a pretty unique way to grow up around horses.

Kevin Lowe: That is, that's fascinating. Now the riding club, what would you do at the club?

Kevin Lowe: Like what was the, I guess, the point of being part of the club?

Tik Maynard: So first of all, for the people that don't have a horse background that are listening to this, Kevin, we have to understand that in the horse world, there's a lot of different disciplines.

Tik Maynard: You know, there's the English sports, the Olympic sports of dressage, show jumping and three-day eventing.

Tik Maynard: And then you have the Western sports like reining and cutting.

Tik Maynard: And then there's also a lot, a lot of other sort of disciplines, anything from thoroughbred racing, to polo, to endurance riding, to mounted archery or mounted shooting, to competitive trail riding, to working equitation.

Tik Maynard: I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if there's over a hundred different horse sports in existence.

Tik Maynard: And this riding club mainly catered to English riders, which means show jumping, dressage, and eventing.

Tik Maynard: And so there was six or seven different arenas. There was a grass field we could ride in. There was a half mile track to ride around.

Tik Maynard: When it was raining, there was an indoor arena and also a covered arena, which essentially means it has a roof, but no sides.

Tik Maynard: And because there wasn't a lot of space on the smaller lots where people kept their horses, we would all go over there and we'll be able to ride in these bigger arenas or go for a trotter or canter around the half mile track.

Kevin Lowe: Wow. That's very fascinating. And I do appreciate you breaking down the different types of horse riding because, yeah, I don't think any of us have quite the clue that there could be so much. That's amazing.

Kevin Lowe: Now, I guess what I'm curious about is when did this kind of hobby that you did with family turn into something more?

Kevin Lowe: And maybe even when did you realize, wait, I want this to be part of my life?

Tik Maynard: Yeah, I rode as a hobby and as part of the family lifestyle growing up from my earliest memories of three or four or five years old all the way up through high school.

Tik Maynard: And I rode through university as well.

Tik Maynard: I went to the University of British Columbia and I was there for five years from 2000 to 2005 and.

Tik Maynard: And then, you know, after that point, I was kind of in a bit of a holding pattern where I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life.

Tik Maynard: And I could have gone back to school, which was certainly an option I was thinking about.

Tik Maynard: But horses were the other thing in my life that I've been doing and that I saw a potential way to make a living and make a career out of it.

Tik Maynard: And where I was at, I wouldn't say I was necessarily a big fish in a small pond, but I was a fish in a small pond.

Tik Maynard: And I'd never really experienced a lot really outside of that.

Tik Maynard: You know, I'd never ridden in Europe. I'd never ridden in South America.

Tik Maynard: I'd never gone to work for other professionals other than the people and my parents that were in this small area.

Tik Maynard: And I made the decision that I was going to put off school and put off a career and I was going to take a year or two.

Tik Maynard: And I was going to travel and work for other people around the world.

Tik Maynard: And when you do that, it's usually called a working student position, which is essentially an internship where a young person will go and trade manual labor, mucking stalls, sweeping, Cleaning tack, grooming horses in exchange for riding lessons in order to improve the young person's riding.

Tik Maynard: And so I went and did that for a couple of years. And when I went out and began that journey, my goal was to become a better rider.

Tik Maynard: And when I imagined a better rider, it was somebody that could sit more handsomely on a horse.

Tik Maynard: It was somebody that looked more elegant. It was somebody that was winning major competitions. It was somebody that, you know, had the respect of people and was maybe on a track to go to the Olympics. And that's what I thought of as a good rider.

Tik Maynard: And about halfway through the kind of two years that I spent on the road, I got introduced by a few different people.

Tik Maynard: I got introduced to the concept of natural horsemanship, or what a lot of people call horsemanship or horse psychology.

Tik Maynard: And at that point, I started to switch gears slightly, and that world of horsemanship and natural horsemanship really drew me in very quickly and very passionately.

Tik Maynard: And I decided I wanted to learn more about that. And what I started to realize was that being a good horseman and being a good rider is are not the same thing. Being a good horseman is about learning how horses think, learning how horses feel, Learning how horses learn and play, treating horses with respect, staying one step ahead of problems so that you're not reacting to problems, you're preventing them in the first place.

Tik Maynard: It's treating the horses as your partner rather than as your slave.

Tik Maynard: And it's about having our respect for where we're going as horse people and where we came from.

Tik Maynard: And that thought had never really entered my mind, you know, growing up.

Tik Maynard: It was all about, for me, I was like, I want to be a better rider.

Tik Maynard: I want to be winning. I want to be competing.

Tik Maynard: Once I kind of dove deeper into that world, it just, you know, I started watching clinics. I started reading books. I started buying DVDs.

Tik Maynard: I'd say that was sort of the biggest shift that I've had in my life is when I started to get interested in that part of horses.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Do you think that you can be a good rider or maybe better words, live up to the best expectations of being a good rider without being a good horseman?

Tik Maynard: Yes, I think you can be a good rider without being a good horseman.

Tik Maynard: I think there's people, you know, for example, I worked for a while in Wellington, which is near west palm beach in in florida in the united states and uh there's a lot of a lot of expensive horses and a lot of money and a lot of a lot of affluence in that area and um there'd be people that were young and you know maybe in their early 20s or even teenagers and they were young and they were smart and they were motivated and they were smart and they were motivated and they had a lot of money behind them. And horses weren't something that was all-encompassing

Tik Maynard: for them the way that it was for me.

Tik Maynard: It was something that they wanted to do on weekends in between high school or on spring break from college.

Tik Maynard: And so what they would do is they would have, they would buy really expensive horses.

Tik Maynard: Sometimes they could be a million dollars or more for these horses.

Tik Maynard: And the rider would show up on a private plane for the weekend and they would show up at the barn and the horse would already be caught.

Tik Maynard: The horse would already be groomed. The horse would already be tacked up and the rider would go over and get on a mounting block, never having to look the horse in the eye and get on that horse and take a riding lesson from one of the best riding instructors in the world.

Tik Maynard: And they would do that, you know, every other weekend during the winter in Wellington, and they would compete in, in a higher and higher level competitions, whether it's dressage or show jumping.

Tik Maynard: And, uh, they would get to the point where I would call them very, very talented riders by going through this process, having great instruction and great horses.

Tik Maynard: But they never really had to learn how to catch a horse. They never really had to learn how to start a horse, how to tame a horse.

Tik Maynard: Because the horses were so well-trained already, they were buying horses that were already trained.

Tik Maynard: They never really had to go a lot deeper into what horse psychology really means.

Tik Maynard: And I think in situations like that, I'd say there's a distinction between being a good rider and being a good horseman.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah. I guess, you know, as you were talking it out, it made sense because I was thinking of watching, say, like the Kentucky Derby.

Kevin Lowe: So the rider obviously is the jockey where the horseman would be the trainer.

Kevin Lowe: Is that a fair comparison?

Tik Maynard: That's the right idea. I think you could have jockeys that are also, I think a jockey could be a good rider and a good horseman or the jockey could just be a good rider. I think the two can go hand in hand.

Tik Maynard: And same thing with the trainers. I think there's some, some trainers of thoroughbreds, like, like we see at the Kentucky Derby, where it purely becomes a numbers game, where it's just the amount of horses they can get in and out.

Tik Maynard: And they train all the horses sort of the same way. And because they've got enough horses coming through the program and enough money, they're going to have some success. I would compare that to maybe, um, when I was at university, I ran track and cross-country.

Tik Maynard: I was never super talented, but I enjoyed it.

Tik Maynard: And our coach, the first couple years, he would have, at the beginning of cross-country season in late August, early September, he would have about 80 athletes that he was training. And He would train all 80 of us virtually the same way, you know, similar workouts, similar distance each week.

Tik Maynard: And by the time that track season ended at the, you know, early summer, late spring, we'd have gone from having 80 people to maybe having eight people.

Tik Maynard: But the eight people that were left were really, really good.

Tik Maynard: You know, they'd gone through that, they've survived it, and they've gotten really talented.

Tik Maynard: And so he had some athletes that were really doing well, but he lost a lot along the way. and compare that to other coaches that I've had that will tailor the workout for every single athlete, depending on their strengths, their weaknesses, how they're rehabilitating from an injury.

Tik Maynard: And so if you're starting with six athletes, but you can keep all six and have a moderate amount of success with them, in some ways that takes more skill than having 80 athletes, giving everybody the same workout and ending with eight that are doing better.

Kevin Lowe: Yes, yes, that makes total sense. Absolutely.

Kevin Lowe: Fascinating fascinating well i guess what i'm curious is is you you've been traveling the world you've been working you you come to this realization that you you want to become a better horseman not just a rider so where does life kind of go from that point.

Tik Maynard: So even though I was interested in this idea of horsemanship and natural horsemanship, in that world, I was still, even though I was passionate about it, I was still very much a beginner and I was learning about it.

Tik Maynard: And so to make a living, I kind of went back to what I knew, which was teaching and riding jumping horses and three-day eventing horses.

Tik Maynard: Also what happened about that time, so we're talking about 2010, 2011, about that time frame now. Now, I met Sinead, who's a three-day event rider, and we started dating, and we'd eventually get married.

Tik Maynard: And she's an American, and she grew up in the southeastern United States and has been a three-day event rider since she was about 12 years old.

Tik Maynard: And so I made the decision to stay here in the United States with her, which from the perspective of our relationship was great.

Tik Maynard: And it was also great from the perspective of learning about horsemanship, because there's a lot of really talented, both riders and horsemen in the Eastern part of the United States.

Tik Maynard: And so I really started to learn more and more from these people, both in person, but also, you know, at that time, you know, in the, in sort of 2010 to 2015, the, or maybe it was just me, I'm not sure, but the live streaming and the streaming content wasn't hugely popular yet.

Tik Maynard: And so I ended up buying a lot of DVDs because I learned well through watching stuff.

Tik Maynard: You know, I don't necessarily have to be doing it to feel like I can, I can learn from it.

Tik Maynard: And so, you know, I'm in my office right now and I look to the side of me and I probably have on the shelf beside me, I probably have, you know, I didn't pay retail for all of them, but if I had paid retail, I probably have, you know, $10,000 worth of horse DVDs next to me.

Tik Maynard: And a lot of those you can get now for obviously much cheaper on like eBay and stuff like that.

Tik Maynard: But, you know, I have a huge collection of these videos that I would watch.

Tik Maynard: And then, you know, going to sleep at night, even with my eyes closed, I would play through some of those moments, some of those scenarios of horse training sort of in my mind's eye with my eyes closed as I fell asleep at night and really relearning it over and over again.

Tik Maynard: And to the point where I got to imagine the horse could give maybe a different response. and I'd imagine how I'd respond to that and how they would respond to that.

Tik Maynard: It'd be almost like a chess game that would play out in my mind.

Tik Maynard: And through actually practicing with horses and doing that, I developed more and more skill in that world.

Tik Maynard: When I started to develop my own business and stop being a working student, I was dabbling in both of these worlds, the worlds of natural horsemanship and the world of competitive riding.

Tik Maynard: And I remember very clearly somebody that I really respected came to me and said, Tik, it's not going to work.

Tik Maynard: You're shooting yourself in the foot by doing this. If you try to live in both worlds, nobody's going to respect you and you're only going to get partially good at both things.

Tik Maynard: They said, I really recommend you choose one path and you follow it.

Tik Maynard: And thank goodness I did not listen to that person because I think it's exactly the combination of applying the horsemanship to the competitive world and applying purpose to horsemanship that has made me into the rider and horseman I am today.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah, I love it. I love it so much.

Kevin Lowe: I'm curious, just based on what you were saying when you were talking about the way in which you love to learn through the videos that you watch, and then when you were talking about laying in bed at night, eyes closed, and just imagining it, putting yourself in it and feeling the horse and putting yourself in that situation.

Kevin Lowe: When you're on the horse and you're actually riding, what is it that you are paying attention to the most? Is it visual?

Kevin Lowe: Is it muscle memory of exactly how to do? Are you paying attention to the reaction of the horse in that moment?

Kevin Lowe: Like, what is it that you really tune into when you're in the moment on the horse doing the thing?

Tik Maynard: That's a great question, Kevin. I love that. So, so first of all, I'll back up and I'll say for somebody that's new to riding, what they're usually concentrating on is simply, can they stay, can they stay on the horse?

Tik Maynard: Can they, can they, can they keep their balance? Are their eyes up?

Tik Maynard: Are their heels down? Are they holding the reins the right way?

Tik Maynard: And they're just kind of, you know, it's a very sort of surface level of just trying to like survive that moment and sTik with the horse.

Tik Maynard: For me, I've been, you know, around and on my horses my whole life.

Tik Maynard: So the idea of just staying on them is something that's become pretty much, except in very extreme situations, pretty much second nature for me, something that I don't have to think about.

Tik Maynard: And now, depending on the horse I'm on, I'm thinking about one of two things.

Tik Maynard: With a horse that is young, with a horse that is going through something difficult, with a horse that's emotional or nervous or anxious or tense or scared, with that kind of horse, mainly what I'm aware of is where their mind is at.

Tik Maynard: Is the horse thoughtful? Is the horse relaxed? Or the opposite of that is the horse tense or scared.

Tik Maynard: And the way that I can tell that is you can be on a horse and you can almost feel their heart rate through the saddle as it starts to rev up.

Tik Maynard: A horse will get quicker and more abrupt as they get anxious.

Tik Maynard: A horse will raise their head and tense their neck if they get anxious.

Tik Maynard: A horse will stop suddenly or move quickly when they're anxious.

Tik Maynard: A horse will breathe differently, often with more noise or whinny or call when they're anxious.

Tik Maynard: The first step with those kinds of horses is I'm really just trying to set up situations so the horse can become more relaxed and thoughtful and essentially become a good student.

Tik Maynard: You know, if you think about somebody that's learning something that they can...

Tik Maynard: They're sitting quietly, they're paying attention, they're not constantly getting distracted with their fingers or their eyes or their ears or looking away or leaving the room, but they've got sort of a calm attention as they're trying to take it in.

Tik Maynard: And that's what I want the horse to be. I want the horse, first of all, to feel like they're relaxed and they can be a good partner and a good student.

Tik Maynard: With a horse that already has that mindset, what I would call a more mature horse or a horse I've got a better relationship with, and that sort of being a good student is almost not totally taken for granted.

Tik Maynard: You never take it for granted and forget about that. But for a horse where all that emotional stuff is easier for them, then I start to be very aware of the horse's movement.

Tik Maynard: Is the horse speeding up? Is the horse slowing down? Is the horse in a good balance?

Tik Maynard: You know, when we talk about a horse's balance, that's one of the most important concepts to be aware of when you're riding. And it's also a very subtle one.

Tik Maynard: If you think about a person that is, imagine you're on ice in the middle of winter, maybe not in Florida, but somewhere where there's ice in the winter and you're on the stairs and you start to feel like you're starting to lose your balance and you want to put your arms out to the side and you're nervous and you don't want to move quickly and you're in a bad, you feel like out of balance.

Tik Maynard: Horses oftentimes, because they're reacting out of fear or because they have a person on their back or something's happened unexpectedly, horses oftentimes find themselves slightly out of balance.

Tik Maynard: And the more we can help them find a good balance, the more they start to appreciate us and rely on us and listen to us.

Tik Maynard: And so one of the jobs of a more advanced rider is constantly to set up situations and to help that horse be in a good balance.

Kevin Lowe: Fascinating. How much does the horse react based on the energy of the rider?

Kevin Lowe: Because I wonder if the rider is nervous, if they're scared, or they just have some bad juju.

Kevin Lowe: I would imagine that relates to the horse. Is that true?

Tik Maynard: Yeah, the vast majority of the time, that is absolutely true.

Tik Maynard: That the horse is going to pick up on a person being nervous and they're going to become more nervous.

Tik Maynard: I'd say, you know, just to throw out a number, I'd say 80% of the time, that's true.

Tik Maynard: But then you also have maybe 10% on either end of that spectrum.

Tik Maynard: You have 10% of horses that are so emotionally balanced, so emotionally fit, so relaxed that even if the person is anxious, it's not going to affect the horse very much.

Tik Maynard: And then on the other end of the spectrum, you can have horses that are so distracted.

Tik Maynard: Maybe they're worried about a tractor pulling in. Maybe they're calling to their friend in the barn and they're so distracted that you could be nervous, but they're not even paying any attention to you.

Tik Maynard: So it doesn't matter if you get nervous because they're not paying any attention to you anyway. Okay.

Kevin Lowe: Yes, that's that's hysterical. So before we kind of keep moving on in the story, the other kind of question that I would love to to ask you about is, is it just maybe because you grew up around horses starting as a child?

Kevin Lowe: Does it make you where you're not scared of them? Because, I mean, for somebody who's never been around a horse in person, they are big animals.

Kevin Lowe: And I think of them being almost intimidating and scared of what they are going to do.

Kevin Lowe: And I've just wondered how that is for you.

Tik Maynard: Yeah, absolutely. Horses, you know, every year there's very, very talented riders. There's very, very experienced horse people that get hurt or even killed.

Tik Maynard: You know, they are, horses weigh a lot. They're very quick. They're very strong.

Tik Maynard: They can move almost without any warning at all.

Tik Maynard: And horses, you know, are flight animals. Their first response to fear is usually to move quickly.

Tik Maynard: And so it's very easy to get caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Tik Maynard: The major skill to have if you want to stay safe around horses is to get good at reading horses.

Tik Maynard: And what reading horses well allows you to do is stay one step ahead of trouble.

Tik Maynard: You know, to the point now where I'm practicing that skill constantly.

Tik Maynard: If I see a group of horses in a field and they're trotting forward and they're trotting towards me, I'll try to predict the moment where they're going to stop or predict the moment where they're going to turn their heads or predict the moment where one horse is going to fall in behind the other horse.

Tik Maynard: You know, every horse is unique and has its own character and personality, but also every horse is a horse.

Tik Maynard: Every horse has similar, similar behaviors and similar motivations.

Tik Maynard: And so, uh, with enough practice of sort of predicting what's going to happen next, it gets easier and easier.

Tik Maynard: I guess your percentage of the time that you're right it goes up higher and higher.

Tik Maynard: So the more that you get to know horses in general and the more that you get to know horses in particular, the easier it is to keep yourself in a safe situation.

Tik Maynard: You know, there's a lot of ways that I can, that I now know how to, if I'm not sure how something's going to play out, if I'm not sure what the horse is going to do, I just stay further away from them.

Tik Maynard: You know, I don't go right up into that horse's space or have that horse come up into my space.

Tik Maynard: You know, and when I talk about space, it's almost like this bubble around me.

Tik Maynard: That's about three feet around me of the horse's bubble, which is five or six feet around them.

Tik Maynard: And I don't go into their space or have them come into my space until we're both, both relaxed and thoughtful. You know, a lot of times people come to me and their complaint is that the horse doesn't respect their boundaries or respect their space.

Tik Maynard: And on the other hand, when the horse is relaxed, they want to cuddle on their horse and kiss their horse and give the horse cookies.

Tik Maynard: And so usually what I teach them is I teach them about having three boundaries at different distances.

Tik Maynard: So the first boundary is at about six feet away, and that's with a horse that you don't know or a horse that's really, really emotional or really dangerous that we don't get within six feet of each other.

Tik Maynard: My second boundary is at arm's length. So if I were to reach out my arm fully extended with my fingers fully extended and the horse were able to stretch out its neck and its nose, that we couldn't touch each other.

Tik Maynard: So from my body to that horse's nose is two feet, the length of my arm more or less.

Tik Maynard: And that's for a horse that is you know that we know a little bit better that's not dangerous that's just sort of a run-of-the-mill kind of easy boundary that I keep pretty consistent and the third boundary is with a horse that can come right up in with its muzzle with its whiskers with its mouth and could actually touch me on my shoulder or forearm or chest and for a horse to come that close to me I want to feel like those four criteria are totally met which means I'm relaxed and thinking

Tik Maynard: about the horse and the horse is relaxed and thinking about me.

Tik Maynard: And if any of those four things are not bad, it's like right away back out to two feet or back out to six feet away from me.

Kevin Lowe: Wow. I love it. It's like a relationship. It's like a dance.

Kevin Lowe: You show me respect. I'll show your respect.

Tik Maynard: Yeah. You know, it's a relationship or a dance is actually one of the best ways to think about horsemanship.

Tik Maynard: Just like in a relationship, you want a horse to want to be with you, but you don't want them to be running over top of you and you don't want them to need to be with you. You want them to want to be with you.

Kevin Lowe: Yes. Yes. Yes. I love it. Fascinating.

Kevin Lowe: Kind of going back to this timeline of events, and I'm going to allow you to fill in gaps, but I know a big part of your story is more recent in like 2023.

Kevin Lowe: But before we get there, is there anything that happened in between that you feel like really led to that monumental moment in your career?

Tik Maynard: So what we're working towards here in this conversation, I think, Kevin, is Road to the Horse, which I was invited to compete at at 2023.

Tik Maynard: The first time I heard about Road to the Horse was in 2012. And I guess that was a fairly pivotal moment.

Tik Maynard: You know, it'd be for somebody that ends up being a chess player and it's the first time that they play chess and they're drawn in, you know, watching Road to the Horse in 2012 for the first time.

Tik Maynard: I didn't watch it live. I I watched it on DVD, but it was a moment where I saw these guys competing and it's a colt starting competition, which means they're starting horses in front of a crowd.

Tik Maynard: These are completely untamed, almost wild horses that they're starting.

Tik Maynard: I watched that competition.

Tik Maynard: And even though I didn't fully 100% to commit to being a colt starter, it was something that I started to follow more and more closely every year.

Tik Maynard: And it was something where I thought, hey, maybe if I get a little bit better at starting If I get a little bit better at horsemanship, maybe this is something I could do one day.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah, yeah, fascinating.

Kevin Lowe: I know when I spoke with you before, and I would love for you to share it with me with now for the audience sake is when we talk about cult starting, I believe is the term I had asked you, how does that kind of relate to I've heard the term of like breaking a horse.

Tik Maynard: Breaking a horse and starting a horse is, you know, to the everyday person, it's it's the same thing, you know, really, which is is we're taking a horse and and we're getting them used to humans and the human world and being ridden.

Tik Maynard: You know, if you want to go a little bit deeper into the world, into the word of breaking and starting, you know, breaking a little bit more implies breaking their spirit, breaking that wildness out of them.

Tik Maynard: Whereas starting, I think it's a smoother word. It's a nicer word.

Tik Maynard: It speaks to me more about having a relationship and a partnership rather than having a slave. And I like the word starting.

Tik Maynard: You know, I'm around some people that can use the word breaking.

Tik Maynard: And I think they just use that word because it's the word they've used their whole life.

Tik Maynard: And I don't think they mean anything bad by it. So, you know, if I'm speaking to somebody and they say they broke their horse and I kind of know what they meant, then I'm fine with that. It's not like I'd give them a hard time about it.

Tik Maynard: And then in the competition, we talk about colt starting. And a colt is a young male horse.

Tik Maynard: An older male horse that is fully intact is called a stallion.

Tik Maynard: And an older male horse that has been gelded is called a gelding.

Tik Maynard: And then a female horse is called a mare and a young female horse is called a filly.

Tik Maynard: When we talk about colt starting, we're really talking about starting any kind of those five kinds of horses, whether it's an older horse or a younger horse or a mare or a gelding or a stallion, we call all those things colt starting.

Tik Maynard: And I'm not really sure why, I guess it's just kind of maybe sounds better than saying horse starting.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah, yeah. No, I love it. Now, with those different horses that you just listed off, does the approach change based on what category that horse falls in? Or is it all the same?

Tik Maynard: Really the approach changes slightly for every single horse out of the categories of older younger male female i don't think it necessarily changes significantly enough that it's kind of worth going into that but you know when we talk about training a horse it's really every horse is unique and so we we develop a set of skills that we can start to apply generally to every horse, but we're really tailoring that starting experience for each horse individually.

Tik Maynard: And the better I get at it, at starting and reading a horse, the more I can start to have different sort of tools in the toolbox that I can use, or I can go on that particular horse's timeline.

Tik Maynard: In a lot of ways, they're as unique as people, you know, like if you had a group of, of kids, and you're trying to teach them all exactly the same way, you're going to always have some that need to go slower or some that are feeling like they could go faster.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Yeah. Again, I go back to that, that the relationship, every relationship we have in our life is different.

Kevin Lowe: Every person is different. And so if we, if we look at it in this regard, comparing it to that, why would, why would you think it wouldn't be the, you know, the same as that. That's beautiful.

Kevin Lowe: We spoke about road to the horse. Talk to me about what that is.

Tik Maynard: It was first started in 2003 by a lady in Texas named Tutti Bland.

Tik Maynard: And the idea that she had was that in most horse disciplines, we have competitions. We have the Grand Prix of show jumping, the Grand Prix of dressage.

Tik Maynard: We have the World Cups and the World Cup final for show jumping.

Tik Maynard: We have the olympics for three-day eventing for thoroughbred racing you have the kentucky derby you know for endurance in the united states you have the tevis cup you know for all these different horse disciplines you have a competition and you have a way to to sort of get the crowds interested and celebrate achievement and encourage people to keep striving for excellence and in the world of starting horses, there hasn't really been, or hadn't really been much like that, much in terms of getting everybody together in one place and kind of showing

Tik Maynard: off that particular skill set.

Tik Maynard: You know, starting horses was really thought of almost more as like a trade.

Tik Maynard: Like, you know, it would be rare to get a bunch of carpenters or plumbers together and say, let's have a competition and celebrate how great you are.

Tik Maynard: And that it's not just a trade, but it's actually an art and you're, you know, you can be, Just like being a carpenter or a plumber, you could have somebody that's a good carpenter, an average carpenter, a bad carpenter.

Tik Maynard: You could have somebody that's an amazing carpenter and almost takes it to an art form.

Tik Maynard: And so it's the same with cold starting. So this lady, she had the idea.

Tik Maynard: She said, what if we took some of the best cold starters and we gave everybody a horse and we drew a crowd in and we videoed it and we had prize money and we celebrated the trade and art of cold starting.

Tik Maynard: And since then, it's grown almost every year. and now they have it at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky.

Tik Maynard: It's by invitation only, so you can't just sign up and go.

Tik Maynard: They really do their research to make sure they're inviting people that are both talented, cold starters, and they have the ability to work in front of a crowd, in front of an audience, and to speak about what they're doing.

Tik Maynard: Each year, it's only three or four people that are competing.

Tik Maynard: It's not like there's 100 people or 10 people. It's really three or four people that are in a stadium sort of about the size of a hockey arena.

Tik Maynard: And there's, you know, eight or 10,000 people watching, you know, filling up most of the arena. And then they've got cameras that are live streaming it around the world.

Tik Maynard: Each of the three or four people gets assigned, well, you don't get assigned, you get to pick a horse.

Tik Maynard: They bring 10 horses from Texas and they're all three-year-old gelding quarter horses.

Tik Maynard: And out of the 10, each of the four competitors gets to pick one.

Tik Maynard: So then you're paired with a horse. And over the course of three days at Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in March, each year, we start the horse.

Tik Maynard: Like everything is live. Everything is in front of the crowd.

Tik Maynard: There's nothing behind the scenes.

Tik Maynard: Every single moment that the competitors are interacting with that horse is in front of a live audience.

Kevin Lowe: Wow. Wow. That sounds, uh, rather, rather stressful to, to be in front of a live audience with doing something like that.

Tik Maynard: Yeah. I mean, most, most time when people are starting horses, they're doing it at their barn or maybe with a few people watching and they can, they can go get water when they want to, or a break when they want to, or spend two weeks doing it if they want to, or two months or two years doing it.

Tik Maynard: There's no timeline and they can, they can switch arenas or switch spaces or have somebody else help them.

Tik Maynard: And when we talk about people getting a horse ready for a Grand Prix or the Kentucky Derby or any other kind of horse competition, all the training goes on behind the scenes, which means the horse is being trained at home in the arena or the racetrack at home away from people, you know, watching.

Tik Maynard: Whereas this is a really unique event in that every single second that we're training those horses is in front of, you know, tens of thousands of people and five judges that are watching you every single second.

Kevin Lowe: Wow. Wow. Okay. So I have more questions about the event, but before we get to those questions, talk to me about you actually being invited to do this.

Kevin Lowe: How did that even happen?

Tik Maynard: So, after I'd watched it in 2012, and I kind of had it on my radar, and I was starting to practice a little bit more starting horses, then I made a point to kind of figure out a little bit more about the competition.

Tik Maynard: You know, who do they invite? What skills do they have?

Tik Maynard: You know, how could I meet some of those people?

Tik Maynard: You know, how could I make friends with some of the past competitors?

Tik Maynard: How could I get a little bit more involved in that community?

Tik Maynard: And so that's something that, that I, I didn't drop everything and chase that, but I was just always a little bit aware, you know, as I, as I went about my schedule, you know, if there was an opportunity to say, teach a clinic in Texas versus teach a clinic in Connecticut.

Tik Maynard: And the one in Texas was going to be near, you know, where, where some of the people that organized Road to the Horse are is I'm going to go to the one in Texas because maybe I'll get a chance to meet them. So I'm kind of having it on my radar from 2012 on.

Tik Maynard: And then in 2023, I went up there and I was asked not to compete, but I was asked to do a demonstration of how I work with horses.

Tik Maynard: And so I was kind of like a, you know, like an intermission type act, you know, where people are there for the main event, but I got to spend half an hour just talking to the crowd and showing a little bit what I do.

Tik Maynard: And so that was in March of 2023.

Tik Maynard: And then in June of 2023 so a few months later the organizer of Road to the Horse called me up she said Tik are you interested in competing next year and I this is something I'd thought about for years and I was like a little bit a little bit caught off guard by the phone call but also a little bit excited and my adrenaline was going and I said yeah I definitely want to do it.

Tik Maynard: And she said, well, don't, don't respond so quickly, you know, talk to your family, talk to your wife and think about it.

Tik Maynard: And then call me back in a day or two and give me your answer.

Tik Maynard: And so I went to speak with Sinead that night and I said, Sinead, they invited me to do this. What do you think?

Tik Maynard: And she said, absolutely. You should do this. This is something that you've been wanting to do. She said, why wouldn't you do it?

Tik Maynard: Actually, there's, I said, actually, because there's a lot of reasons why somebody would say no to this and not do it.

Tik Maynard: And so then I proceeded to list all the reasons why somebody might not do it.

Tik Maynard: And I mean, there was a lot of reasons.

Tik Maynard: First of all, there's, you're doing something that is really difficult on a timeline in front of a crowd. So there's a lot of opportunity to sort of embarrass yourself or to have something taken out of context that gets put on social media.

Tik Maynard: There's also, you know, in the horse world, there's also the ethical questions of should starting horses even be a competition? Should starting horses even be on a timeline?

Tik Maynard: I mean, you go far enough down that road and there's people that are like, should we even be riding horses or keeping horses as pets?

Tik Maynard: Like what are the ethical ramifications of that? And there's, and there's people that are ready to, to jump on you no matter, no matter what you do. And so there's those questions.

Tik Maynard: And then in terms of starting horses themselves, you know, there's certain parts of it that I was really worried about.

Tik Maynard: I was worried about what if I can't even catch this horse?

Tik Maynard: I was worried about, am I going to even be able to get a saddle on this horse?

Tik Maynard: I was worried about what about the first ride? What if I get bucked off? Uh, what if I get hurt?

Tik Maynard: You know, every, every year somewhere, somebody is starting a horse and they get seriously injured.

Tik Maynard: And then there's also the question of, by the time I get to the third day of this, am I going to have a horse that still feels like a willing partner?

Tik Maynard: Or are they going to start to feel like they're shut down and over-faced?

Tik Maynard: On top of that, there were a couple people in my life that I really respected and admired.

Tik Maynard: My dad actually being one of them, that when I asked them if I thought I should do it, they said no.

Tik Maynard: They said, you know, they said they thought it was, it can be a little tough on the horses and that it was going to be a little overfacing for me.

Tik Maynard: You know, there were other things I could do.

Tik Maynard: So I explained all that to Sinead and we talked about it.

Tik Maynard: And basically we made the decision together that it was something that despite all these fears and all these nerves I had about it, it was going to be something that I was going to choose to do anyway, and that I wasn't going to let fear stand in the way of stopping me from something that I not only thought I could do, but that I thought I could do my way, not anybody else's way, but I thought I could do it the way that I wanted to do it.

Tik Maynard: And that it was something that if I didn't do it, I would look back, you know, 10 or 20 years from now and that I would regret saying no to it.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Yeah. Wow. You know, the, the, the way in my, my head I'm comparing this is, is yes, is you have a football player, a guy who's good, but all of a sudden gets a call like, Hey, you have the opportunity to play quarterback in the Super Bowl, you know, and and all I can think is, is, you know, of course, it's been a dream for that football player to play in the Super Bowl.

Kevin Lowe: And yet, what if it doesn't go good?

Kevin Lowe: What if I screw up? Here I am on the center stage. All of a sudden, I'm being handed my dream.

Kevin Lowe: But is it is it worth it? All those fears and worries in the what if scenarios.

Kevin Lowe: I think a lot of times, Rob, people of ever actually fulfilling a dream.

Kevin Lowe: So I, I guess, want to say applause to you for the fact of going ahead and giving it a shot.

Tik Maynard: Yeah, thank you very much. It was not an easy decision.

Tik Maynard: And I think you're absolutely right in that the fear of what's going to happen or even the people that are closest to us that love us, that want to protect us from being hurt, You know, those things can stop us from achieving the things we really want to do, you know, our dreams.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah, yeah. Okay, so at this point, we're basically looking at roughly almost a year until you would be competing. Is that right?

Tik Maynard: Yeah, so I got the invitation, I think, June, and then the competition was going to be in March of the next year. So I had about nine months in which to get ready.

Kevin Lowe: Okay, amazing. Now, before we actually fast forward all that time and we get to the competition, Obviously, I'm assuming training like crazy, doing whatever, which I want you to explain.

Kevin Lowe: But I believe at this point is also when you have the idea to turn this into a book, correct?

Tik Maynard: Yeah, exactly. So right from that first invitation to compete, I wrote a book that was published in 2018 about sort of getting started in the horse world.

Tik Maynard: And so for the last seven years from 2018 until now, or I guess until 2023, I'd been wanting to write another book.

Tik Maynard: And I wasn't quite sure what I was going to write about or when that opportunity was going to come along.

Tik Maynard: And then I got this invitation to do Road to the Horse. And I just thought, this is it.

Tik Maynard: This is the thing, that if I take notes on my preparation and take notes throughout the competition, I can turn this experience into a book and I can share with people what I went through as I prepared for it.

Tik Maynard: And I pitched that idea to, again, to my wife and also to the publishers, to Fulgar Square Books, and they were all on board with it. So I started taking notes immediately.

Tik Maynard: You know, I'm not the kind of person that journals every day or anything like that.

Tik Maynard: But when I've got a project that's important to me, I'll take notes on that particular thing or that time in my life. And so for the next nine months, I took notes almost every day on what I was doing to get ready.

Kevin Lowe: What I think is so cool about this is because so many times people write the book after the thing has already happened.

Kevin Lowe: They go back and they tell the story, yet you literally got to have this brilliant insight that this needed to be told in a book.

Kevin Lowe: It got to basically start writing it as you were living it out, which I think is just fascinating.

Tik Maynard: Yeah, I totally agree. I think it was kind of really fortunate in how it worked out.

Tik Maynard: And I, you know, as a reader, I read a lot and I like books that give sort of an immediacy or a kind of a presence to the reader.

Tik Maynard: You know, they feel like they're brought in right into that moment and almost living it with the author.

Tik Maynard: And I think it's a little harder to do that when you're looking back at something that happened and you didn't have detailed notes about it.

Tik Maynard: You know, you forget exactly how the conversation with somebody went, or you forget, you know, the place that you traveled, or you forget what your office looked like, or you forget how your horse acted that day.

Tik Maynard: But when you're taking notes on it, you know, every day and throughout the day, you can really sort of place the reader right in that moment.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I love it. Now, one thing that I want to ask you about before we actually get to the competition is...

Kevin Lowe: The mindset that you went into for preparing and going into this competition, because I am going to think in my head that you're probably going up against what I think of just like cowboys out there.

Kevin Lowe: And you don't strike me as quite the cowboy spitting tobacco, like, you know, doing all the stuff. and I know that you you decided at some point to do this your way.

Tik Maynard: Yeah Kevin you're yeah that's hilarious that you said that that's that's uh that's so true you know since this competition began in in 2003 I'm only the second non sort of western rider non-cowboy to do this you know there you know if you think about if you think about three or four people every year and I'm only the second person to do it.

Tik Maynard: You know, you're absolutely, the vast majority of people are sort of wearing Wranglers, cowboy boots, cowboy hat.

Tik Maynard: Maybe they have like a knife and a sheath on their belt.

Tik Maynard: They got like deerskin gloves. They got the chaps with the fringe.

Tik Maynard: They got a cowboy saddle.

Tik Maynard: Yeah. Maybe they got chewing tobacco. I don't know. But, uh, you know, there's, there's some version of that.

Tik Maynard: Whereas the kind of riding that I've done my whole life is not quite so like cool or masculine.

Tik Maynard: You know, I grew up and I still ride with the tall black boots, the tight pants, the helmet.

Tik Maynard: We're perched a little bit more atop our high horse, so to speak, and it's got a very different vibe to it than the quarter horses in Texas with the Cowboys.

Tik Maynard: Yeah, that was the first kind of obstacle that I had to think about in terms of my preparation is, am I going to try to start this horse as a cowboy?

Tik Maynard: Meaning, am I going to wear jeans and cowboy boots and a cowboy hat and use a Western saddle and kind of throw out everything I've done and learn a whole new way of doing it?

Tik Maynard: Or am I going to do it in an English saddle and tight pants?

Tik Maynard: Or am I going to try to find some way to be in the middle between those two worlds? So that was the first kind of question that I had.

Kevin Lowe: And for you, what finally led you to the answer?

Tik Maynard: So what I decided to do, you know, what inspired me to do this is a book I read called Work Hard, Be Nice, or maybe it's Work Hard, Be Kind.

Tik Maynard: And it's about these elementary school teachers that start their own charter school program called KIPP, K-I-P-P.

Tik Maynard: And KIPP is short for the Knowledge is Power Program. and they developed a very unique way of teaching kids, these two teachers that started the KIPP program.

Tik Maynard: And when it started to expand beyond these two teachers and they started to have multiple schools and other instructors and then dozens and then hundreds of other instructors, what they did initially is these two teachers that started the program, they were really successful and all these kids that they were helping, a lot of them came from sort of troubled backgrounds or less affluent areas.

Tik Maynard: And they were helping these kids achieve amazing successes and go on to graduate from high school and go to college and stuff like that.

Tik Maynard: What they started to do is they started to teach other people how to teach their way.

Tik Maynard: And what they realized fairly quickly within a couple of years is that it wasn't working.

Tik Maynard: And the reason it wasn't working is that every teacher actually has their own superpower for teaching kids.

Tik Maynard: Some teachers will sing stuff. Some teachers will make up poems.

Tik Maynard: Some teachers like telling stories.

Tik Maynard: Some teachers relate to the kids through drama or art. Some teachers are more physical and they're all about the high fives or the hugs.

Tik Maynard: Some teachers are quiet and just have a presence that the kids want to watch.

Tik Maynard: Some teachers are about sports and they are outside playing with the kids at recess.

Tik Maynard: And what they found was that they couldn't just teach all teachers to be the same and sort of follow the exact same way of teaching, but they had to allow teachers to bring out their own kind of unique, special way of teaching.

Tik Maynard: And I think it's the same thing in the horse world.

Tik Maynard: And so that was my plan in my preparation is that I was going to spend eight months learning from as many talented animal trainers and horse trainers.

Tik Maynard: You know, I even did a chicken training camp where I learned how to train chickens as part of my preparation.

Tik Maynard: But I was going to, I can tell you more about that. I can tell you more about that.

Kevin Lowe: Okay.

Tik Maynard: I can tell you more about that after. But basically my plan was I was going to spend eight months learning as much as I can from other people.

Tik Maynard: And then in the last month, I was going to go back to incorporating the things that I wanted, letting go of the things that I didn't want, and trying to go back and spend the last month going back to being as authentic as I could and the very best version of myself that I could be.

Tik Maynard: And so I wasn't feel like I was trying to imitate somebody or force a way of being, but I could start that horse in the way that felt the most smooth and comfortable to me.

Kevin Lowe: Wow. I love that. And so when the competition came, you showed up as your true authentic self.

Tik Maynard: I showed up a little bit in the middle. You know, I used a Western saddle.

Tik Maynard: I ended up wearing jeans and cowboy boots, but I wore, I didn't wear a bell buckle. I wore a normal belt. I wore a helmet.

Tik Maynard: I had my sleeves a little bit partially rolled up.

Tik Maynard: And I used slightly different tools on the ground than some of the other guys.

Tik Maynard: And I was kind of, you know, I definitely stood out just by having the helmet, for example, but also by, you know, a lot of times I'm not used to wearing cowboy boots.

Tik Maynard: A lot of times in between I would trade and I'd put on my Hoka running shoes or something like that.

Tik Maynard: And so I definitely, I definitely stood out as being somebody that was a little bit the underdog and a little bit different than the other competitors that first year.

Tik Maynard: You know, it's something that I just, I was prepared for and it didn't bother me.

Tik Maynard: I think if I hadn't had the mindset right from the beginning of how I was going to do that, I think I would have tried to force it a little bit and tried to look a little bit more like everybody else, maybe wear a cowboy hat.

Tik Maynard: But I was like, I'm just going to be me and I'm going to try to be the best version of myself.

Kevin Lowe: You know, isn't it funny? It doesn't matter who we are, how old we are.

Kevin Lowe: There is still that internal battle, like we were in middle school, of fitting in with the crowd or being who we want to be.

Tik Maynard: Exactly.

Kevin Lowe: It never leaves.

Tik Maynard: No, you're exactly right. You're exactly right.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah. So talk to me about the actual competition.

Kevin Lowe: As far as how did it go in general? And then was it as hard as you thought?

Kevin Lowe: Was it easier than you imagined?

Kevin Lowe: I'm curious to know how it went.

Tik Maynard: Yeah, in some ways it was more difficult and in some ways it was easier.

Tik Maynard: You know, the tension was very high for me throughout the whole, you know, I got there a day early. So I essentially had, you know, almost two days early.

Tik Maynard: I essentially had four or five days at the Kentucky Horse Park where I was always a little bit on edge.

Tik Maynard: You know, the way that you might be if you're about to sort of take a big test or propose to somebody or something like that. I was just always on edge.

Tik Maynard: I could never really settle. I didn't sleep very well. I didn't eat very well.

Tik Maynard: There's a constantly, uh, things like judges meetings, meeting the press, Meeting the crowds of people.

Tik Maynard: You know, I had a lot of family and friends that flew in. So I tried to put in a little time with them.

Tik Maynard: Meanwhile, I also am there with my wife and our two little kids.

Tik Maynard: So I've got, you know, a two year old and a five year old that, um, you know, I'm spending the evenings and mornings with, and it was just like, from that perspective, it was really, really, really challenging.

Tik Maynard: One of the guys that I talked to before I competed, a guy that had competed the year before, his name is Mike Major, and he actually had won the year before.

Tik Maynard: So in 2023, he had won. I sort of got caught in an aisle with him the day before it began.

Tik Maynard: And he looked at me and he could probably see that I was a little stressed.

Tik Maynard: And he said, you know, Tech, this is all the hard part. You know, the, the interviews, the crowds, the judges meetings, making time for family and friends. This is the whole, all the hard part.

Tik Maynard: Once you actually get into the round pen with the horse, it gets easier.

Tik Maynard: And he goes, in fact, you don't even need to think all you have to do is just do what the horse tells you to do.

Tik Maynard: And from that perspective, he was absolutely right. The easiest time was almost in the round pen. When I was with the horse.

Tik Maynard: I was so prepared and I was so focused that I really can honestly say that the four hours over Three days, you know, an hour and a half Friday, an hour and a half Saturday, and an hour Sunday, those four hours, I've never had four other hours in my entire life, at least in that short amount of time where I was so present.

Tik Maynard: I mean, maybe not since I was a kid, like little kids are present, you know, but as adults, we tend to often think into the past or into the future, or we're checking our phone or we get distracted.

Tik Maynard: But those four hours, I was so in the moment with that horse in the round pen.

Tik Maynard: It just flowed. You know, it's like when we talk about an athlete getting into the zone or the flow state or the place where time slows down.

Tik Maynard: That's what it was like for me. And so from that perspective, it was easier than I thought it was going to be.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah, I love it. Wow, that's so amazingly powerful.

Kevin Lowe: Now, from the judge's perspective, what did you do differently or better than the other competitors to have you ultimately win?

Tik Maynard: Because we were all competing at the same time on Friday and Saturday, there's four round pens set up.

Tik Maynard: So there's an hour and a half each day and all four of us are training the horses at the same time.

Tik Maynard: So the judges, there's five judges and they're standing sort of in the middle of this square of round pens. And so they look at one for a few minutes, then the other, and there's five judges.

Tik Maynard: And so they're all walking around, observing what the four athletes and four horses are doing.

Tik Maynard: And then on the Sunday, we go in reverse order of go, which means if you're in first place, you go last. And if you're in last place, you go first.

Tik Maynard: And you're not allowed to watch the other competitors that go before you.

Tik Maynard: So on Sunday, I was sitting in first place and I was last to go.

Tik Maynard: So I couldn't watch the other three people.

Tik Maynard: And I went out there and I competed on Sunday without having seen them.

Tik Maynard: So, you know, it's hard for me to really compare myself to them.

Tik Maynard: I will say that one of the things I think I did very well is I became very aware in my preparation of tiny improvements, Of looking to improve stuff 1% at a time and then leave that skill or leave that area of the round pen or leave that obstacle and go and do something else and then make it 1% better and then go and do something else and make it 1% better and then go and do something else and make it 1% better.

Tik Maynard: So I always have three or four things that I'm alternating between and I'm trying to never get into a fight with my horse. I'm trying to never push something so far that he gets stressed out.

Tik Maynard: And I'm just trying to constantly like nonstop every 30 seconds, make a little improvement and then leave it.

Tik Maynard: And, you know, hopefully that's what the judges saw.

Tik Maynard: And I guess they, I guess they liked it because, you know, that, that I've now done it twice, you know, 2024 and 2025 and I've, I've won it both years.

Tik Maynard: So that technique has been paying off for me and hopefully paying off for the horses.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Yeah, that's so fascinating. The fact that you even got to be invited to this competition, you win it, you come back, you win it again.

Kevin Lowe: I mean, that is just absolutely remarkable.

Kevin Lowe: What I guess I would love to know is when you're in this competition, you only have three days with this horse. Is there a point when you're working with the horse that you feel like I'm going to succeed?

Kevin Lowe: Like me and this horse have made some type of connection? Or could that even happen in such a short amount of time?

Tik Maynard: Yeah, definitely. With every horse, it happens at a different time.

Tik Maynard: And with me, with that horse, that first year, it happened about maybe 12 or 13 minutes in on the first day.

Kevin Lowe: Say what? Really?

Tik Maynard: Yeah. Yeah. You know, I, at the first 10 minutes, I couldn't catch the horse and the horse was at the edge of the round pen and its head was high and it was calling to the other horses.

Tik Maynard: And, um, I was trying to, I was just trying to get close to it where I could touch it or I could catch it or he would get interested in me or curious about me. And I was, I was a little worried.

Tik Maynard: Uh, you know, I was a lot worried. I was like, am I going to have to rope this horse, like swing a lariat over its head?

Tik Maynard: Am I going to be able to touch it? Am I going to, or am I going to spend the next hour and a half here? Just like not being able to catch it.

Tik Maynard: Like what's going to happen.

Tik Maynard: And somewhere, you know, in there, maybe, maybe 12 or 13 minutes in the horse started to look at me and then he started to take a step towards me.

Tik Maynard: And then he started to put his nose towards my hand with some curiosity and, And once I had that, even though it was just a little bit in terms of how much you have to accomplish in three days, once I had that, I just knew as long as I didn't mess it up, like it was going to happen.

Tik Maynard: I didn't know the timeline it was going to happen on. I didn't know if I was going to win or not.

Tik Maynard: I didn't, you know, those things are out of my control.

Tik Maynard: But as soon as I kind of had that thoughtfulness and that curiosity, I felt like the horse, you know, a lot of horses, even horses that have been around people a long time, a lot of them will look. they'll be around people and they'll look past the person or they'll look through the person or they'll be distracted.

Tik Maynard: But once I kind of had that, that happen, I just had like sort of this, this special kind of feeling go through me, you know, where you almost kind of like get goosebumps and you're just like, this is going to happen.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. So you, you win the, You win it.

Kevin Lowe: You succeed at it. What makes you come back to do it again the next year?

Tik Maynard: Yeah. So, you know, the first year when I was invited, you know, it was a much bigger conversation, like I said, with my wife and with my dad and with some of the people close to me.

Tik Maynard: And I will say that my dad, who initially said no, he came and he watched and he ended up being my biggest, possibly my biggest supporter.

Tik Maynard: So that was amazing to see. You know, David O'Connor, a mentor of mine that initially thought maybe I shouldn't do it, he actually was, you know, he's an Olympic gold medalist in three-day eventing, and they actually invited him to come be a judge.

Tik Maynard: And so he actually went and judged it one year as well.

Tik Maynard: So some of these people sort of came around and ended up being very supportive in the end.

Tik Maynard: But the biggest thing that people said to me as I was getting ready for that first year was things like, don't worry if you don't do win, just do right by the horse.

Tik Maynard: Or don't worry if you can't even catch your horse, just take it slow.

Tik Maynard: Or if you've got to just retire after two days and you don't want to do the third day, that's fine.

Tik Maynard: Or just these sort of things like, no matter what happens, it'll be fine and you can always quit early and don't worry about the results.

Tik Maynard: You know, those were all the comments the first year.

Tik Maynard: And the second year, all the comments I got were, are you going to defend your title? Are you going to win again?

Kevin Lowe: Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

Tik Maynard: That's funny and so it's two very different kinds of pressure you know one is the the pressure that the underdog faces that is you know he's a little over faced and he's going in for a big challenge and the second kind of pressure is the pressure of the returning winner both those pressures kind of come with their own unique challenges you know i definitely was was aware of that and i thought going back a second year would be a challenge in itself.

Tik Maynard: I still wanted to share with the people watching my way of doing things.

Tik Maynard: And at that point that I got invited, I made the goal that I was going to get the book finished, edited, and printed and shipped so that we could release it exactly one year later at Road to the Horse 2025.

Tik Maynard: And so for that whole year after 2024, that whole year of getting ready for the second time, I was both preparing for the competition as well as actually taking all my notes from the book and writing it into the book, which people can now buy today.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Wow. That is absolutely, that's just incredible, man. That is absolutely incredible.

Kevin Lowe: How has life for you personally, professionally, how has it changed since achieving this long time goal of even being invited to compete, much less winning it two years in a row? What has that done for life?

Tik Maynard: On the level of how does it affect my everyday life, just like what I do or my job, it really hasn't affected it that much.

Tik Maynard: You know, I haven't had a bunch of new sponsors come in, you know, to sponsor myself or the business that I run with my wife, Sinead, or anything like that.

Tik Maynard: But I'd say the biggest way it's changed me is that it was something that was so difficult and I faced so much pressure and adversity going through.

Tik Maynard: And then I came out of it, not only did I come out of it alive on the other side, but I came out of it having learned a lot, having made new friends, having won.

Tik Maynard: And I came out of it on the other side of it sort of successfully.

Tik Maynard: And it really changed kind of my confidence level and my feeling okay being who I am and being my authentic self.

Tik Maynard: And I thought, you know, to do this, I don't have to be a cowboy.

Tik Maynard: I don't have to change who I am. I can be exactly who I am. I can write the way that I want to write.

Tik Maynard: I can start a horse the way that I want to start a horse. And I don't have to change that for anybody.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah, yeah. I love it. Absolutely love it. Now...

Kevin Lowe: Now, the book that you've published, who do you hope reads the book?

Tik Maynard: Three million people.

Kevin Lowe: Yes.

Kevin Lowe: I love that answer.

Tik Maynard: You know, when you sell books, it's an interesting thing.

Tik Maynard: Not everybody is a reader, you know, and some people obviously don't have the patience to read or some people don't read at all.

Tik Maynard: Some people prefer audiobooks. Some people prefer, you know, reading the hard copy of the book or whatever.

Tik Maynard: When you look at book sales, there's a big difference between a book that can sell 2000 copies versus 20,000 copies versus 200,000 copies versus 2 million copies.

Tik Maynard: You know, and all those jumps are pretty difficult leaps to make.

Tik Maynard: And my main goal in writing the book is not about who's going to read it other than I hope my family and one day my kids will read it. This book, I almost kind of wrote to remember this part of my life.

Tik Maynard: And at the beginning, I think I even say in the beginning, like in the acknowledgements or something like that, I said, not many kids get to go back and read on a level like this what their mother or what their father did and thought and felt when they were born.

Tik Maynard: Younger, you know, like we often know our parents the way that they are now.

Tik Maynard: And to really get into your parents' mind when they were in their twenties or thirties or forties, I think is a pretty unique thing.

Tik Maynard: So I, when I wrote this, I really kind of, I guess, had my kids who are, they don't know how to read yet, but I really kind of had them in mind as sort of an audience that I was writing to.

Tik Maynard: But aside from that, I mean, the two main goals I had when I was writing it for myself were number one is I want to improve my writing.

Tik Maynard: So I started a lot about writing, you know, reading books on how to write, working closely with an editor who would offer me advice on how to bring out the storyline or the plot or bring out characters or make chapters more interesting.

Tik Maynard: And then also the other thing that was really helpful is by taking all my notes and making into a book in that year that I was getting ready to compete a second time, it really clarified a lot of the thoughts that I had in getting ready for it the first time.

Tik Maynard: So it's really like I I almost lived that twice because once I lived it in person and I lived it a second time as I took the notes and made it into a book.

Tik Maynard: And so it really helped me kind of improve my cold starting for the second year just in writing the book.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that makes that makes sense. You know what?

Kevin Lowe: What I can't help but think is for any of us who we have a goal, we have a dream.

Kevin Lowe: Sometimes we want to know how other people did it.

Kevin Lowe: You documented the whole thing in this book. And I can't help but think what a source of inspiration, no matter whether you're somebody interested in horses or it's a kid dreaming of playing in the Super Bowl or if it's any type of big dream or goal you have.

Kevin Lowe: It's always really cool sometimes to see how others did it.

Kevin Lowe: And so what I think of this book is it's kind of a roadmap to how you made this dream come true.

Tik Maynard: Yeah, exactly. It's exactly what it is. It's a roadmap. And I think by studying other people's roadmaps, I don't think we have to follow them exactly or imitate them, but I think it can inspire us and give us ideas for our own personal roadmap.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah, yeah, I agree. Well, Tik, man, I have enjoyed getting to talk with you today.

Kevin Lowe: I've enjoyed getting to hear your personal story, this professional journey.

Kevin Lowe: For somebody who wants to pick up this book for themselves, where is the best place for us to send them?

Kevin Lowe: And I'll be sure that links are in the show notes for easy access.

Tik Maynard: So in the United States, the best place is from Trafalgar Square Books.

Tik Maynard: In the UK, it's from Quiller Books.

Tik Maynard: Of course, if you have a local tack shop or a local bookstore, then I definitely would encourage you to support that sort of brick and mortar store and the person that's running that local bookstore.

Tik Maynard: And of course, last of all, for those of you that are not feeling motivated enough to do any of those things, just go to Amazon.

Kevin Lowe: Okay. When in doubt, when in doubt, just go to Amazon.

Kevin Lowe: I love it. That's right. I love it. Well, I will be sure that links are in the show notes, as I said, for all of the options to make it very easy for the person who wants to take our conversation to the next level and dive into your book.

Kevin Lowe: Tik, once again, man, it's been an absolute pleasure. And I thank you in the most sincere way possible for being here.

Tik Maynard: Well, Kevin, it's truly been an honor. And, you know, this show has been a lot about me and what I've done.

Tik Maynard: And if anybody's listening to this podcast for the first time, you know, I would really encourage you to go and listen to a little bit of Kevin's story, because I was lucky enough to hear some of that from him when we spoke on the phone the other day.

Tik Maynard: And it's truly an inspiring, remarkable story, Kevin, that you have.

Tik Maynard: And I really appreciate you having me on your show. So thank you.

Kevin Lowe: Oh, man. And well, I appreciate that so much. That means a lot to me.

Kevin Lowe: And I thank you so much for saying it.

Kevin Lowe: For you listening today, my hope as always is that something said today can maybe be that little bit of spark of inspiration, of motivation for you to maybe dust off that dream that you've been thinking about.

Kevin Lowe: Maybe there's a goal that others have told you it's too big. It's not for you.

Kevin Lowe: But there's a part of you that knows that you're made for it.

Kevin Lowe: You're meant for it. So my friend, get out there and chase it.

Kevin Lowe: It's all about chasing after the goal, embarking on this journey of life, because at the end of the day, all we're going to have are regrets, the things that we didn't do.

Kevin Lowe: Just go out there and start living life to the best of your ability.

Kevin Lowe: My name is Kevin Lowe. And this, of course, was another episode of Grit, Grace, & Inspiration.

Podcast Outro with music: I got Grit, Grace, & Inspiration on my mind...