Risk is Relative

One of my favorite TV shows is Deadliest Catch on Discovery Channel. If you've not seen it, it is a show that loosely fits into the documentary type category. It follows five or six crab boats through their King or Opelio Crab seasons on the Bering sea between Alaska and Russian waters. The show is called Deadliest Catch because the job these fishermen do is ranked as the number one deadliest occupation by the US Labor Department.

To say that it is cold where they work goes way beyond being a simple understatement. The waters of the Bering Sea have been referred to by one captain as liquid ice. Waves of twenty to forty feet are not uncommon. The summary of each season on the TV show is given in terms of money made by each boat in the fleet, how much each deckhand's share was, and how many men died or were lost at sea that season. Jockeys often say, and rightfully so, that their sport is the only one where an ambulance follows the athletes around the course, but tallying the season with a death toll takes on a whole new dimension of danger.

Obviously, these men (and a very few women) risk their lives not every day, but every minute of their jobs. If they go over board without a survival suit on, the window of opportunity for a successful rescue is about two to five minutes. As far as risk goes, they live on the outer fringes of the extreme. Where does that leave the rest of us? Are the extreme risk takers, such as the Alaskan crab fisherman, the only ones living on the edge?

Like many other things in life, risk is relative. My level of acceptable risk is admittedly, and thankfully, much lower than that of the crabbers. Some people have levels of acceptable risk lower than mine, and many have levels they are willing to take that fall somewhere in between me and the crabbers. Each person has some level of risk that they are willing to take. Horses are a great example to use for this.

To some, just standing beside a horse is too scary to even contemplate. Horses are big animals with minds of their own and are prone to the occasional fit of fright in which they will very likely try to jump on top of you if you're in the way. To others, petting a horse, or sitting astride while someone else holds the lead rope will push their comfort zone into the realm of risk just about as far as they are willing to take it. Then, at the other extreme, we have the jockeys, three day event riders, barrel racers, stadium jumpers, steeplechasers, hunt riders, etc that ride fast, turn hard, and jump high and love every minute of it.

One of my favorite quotes is from John Wayne, "Courage is being scared to death... and saddling up anyway. " Risk is relative. What thrills you, may terrify me. What is simple for me to do, may scare the bejeebers out of someone else. The person who is terrified of horses, yet sits astride while being led around the yard is being brave. A rider that is afraid to leave the arena, but goes on a trail ride anyway...white knuckles and all...is being brave. When we are learning a new event, pushing ourselves to that next level beyond where we are comfortable now, is being brave. I'll never forget when I was learning to barrel race and took the pattern at a fast canter for the first time after working it at the trot for several days. That sounds pretty mundane, but for me at the time I may as well have been riding a hundred miles an hour. The funniest comparison I've heard is between two of the Alaskan Crab fishermen, Jonathan and Andy Hillstrand, two brothers that co-captain the F/V Time Bandit. When off the boat, Johnathan rides a nitrous boosted motorcycle at speeds I don't even want to think about. Brother Andy rides and trains horses on his ranch in Indiana. Who takes the bigger risk? Just ask the brothers. Jonathan says that Andy is nuts for messing with horses. He says even Superman was killed by a horse!

It's funny that watching this show that show cases the most extreme risks most of us can imagine, has made me think about every day courage and risk. Thinking of life in terms of the extreme can make the rest of us feel pretty insignificant if we let it...like our little jobs and hobbies are a joke compared to those living on the edge. However, RISK IS RELATIVE. As long as I am pushing beyond a comfort level and into an area of risk for me, then I am living on the edge of MY level of acceptable risk. To attempt to live on the edge of someone else's acceptable risk is ridiculous.

I adopted a BLM Mustang, gentled her myself, and will begin her saddle training this Fall. For some, that's a pretty brave and risky thing to do. To others, it's nothing. They do that and more several times a week in their horse activities. For me, it was...and is...a risk, but one I'm willing to take. On the other hand though, I have an irritating fear involving horses in that I have grown accustomed to riding in an arena or fenced pasture and as time has gone on and I've gotten older, I've become afraid to ride out in the open, such as on a trail ride. I used to really enjoy this, so I do know what I'm missing. Yet, fear has stopped me from trail riding. I will gentle and train a Mustang, but not ride my trained domestic horse on a trail ride. Even within one person there are areas of bravery and cowardice. Cowardice can quickly lead to stagnation as we refuse to push out of our comfort zone and into a new level of acceptable risk. My horse activities have become less enjoyable and have been at a stand still for a few years now because of this fear. I only recently realized this as the reason that I just don't enjoy horses as much as I used to. I'm doing the same thing over and over every day without growing, without pushing a boundary no matter how small, into a new level of risk.

Will I ever have the courage required to step onto a crab boat as a deck hand? Of course not! That would be way beyond any level of risk I could ever accept. My Bering Sea may be riding a trail through the woods at a state park, someone else's may be riding a three day event course, and someone else's yet may be getting on a horse in the first place. If I can be scared to death and saddle up anyway, then even John Wayne might have called me brave. Risk is relative.

• The Deadliest Catch TV show http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/deadliestcatch/deadliestcatch.html
• The F/V Time Bandit http://www.timebandit.tv/
• Hobby Horse Acres, owned by Andy and Sabrina Hillstrand http://www.hobbyhorseacres.net/