Long ago, a king had a boulder placed on the highway. He wanted to test his subjects to see how resourceful they were. The well travelled road linked two important market centres where people traded salt, spices, silks, animals and many valuable things.

The king hid, then waited and watched. Some of the kingdom's wealthiest merchants came by but steered their heavily laden donkeys around the boulder, grumbling and cursing that they paid their taxes and the king should keep the road clear. Courtiers rode by on beautiful horses and plodding camels but no one stopped to remove the boulder.

Then one day a peasant carrying an enormous load of vegetables on his back staggered up the road. He stopped at the boulder, put his load down and leaned, exhausted, against the rock. Then he went to work to move the boulder out of the way. After much pushing and sweating he managed to roll it to the side of the road.

Stretching his aching back, he noticed a purse lying on the ground where the boulder had been. Curious, he picked it up. Inside were many gold pieces and a note from the king giving away the gold to the person who removed the boulder from the highway.

The peasant learned something that the merchants and the courtiers hadn't taken the time to think about. Every obstacle offers an opportunity to improve things in life.

Carrying that thought into the barns, arenas and show rings of the horse world, how many times have we been faced with problems perceived as setbacks that are really solutions in disguise?

In the weeks and months of focused training, when so much emphasis is on the technical perfection of a horse's way-of-going, it's easy to overlook subtle problems lurking in the background. Too much arena work or time on the lunge can dull the psychological shine in a horse. A ring sour attitude or boredom can set in which can lead to counter-productive behaviours, such resistance, refusals, balkiness or that flat-eared, tail-ringing defiance screaming for a change of pace.

Often that's exactly what will move the obstacle - a change of pace. Almost any horse whose training is focused on onediscipline will appreciate doing something different like an afternoon hack, a trail ride, a weekend away in new surroundings (check out the holidays on horseback in the April and May editions of PHJ) or some extended turnout time with other horses. It's all psychological breathing space.

Riders are as anchored to habit as horses and making a significant shift in routine takes thought, planning and commitment. But out of it can come a fresh wave of ideas and concepts you may never have thought of.

Years ago a friend was going through an episode of the doldrums. She was an experienced, knowledgeable rider but tired of the same old routine where nothing seemed to change. One an impulse, she went on the Kamloops Cattle Drive. The experience profoundly changed her. Within a year, she and her husband had sold their suburban home, bought a farm in the B.C. interior and kick-started the Thoroughbred business they had only dreamed of a year before. Okay, so maybe that's a little extreme ...but you get the idea. For them, life was exciting again. The obstacle in the path had become a launching pad for a new lifestyle.

Then there are the nose-flattening kinds of obstacles -- the real proverbial rocks in the road that are the stuff of injury or lameness or loss. Nursing a sick or injured horse to health is not only therapeutic but it can truly enrich the bond and strengthen the relationship between horse and rider. The down-time is quality time in which you and your horse find a different level of friendship that is mutually rewarding. Once your horse has returned to health and is able to be ridden again, you may discover that you own a happier horse more willing to work than before. Even if the medical condition dictates that the horse can no longer perform at the same level, there is a world of new equestrian options open to you. Now's your chance to discover riding lifestyles that you may not have thought of or had wondered about but never had the time to explore.

You know, we're really not that much different from the merchants, courtiers and peasants of a legendary time. There are just as many obstacles in the road today as there were then. It's how we cope with them that determines whether we find that purse of gold.