Step 4: Evaluate Your Progress
Nothing high-tech can beat a list made with a paper and pencil. Write your goals down and hold yourself accountable for them. Check them at the end of every year. Then write down what you will work on the next year to bring you closer to your destination.
Remember: there is no shame in failure. But, if you do not try, you will never succeed.
Goal Setting: Low and Slow
I always tell my students, half joking and half serious, that the key to success is low expectations.
Whenever you are setting goals, set what comes to mind. Then cut it in half. The worst that could happen would be reaching that goal too soon, or too easily. The only danger in that is possibly feeling too good about yourself. You will become confident, which will allow you to raise your goals and start again.
Low Expectations
Start with knowing what you want. Once you have an idea of where you would like to go with your riding, break your goals into small, identifiable pieces and allot plenty of time to reach them.
If you think it will take a month to get something done, give yourself two months.
If you think that you want to do ten perfect jumps, try to get five.
Don’t overtax yourself or your horse. Take extra time. Don’t rush through things. Before you know it, you will reach your goals faster than if you tried too hard and did too much.
Winning Isn’t Everything
Your goals don’t need to be “wins.” Depending on your level of ability, some examples of worthwhile goals might be:
Comfortably jumping a cross-rail
Consistently getting the lead you want at the canter
Completing a 3’ course
Riding well without stirrups
Developing independent hands
Moving up into a new competitive division
Placing in the national finals
Training a green horse
Try to set realistic goals, and allow yourself a reasonable amount of time to attain those goals. When you reach a goal you have set, raise your sights. After every success, increase your expectations and set a new goal to work toward.
The Quest for Perfection
Many riders make the mistake of focusing on the outcome of a particular round. They worry about what happens in the show ring more than they care about what happens at any other time. They are so concerned about a potentially poor ride they become a ball of nerves in a constant state of anxiety. Neither they nor their horses can enjoy themselves while competing.
I want my students to be able to perform well when it matters most. But, a great round does not come from obsessing about it beforehand. Instead, it comes from the confidence of solid preparation.
Practice Pieces
Before show season starts, decide what type of course you want to do by season’s end. Analyze what kinds of questions are going to be asked of you and your horse as the year progresses. Identify what sorts of reactions and skills you will need in order to do well. Then, break that “end-of-season” course into pieces, and get to work on them.
For example, in a typical hunter course, you need to be able to jump straight lines, forward lines, and slow lines. You need to jump at least one fence off a turn. You need to be able to navigate diagonal lines. You may need to be able to do broken lines or in-and-outs. For handy hunter classes, you may be asked to trot a jump or make tight turns.
You do not do yourself any favors if you start the season without ever determining what sorts of challenges you can expect to see in the ring.
Once you know what the pieces are, you can set about learning the skills and devising exercises to help you master them. Don’t practice courses over and over again. Instead, practice skills that will help you put the perfect round together when you need to.
Use a single part of a course as an individual exercise and practice learning to do that part well. (See chapter 11, Course Work, to discover how to break a course down into its various parts. You will also find specific exercises to improve your understanding of those parts.)
Practice at home until you have mastered the skills you need. Then, when you are at the show and you see a particular type of line or fence, you and your horse will be able to excel, and all your hard work will pay off.
Beware! Don’t Over-Prepare
As you practice and work toward your goals, bear in mind the dangers of over-preparation. This is where learning to manage your time comes into play.
I always tell my students, “You only get so many ‘breakthrough’ rounds, where everything is exactly right. You will only have four or five best rounds, when everything falls perfectly into place, in a career.”
Being over-prepared is when you have practiced too much and your riding becomes rote. It lacks spark and energy. It lacks brilliance.
It is very easy to over-prepare. In today’s show ring, over-preparation is a huge problem. It is not at all uncommon to see horses knocking down jumps because they are bored or sore.
An over-prepared horse and rider team delivers a lackluster, unimpressive performance. They are robotic in their movements. They have hit their peak too early—at home in the practice ring, when it didn’t count.
4.4 The ability to deliver your best performance on a particular day is a direct result of your goal planning.
Peak Planning
Plan your training so you and your horse peak at the horse show and not at home the week beforehand. A part of the art of competing and the art of training is to get that breakthrough round at a moment when it really matters. Careful preparation is the key to ensuring that you and your horse are in top form when it counts.
4.5 Lessons are about
