How To Plan Your Practice Sessions

Do you ever have that uneasy feeling that you and your horse seem to really fall apart when you ride by yourself?

However, when you take a lesson, or have a knowledgable person help you with your horse, you seem to walk away feeling you have really made progress?

This is not uncommon for many horse owners. If you do not have a trainer, instructor or knowledgable person to help you with your riding, and the training of you and your horse, I would like to help you overcome this problem with several suggestions. Once you find the correct solution to your problem, stick with it and you will find steady progress.

Suggestions:

1. Have a game plan for each ride.
2. Make sure you have the correct equipment and know how to use it.
3. Learn and get to know your weak and strong points as a rider.
4. Work on small goals.
6. Stay positive.
7. Understand that this is an "education".

To increase your self-confidence, you have to have a plan you can look at and study. Start out with a weekly plan. Get a weekly planner calendar. If you ride three times a week, write down what you expect to accomplish with each ride. Keep it simple so you can feel successful each ride. If you do this for several weeks, you will begin to notice your successes and what is working for you. Make sure you know your horse. For example: A lazy horse will take very little warm up or ground work. A nervous horse will take more time for warm up or ground work.

Make sure you have the equipment that will give you the advantage of a good ride. A saddle that does not fit or the wrong bit will cause your horse enough discomfort to become resistant for you. If you don't understand what is happening, you could end up blaming yourself and it will throw off your ride. This is a confidence eroder and can also end up creating a horse that is sour.

Another area that you need understanding in when you ride is that you have the knowledge of using the correct training aids. Be realistic. A horse out in the open field with no halter or lead can end up with not a lot happening to it. A training aid of a round pen or enclosed area will put you in more of a confident position.

Ask yourself if the bit you are using is correct for the level of training of you and your horse. If you are at the level where you fell you need the support of other training aids, such as martingales, spurs, whips, side reins, lunge lines, etc... do you know how and when to use them and how to adjust them correctly for you and your horse's benefit?

Remember, you as the rider is the pilot for the horse. You take the role as leader and teacher. Good riders make and develop great horses. As soon as the rider becomes aware of their skills that are positive and reinforcing to their horse, the sooner they begin to develop self-confidence and they advance in their skills as a rider.

It is sad to see riders set goals so high that they make it impossible for themselves and horses to achieve. Break each goal into small steps. For instance, if you want your horse to stand still as you mount, plan an entire session to work on him standing still as you mount and dismount, from both sides, 50 times. If he stands still in 25 times, then you've accomplished that goal and can move on to the next simple step you've planned. Perhaps he is lazy and doesn't want to walk off when you apply leg pressure. He pins his ears to say, "Nah, I'm not moving." You will have to increase pressure to convince him its in his best interest to move with leg pressure. So you tap him with a whip after his refusal to move off your leg pressure and he says, "Ok, I'm going now... you've convinced me." So you work on halting and walking off when you apply leg pressure, decreasing the use of the whip as he consistently and obediently walks off with only leg pressure. If that is all you accomplish in one session, it is a big step forward for the next successful ride. Keep building on the little successes and soon they are giantic steps forward as the days and weeks go by.

Always keep the goal in mind that you have for that training session. If you need help, go to a professional that can help you get a good start in the right direction. For some riders, it is important to have a professional they can go to for help and help keep the focus needed for their goals.