Strides for Success

Tag: journal

  • Ideas for Reviewing Your Year in the Saddle

    Ideas for Reviewing Your Year in the Saddle

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    Isn’t it strange how, sometimes, when we look back over something ‘big’ or ‘long’ – like a year – we only remember 1 or 2 key events or things? And yet, when you truly sit down and begin reviewing your year in the saddle, there is so much more there to be mined!

    Today, I want to give you a few simple ways you can look back over the past 12 months (or whatever time frame you choose), and see it for all that it was for you and your horse.

    Reviewing Your Year

    I have been guilty of ‘skipping’ the whole reviewing process. Thinking about and planning for the ‘new’ definitely feels more exciting. Setting goals and beginning to play with the feelings of actually achieving those goals is a potent and powerful practice.

    But, to truly make that work for you, I think it is just as important to go back over what has happened.  To use the past as a guide for creating more in your future. 

    Identifying patterns is one of the best ways to either create or remove something from your riding.  By going through the year, month by month, you can really see what works and what doesn’t when it comes to you and your horse.

    Use Your Photos as a Guide

    This is one of the best tools you have to help you revisit the year.  Set yourself up with something nice to drink, a quiet and relaxing space and get started.  By going through the photos on your phone, you will get to revisit the whole year, month by month.  When I do this I regularly find photos of different things that happened that I had completely forgotten about!

    And even if the photos are not horse-related, often the memory of something else can trigger a memory about your horse or your riding…

    I am going to suggest writing down all of the different things in chronological order in your riding journal.  This way you can really begin to notice patterns; good ones and the not so helpful ones! It also helps you to really understand your schedule, which will be important when it comes to creating realistic goals for the next year.

    Ask Yourself Questions

    Once you have the year laid out you can begin using this as a reference so that you can find out more about what the year held for you. I do think that it can be helpful to approach your riding and your horse’s training separately.

     1. Skill Development and Training:

    • What new skills or disciplines did you and your horse work on during the year?
    • How has your horse’s training progressed, and what areas still need improvement?
    • Did you achieve the training goals you set at the beginning of the year?
    • What adjustments can be made to your training plan to enhance both your and your horse’s abilities?

     2. Relationship and Communication:

    • How has the bond between you and your horse developed over the past year?
    • Did you effectively communicate with your horse, and were there any notable improvements in your partnership?
    • Were there any challenges in understanding and responding to your horse’s behavior?
    • What steps can you take to strengthen the connection with your horse in the upcoming year?

     3. Equipment, Time, and Facilities

    • Did you encounter any challenges with the logistics of horse care, such as boarding, transportation, or scheduling?
    • Were there any facility improvements or changes that positively or negatively affected your riding, training, or just being with your horse?
    • How well did your current setup meet the needs of both you and your horse?
    • What adjustments or changes in logistics can enhance the overall efficiency and enjoyment of your equestrian activities in the next year?

    Review Your Riding Journal

    If you are not already, let this week be the week you begin tracking your riding.  Trust me, when you begin to do this, you will have a powerful tool to use when you are completing your review.  You can keep track of your horse’s training progress, note achievements, and identify areas for improvement.

    When you begin to regularly record training sessions, noting exercises, challenges, and successes, you can use that knowledge going forward. By reflecting on the effectiveness of different training approaches, you can set your goals for the future – and increase your chances of making them happen!

    Using Your Review to Plan Ahead

    Once you have a clear idea of what the previous 12 months looked like in your riding, you are then ready to begin mapping out the coming 12…  And you can do it in a way that will work for you and your horse.

    Reviewing your year may seem time-consuming and not all that helpful, but I hope that you will take my advice and give it a go for you and your horse this week!

    Happy Riding
    Lorna

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  • Keeping a Horse Riding Journal

    Keeping a Horse Riding Journal

    You have just finished cooling down from what, in your mind, was the best lesson you have had in months…  As you are tending to your horse, that afterglow feel is radiating from you.  The feeling of achievement and success.

    And this is exactly when you need to record all that happening in your horse riding journal!

     You see, what you will probably notice is that while you can look back over your lesson and remember all the details now; this won’t last! Over the coming two or three days, when you are trying to replicate that feeling, you will often struggle to repeat what did to actually achieve it all in the first place.  This leads often to frustration, which leads to stiffness, which leads to a downright unsatisfactory ride.

    Your Horse Riding Journal

    This is why I suggest having a horse riding journal or notebook packed in your tack box.  This will ensure it is ready at the first available opportunity to use.  Usually, this will be after you dismount and have taken care of your horse. Give yourself space to then write down the important aspects of the lesson or ride you just had.  I emphasize the ‘in your tack-box‘ because even just waiting until you get home will lead to important information being forgotten and lost.

    So, why is this process so powerful in us repeating that initial ride?  Keeping track of the smaller details helps us to see patterns emerging in the long run between what is causing particular outcomes in our lessons or schooling sessions.  

    We can begin to create a better picture of what is working.  And, as a result, actively avoid what is not!  There is also a higher chance that we write down and capture specific pieces of information relayed to us by the instructor. Information that would otherwise be forgotten in the business that is life.

    I recommend using a separate notebook or journal for this sole purpose and each time you ride capturing these 6 specific pieces of information:-

    1.  Details, Location, and Weather

    Here you can quickly jot down the date, time, arena, horse, instructor, and what tack you used.  You can also note the weather, how you were feeling before the lessons, and how your horse is acting before and during the lesson.

    This information is useful to begin seeing patterns such as wind, or times of day, or indoor versus outdoor, etc.

    2.  An Overview of Your Warm-Up

    Noticing what constitutes a successful warm-up for a specific horse or discipline, is powerful.  You can soon begin being more active in riding a warm-up plan that will best prepare you and the horse for a specific schooling session or lesson.

    You can also begin tracking the other factors listed in item 1 to see if they do, in fact, influence the warm-up.  

    If you record that they do indeed seem to play a part, you can begin making changes.  Do this by formulating a plan to counteract those negative influences or incorporate more of the positive ones.  You can also begin to plan specific warm-ups for specific exercises, such as jumping, dressage, etc.

    3.  The Overall Theme of Your Ride

    What specifically were you trying to achieve with that ride?  If you had a lesson, your instructor should have outlined this at the beginning for you to understand where you were trying to go.  Sometimes we won’t actually reach the end destination we had in mind for that particular session.

    However, if this is the case, it is important to note how far you managed to get.  Also, note a few ideas as to what was holding you back regarding achieving the goal.  

    Often it will take four or five sessions towards one particular goal in order to actually reach it…  What a waste if you are not documenting the small steps towards achievement along the way.  Not only will you learn more, but you can also refer back to this if you encounter a similar problem in the future.

    4.  What Went Wrong?

    If you had an instructor or trainer present in the arena with you, writing the most repeated critique here will help you focus on what to try to improve next time.  If you are working alone, try to take an honest look back at your ride. What did you struggle with?  Where did you feel challenged?  What did you feel could have been better?  Writing these things down not only identifies the issue at hand, but it also allows you to look back weeks and months from now.

    You will see past difficulties and a plan for how you finally overcame them.  

    All the current challenges will soon become small wins and those wins are important to fuel your desire to keep improving your skills.

    5.  Homework or Exercises

    So you have identified your weaker points.  It is important that you begin to formulate a plan to overcome them.  This will involve doing some ‘extra time’ on the issue at hand.  Your extra time, if you only have access to a riding school horse once a week, maybe to watch videos on how others overcame the same sticking point.  Or, if you have your own horse, it may just be practicing more of the same throughout the week in preparation for your next lesson.

    What is important to keep in mind here is that while you are riding any exercises, make sure you are holding yourself accountable for doing it right.  

    Practice, no matter how much you do,  will not make perfect if it is the wrong kind of practice!

    6.  Outline your Goals for your Next Ride

    We all need to look forward and have a reason to master what is currently troubling us.  Therefore outlining your next goal will help keep you moving the ball down the field. This works by keeping your focus firmly locked on the bigger picture.  The temptation to get caught up in the smaller details, particularly when we are starting out, can sometimes be the actual problem itself.  Keep inspiring and motivating yourself by looking to the future, even if that future is only the next ride!

    I strongly urge you today to go out and if you don’t already have one, purchase a nice notebook or journal . Then begin keeping track of your riding.  

    It will help you get more bang for your buck from your lessons by capturing details and information that will otherwise be forgotten.  It will also help inspire and motivate you during those tougher times that we all experience when learning something new.  And finally, it will help you begin to notice and recognized small patterns or details that can make all the difference between a successful ride and one that leaves you feeling less than accomplished.

    Happy Riding
    Lorna

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