Most times people come to clinics seeking improvements in their horsemanship skills or in solving a problem with their horse or both. They are looking for guidance to improve their relationship and their performance

There are a lot of good teachers with a lot of good ideas out there. I think the majority of students understand the role of a teacher is not to fix problems but to present ideas and principles for students to study and apply. I have said many times, clinics are not for getting stuff fixed, but for getting ideas. You take those ideas and put them to work at home if you want stuff fixed. All the magic happens at home.

It’s not unusual to see a student come along to a clinic having made very little progress since the last time I saw them. I am pretty sure just about every clinician can say the same. Often these are smart, capable riders with a good skill level. It’s not their skill or knowledge that is holding them back. Most of the time they have a lot of potential to be better horse people and have a better relationship with their horse. But overwhelmingly the missing ingredient is time.

I sometimes explain to students that the simple difference between me as their teacher and them as the student is that I have spent a few more thousand hours working a few more thousand horses and making a few more thousand mistakes. The difference between myself and one of my students is time and experience.

It’s easy for me to say that because as a professional my daily life involves working, handling, and being around horses. While a clinic goer may spend most days studying at university or being an accountant or fixing cars or being a retailer or a chef or a police officer, I’m hanging around with horses. It’s hard for most people to find the time to commit to working horses. Very often we make working our horse the thing to do when we have finished all the other commitments we have in our life. This can mean that our horse and our horsemanship get our attention only once a week or once a month or even less. But if we want or expect to see steady improvement in our horsemanship that is not enough. It will rarely be enough.

So this is my biggest tip for making steady progress with your horse.

Make working with your horse a bigger part of your daily/weekly commitment. Instead of finding time to work your horse after everything else is done, make working your horse as much a part of your life as eating a meal. Don’t make your horse time the lowest priority in your day.

I suggest you create a diary or calendar. For each day, pencil in the things that you MUST do for the week or month ahead. Then pencil in on each day the times to work with your horse. This makes working your horse a commitment for those days. It makes it as much of a commitment as brushing your teeth or paying an electricity bill. If you decide to meet a friend for coffee you already know not to make the appointment for the time you will be working your horse. If you have to have the car serviced, you know to work it around the time your diary says you will be working your horse.

Your diary could look something like this:

Mon 2pm - horse

Tue 4pm - horse

Wed 8am - horse

Thu - rest day

Fri noon - horse

Sat 10am - horse

Sun - rest day

It doesn’t matter if you can only work your horse once a week or 6 times a week. Make an entry in your diary at least one week ahead for those times you can commit to working your horse. Plan even further ahead than a week if possible. Write it down and when something pops up that needs your time, check your diary to see that it does not clash with your horse riding schedule.

But be aware that the diary is only a planner and is only as good as your commitment to stick to it as closely as possible. For the change in your horse riding habits to occur requires a promise to dedicate yourself to the diary and only make changes when necessary. Trivial or non-essential reasons to not stick to the diary are no longer acceptable.

Initially, it can be quite difficult to change one's habits. But in my experience, it gets easier each week.

This is just one example of how to apply a strategy to change our riding habits. Maybe you have a better suggestion. Different strategies will be more helpful to different people and their situations. But the fundamental change comes from a deeper commitment to putting in more work with our horses and improving our horsemanship. Nothing will change if we don’t work our horses at home. Time and money spent on lessons or clinics alone will not fulfill your dreams. As I said, all the magic happens at home.