he first thing in setting goals is learning how to set elaborate goals. Make sure it is a well defined goal. The goal tells us what kind of methods we can use along the way to get there. It tells us in many cases what we have to do, and the many steps we have to take to get there. Learning how to establish a correct goal is important. If we do not have a goal we do not know where we are going. The odds of us getting to where we want to be are just absolutely remote – astronomical.
The important part of developing a lesson plan is learning how to identify a beginning point. A beginning point has to do with several things, like the 1st page of a book, it might even be the introduction in the book, explaining what the book is about but not going into detail about it. The beginning point is where we start off on the right foot with the horse. We can start off with the horse being successful right off the bat and when a horse is successful we pet him and begin building trust and building enthusiasm for the training.
Next in the lesson plan is to put as many steps as possible between your starting point and the goal. Again, like pages in the book, the more we break everything down the faster the horse reaches the next step – the next level in the lesson plan, the next page in the book. Learning the formula for developing a good lesson plan is critical in training. It keeps us out of trouble, keeps us out of fights with our horses, prevents misunderstandings.
I see a lot of people with a goal but they have no clue as to where the horse is - what level the horse is trained to. They are trying to get him to do things halfway up the lesson plan and they have not even covered the first part of the lesson. They do not know where they are and do not know where they are going. The chances of being successful under those circumstances are just astronomical.
I see people with a real vague idea of what they’re trying to accomplish, for example, they want to clip the horses’ ears. They want to be able to clip their horse’s ears but they can’t even touch the horse’s ears without a fight. There are 100 –200 steps between being able to touch the horse’s ears and putting the clippers on his ears. Each step is a page in a book. You shouldn’t expect him to have all the knowledge of everything in the book until you give him the last page, the clippers are the very last page.
Learning how to develop a lesson plan is a skill, it is an acquired knowledge we put into practice which eventually becomes a skill.
Aggravation:
If you are feeling too aggravated, if you find yourself not enjoying your riding lesson that day, sit and write down why you got a horse to begin with. What was the purpose, what inspired you to get a horse, another thing is to write down your values. Is it the most important thing to win at all costs?
Generally, when people are not feeling good about what they are doing on top of their horse it is because they know in their heart they are doing things that they should not be doing. The frustration really has nothing to do with the horse. The frustration comes from inside the person. The reason the frustration is there is because the person is not satisfied with what they can do, what they can accomplish.
That’s a good characteristic, not necessarily a bad one. It is a characteristic that pushes people to want to learn more, to do better, and to expect more of themselves. While they expect more of their horses they expect more of themselves. They have to recognize the frustration comes from trying to do something they do not know how to do. They are trying to teach this horse something they do not know how to teach them to do. It has nothing to do with the horse as an entity. It has to do with the type of person they are – they are not satisfied with what they can do, they want to do better, want to learn more.
The 1st point is to recognize the horse has nothing to do with the frustration and the aggravation.
Then 2nd is to recognize you are not a quitter. If you do not learn it today, you are not going to give up, you will learn it tomorrow and if you do not learn it tomorrow, you will learn it next week or next year. You are not into it for the short term, you are into it for the lifetime hobby so you have a lifetime to learn it.
The 3rd thing to recognize about this is really important: as soon as you learn it, the words are going to come out of your mouth, "Well, I can do that, now I want to do this". The whole cycle starts all over again. It’s a constant, a lifetime of frustration. You have to get a handle on it, recognize it for what it is. Recognize you are going to deal with it. If it gets too bad, step off the horse, hug the horse, put the horse up or spend a couple days just going in his stall and rubbing on him. Develop the relationship again.
Recognize that the most important thing is not winning the trophy today, the most important thing is winning the trophy sometime. Do it in a way you feel good about [it all] along the way. Winning the trophy is just momentary. Anyone who has won the Olympics can tell you, it’s a momentary thing. The next day they are already thinking about the next Olympics because they have to do it all over again.
If we chase the goal, if we chase the buckles or the trophy – the trophy in itself is a major disappointment. It is the trip getting there, it is the knowledge, the growth and the effort that we put into getting there that makes its all worthwhile, it is not the end itself.
Fun:
One of the most important ingredients to keep in our training is fun. To make sure we are having a good time so we transfer that feeling of having a good time to the horse. We get wrapped up into what happens and do not mean to leave the fun out of it. Someone gets a horse for the concept of the love and enjoyment of the horse, then they find out "oh, look how much more he can do". We begin to get wrapped up in the performance and then wrapped up in the show. Then we bring a measure, we have to do better.
It is like owning a pet - I’ve owned dogs most of my life but it was completely different owning a house pet that is your friend and runs around with you. Owning a dog on a ranch is different, you expect the dog to do a job, he is earning a living. On a ranch you move cows, if the cows are in the brush you need that dog to go in and get them. It is a completely different relationship now.
That is what happens to us when we show, when we compete – now the horse has a job. If he does not do his job, like anybody who doesn’t do their job, the relationship changes. It is no longer "drop the reins and let’s just go play on a trail ride, let’s have a good time and let me hug your neck – if you don’t stand exactly perfect and you are not collected all the time, who cares." Instead, we begin to ask more and more. Demanding more and more and expecting more. What happens is that relationship begins to change, which is no different between people.
You and I can be real good friends we can have a great conversation. As soon as I start expecting things from you, all of a sudden there is a pressure – well, you did not do what you were suppose to. That happens between kids and parents, husbands and wives, bosses and workers – the fun is no longer there!
Problem Solving:
I practice a replacement theory. It started as a "walk & chew gum theory". The walk and chew gum theory is this: we can walk and chew gum, but if we add one more thing to walk and chew gum, such as talk to a friend and walk and chew gum; talk to a friend and pat your head and walk and chew gum, et cetera. At some point in time, if you add enough so you cannot chew gum, which is the thing I do not want you to do, then what I’m doing is not focusing on telling you don’t chew gum. What I’m focusing on is telling you what I want you to do by continuing to add one more thing. The walk and chew gum theory developed, for me, into the Replacement Concept.
The Replacement Concept is to NOT focus on the problem, focus on the desires of the person, what they want. Replace the bad behaviors with what I want. I crowd out bad behaviors with good behaviors. I try to teach people to not correct a horse. If we can avoid ever scolding our horse we are far better off. Whenever we scold a horse we get unwanted behaviors – the ears pin back, the tail wrings, et cetera. All those things are unwanted behaviors we do not want to train. If we scold him, we might get him to stop doing what it is we don’t want him to do. But we may also create some side effects we do not want.
My theory is: "How can I find a better way to get rid of the unwanted behavior without causing the extra work of having to come back and fix side effects?" The Replacement Concept is simple. When the horse is doing something I do not want, I focus on what I want. Eliminate scolding and make all corrections small enough and smooth enough that if someone is watching they would not know your horse made a mistake. To me this is the ideal way to correct a horse. The rider’s movements and corrections, no matter what the horse is doing underneath the rider, are fluid enough it does not look like the rider changed at all. Even though the horse is screaming, or he goes twenty feet to the side, the rider stays focused on what they are doing, soon the horse comes in line with the rider and begins doing what the rider wants. The rider does not react to the horse and change their program.
To understand the concept takes practice, it takes a real desire for the person not to be normal. "Normal" for us is when a horse is doing something wrong, to get after him or scold him. For example, when the horse bumps into you, the "normal" reaction is [a slap] ‘hey get off of me’. Why not ask the horse – "how about breaking at the poll, or soften your neck and your shoulders and move away like I’d like you to." It is so much more "normal" for us to just slap him or grab him real quick and scold him rather than think ‘the reason he is bumping into me is because I’m not asking him to do something I want him to do’.
It takes practice, but it is achievable by anyone. It doesn’t make any difference what style of horse you’re riding or the type of riding you do – whether it’s trail riding or upper level dressage, everyone can put that program into practice and benefit themselves and their horse.
