Everyone who rides horses needs a plan if they are to progress to success. We have five simple ways to get further down your riding path:

Give Your Goals Life

You cannot achieve a goal that hasn’t been written down. Writing them down gives them life! Thinking about them in the far off distance is no more real than your dreams at night. In order to construct your plan, you need to put all of your goals on paper and in a format that you can easily look back on to check your progress over time. The Equestrian’s Lesson Journal is the perfect place to start; the first step is writing down where you want to go!

Keep From Forgetting the Lesson

Memorizing everything that happened in a lesson, and remembering the next day or week down the road, is almost impossible. And who has time to try and remember when you’re in the middle of the arena, saddled up and ready to go? Keeping track of all the trainer directions, and what you should be working on, starts with a good set of notes at the end of your last lesson. Or, better yet, ask your trainer to help you put it all down so that you both agree on what happened and what your homework or next steps are.

Exercises That Move You Forward

If specific exercises were given during a lesson, don’t you want to make sure that you do your “home-work” on them later? Keeping track – even for months down the road – of each exercise you worked on in lessons is a great way to keep your riding on track with your trainer’s expectations. A comment from your trainer, “Remember that time we worked on the square turns?” and you can say, “Yes, I do! It’s in my journal and I’ve been working on them.” Trainers love students who progress and move forward. It makes them feel like a good teacher while you learn more from them because you don’t need repeating to.

Look Back to Move Forward

When you have your goals in your journal, you can remind yourself regularly where it is you are heading. If those goals change, then you did it by consciously deciding to make that move rather than going in several directions without any plan at all. You have a direct answer when your trainer, coach, or clinician asks you, “What do you want to do with your riding?” It’s easy now to answer and they can give you better feedback because they know clearly where you want to be.

Accomplishing Goals to Find Success

Every rider who takes lessons, clinics or shows their horse wants to be a success. Success is defined individually, but that is usually represented in the horse world by a big blue ribbon. Successful people in all walks of life have a plan for where they are headed. They use goals and strategy to get there. Your strategy needs to be written down and realized! To do that, we offer up The Equestrian’s Lesson Journal as your resource to get to the places you’ve always been dreaming to go.

So, here is the list of reasons why you need a Journal today:

• No goal happens without a written plan!
• Can you remember everything? No one can without writing it down.
• What are the exercises or specific changes your trainer gave you during your lesson? Make a list of all the things they want you to remember and work on until they see you next time.
• How will you know how far you’ve come? If you had the ability to know the past, you can change your direction.
• Where do you see yourself in the future? Knowing the plan of getting to all those things you’ve learned can take you places you’ve only imagined.

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