Spring is all about embracing change and staying flexible, while still achieving the goals you have set.

Now that the dark evenings have gone and the days are getting longer, it is time to sit down and make plans for what you want to do in the next riding season.

You may have already planned your competition calendar, organized rally days or picked out the trails to go on during the warmer months.

The longer daylight hours not only help you get motivated, they also allow extra time to ride after work or school. For some of us in the northern parts of Australia, the summer months can sometimes be too hot to ride and therefore, create more challenges.

We all are faced with time restrictions due to work, school, family commitments, weather events and other things that can come between what we like to do and what we have to get done.

What I want is to help you define the motivation to solve some of the challenges in ways that allow you to bring a balance into your life.

Let’s start by finding out what goals you want to achieve before we identify potential issues that might stop you achieving them.

Whenever I get to a time of year when I start my planning, I start with ‘daydreaming’. I make the time to just sit and ponder.

That time might be in my bed before I get up, it might be during my daily meditation or anytime during the day when I get a free moment, a cup of coffee or a walk on the beach.

Daydreaming for me is identifying everything that I want to do that makes me happy. It used to be the daydreaming about my ideal competition days, perfect rides and training results.

I find that by starting with the end in mind, I have a clearer idea on what I need to do to get there. If I want to be successful in competing my horse, I need to train. Training means consistency and the anticipation of a successful competition or outing keeps me motivated to train daily.

The same could be said if your goal is to have calm trail rides or enjoyable, relaxing clinics and lessons.

Enjoying a relaxing clinic or lesson does not happen by chance, but rather, is like a successful competition day – an outcome of good preparation.

So, start by finding out what you WANT to achieve, not what you think you should achieve or what you feel you can’t achieve. Then, get really clear on what that would feel like, what would it sound like and what would it look like. The clearer you are the more real it becomes in your mind.

Too many people focus all their time on what they DON’T want to achieve, and this is a very destructive habit.

From there, start making plans.

  • How much do you need to ride?
  • What do you need to focus on in your riding/ground work?
  • Can you do this by yourself or do you need help?

Start to develop a plan and strategies. Which things are going to be easily achieved and which things are harder?

Identify the potential problems early (now), and work out how to deal with them, instead of being overwhelmed when they show up.

No plan ever goes completely smoothly. There are always some obstacles in the road; that is not negative thinking, it is reality, so the idea is to plan how you will navigate your way over or around the obstacles – just like trail riding, jumping or eventing riders do!

You have the chance to prepare yourself and work out how you are going to deal with potential problems – factor these in as strategies to achieve your goals.

For example, if you are working full time and your goal requires you to ride at least five times per week to get your horse fit and continue the training required. You might identify times when work will get really busy and you get home too late and too tired to ride.

Your problem-solving strategies could look like this:

  1. To get in the habit of riding in the morning before work if that is a more guaranteed time that you know you can ride. This takes the stress and pressure off the evenings.
  2. Another solution might be to have another backup person who can lunge or ground-work your horse on those days.
  3. Installing lights so you can ride/lunge even if it is dark.
  4. Plan your competitions in the time you know that work is not at it’s busiest.

My point here is, don’t get drawn into the problems that you might face and then end up abandoning your goals, but instead, plan ahead and prepare some back up solutions.

There is always a solution, it just depends on how hard you are prepared to search.

Flexibility and determination is the key to achieving any goal.

Happy riding everyone!