I have been a horse owner, well it seems like forever.
It is not just the experience itself you have as a horse owner but rather what you do with that experience which shapes you as a horseman/person.
Every day we have interactions with our horses. Every day we have to decide what we will do with that experience. Will we keep it, reshape it, or replace it?

That choice is up to us.

If you do the same thing over and over again, it becomes a habit. If it is a good ‘habit’ great. If it is not, well then it is not so good and we should replace that “bad” habit with something else.

Take some time to reflect on the experience you are having and actually figure out why it happened.

If your horse is performing better today. Take a few minutes and reflect on why. Did I change something? Did I improve something or did I actually prepare my horse properly so it can perform the movement correctly.
It only takes a few minutes to feel what has happened and reflect on the way it happened and the events leading up to it.

I often ask my student, “What did you do to make that happen?”
If they say, “I don’t know.” – then I say, “Think about it. If you don’t know how you got your horse to do that, then how are you going to repeat it?”
So think about what you are doing and understand how you are influencing the horse with your riding…
… your horse will thank you for it. 🙂