“I don’t have enough time to work with my horse and make progress.”

That seems to be a very common thought process that I hear ALL the time. What if I told you,

that you can make progress and get results with your horse no matter how much time you have to spend working with your horse.

It is true!! You can get training results with ANY amount of time you have to spend a week.

The secret: you must know your end result. You then break that down into small building block pieces that get you to that result.

So, if you wanted your horse to ride quietly, be more relaxed, and be more responsive you CAN DO IT! If you decided you had two days a week to spend with your horse working with them…..YES you can accomplish that!!

How do I know? Because I am doing just that right now! I have two horses I am working with two days a week and getting AMAZING results.

If you had that goal set, but went out and tried to do everything in one or two training sessions and expected to be riding off into the sunset….. well that is not a realistic goal.

So, how do you get to your end result then with only one hour two days a week?

Here is how:

1. – Set your end goal you want to reach

2. – Break it down into a step by step process

* Imagine building blocks, and a process so that

you are following a progression. I always say, think about learning in school, it has a curriculum and a process of what you learn and then what you learn next. To learn to read you must first start with the sounds that the letters make, understand how to form small words to begin to read, and then you build on that.

3.- Start at the very first, beginning step or the
foundation skills and training.

* I always start with ground work on all my horses.

I ALWAYS start with whoa. I want to have an emergency break at all times if I need it. I start with whoa on the ground first!

4.- Know the goal for each step and work as long as you need to, so as many work sessions as you need on each fundamental step, and DO NOT proceed to the next thing until you have that step down.

* It took me 3 work sessions with one horse to get

our whoa foundation before I could proceed forward to the next step. So work on the one piece first and do it as long and as much as you need to. Once you get that, then you can move on. Make sure your goals are very specific, very basic and focus on just that one small piece first!!

5.- Don’t get frustrated or impatient!!

* Do not feel like there is a time frame or a schedule

on how fast your horse must learn and progress through each piece. The stronger the foundation and each step the better your process will go. Some horses take longer at different aspects in the training, and you have to honor that horse in that place. TAKE THE TIME to stay there until you are ready to move to the next step in the process. DO NOT GET FRUSTRATED OR IMPATIENT!! That has to be the biggest key in working with horses period. If you want to rush through just to get to your end goal, then your end goal will not turn out as great and strong as you wanted anyway.

6.- You might be surprised!

When you take the time, put in the work in the small pieces of the process, it might surprise you in 4 sessions how much you have really accomplished when you step back and look. I was surprised at how well these horses retrained each lesson and we could just start where we left off after each session together. Even the four day break in between was not enough for them to forget or have to start all the way over. We kept making forward process the entire time. I always go back over what we worked on last time at first to make sure we were still were we left off, and as great reminder on what we have been working on. Then you can progress to the next step for the work day.

7.- Celebrate all the little successes!!!!

* Make sure to celebrate and get excited about every

little success and milestone along the way. This is what helps keep you motivated and excited, as well as keeps you excited with your horse.