It’s cold. It’s windy. I just don’t want to
go out there and ride my horses. Do you ever
feel this way? Sure I love to go riding, but
some days… I just don’t feel motivated. In
this case, I haven’t been able to make
observable progress with my horse, but I
want to train him. How can I get motivated
to go and do it? The answer can be
deceptively easy. Or perhaps, easy to do,
but still challenging.
READ!
Well, let me clarify, read non-fiction books
about horses. I recommend reading horse
training books, but whatever works for you.
Read any horse book that inspires you to
dream, especially a training book that is
levels beyond where you are with your horse.
This allows you to envision what you could
do with your horse. If you ride English,
read Podhajsky’s The Complete Training of
Horse and Rider, Wynmalen’s Dressage, or
Racinet’s Another Horsemanship. If you ride
western, I suggest Training the Reined Horse
by Peter Phinny and Jack Brainard,
Williamson’s Breaking and Training the Stock
Horse, or Brainard’s If I Were To Train a
Horse. If you are just looking for other fun
stuff to do, read Step By Step Trick
Training by Jackie Johnson, Discovering
Natural Horsemanship by Tom Moates, or
Hempfling’s Dancing With Horses. All these
books should help you imagine what it would
be like to have an even better trained
horse. Reading books can allow you to dream;
to believe that, yes, even you can do these
things. It doesn’t matter if you ever
compete or if you are never recognized.
Rather, did you try? Did you dream?
You can’t train your horse to be great
unless you can imagine him as great. Your
horse can’t attain greatness unless you
believe that he can be great. Dream… dream
and imagine where you could be. Read… read
and learn where you can go with your horse.
Imagine… just imagine…
