Planning ahead by looking back !! How to attack the upcoming competition season ! Thoughtfully , deliberately , cautiously and most of all, joyfully . A close look at what you want to achieve and what you have or have not achieved in the past will help determine your best way forward . Having a realistic inventory of all your assets ; finances, time constraints , personal and equine limitations , support group and instruction availability will be a important component in formulating a plan. Start by evaluating your achievements . Look past the numbers ,letters and colors that you were awarded . A more qualitative look at your performance is in order . Take each phase individually and try to identify the underlying strengths and weaknesses , look beyond the surface . For instance , if your horse has rails find the cause ;if your horses gaits score badly figure out why ; if you have time penalties on course it could be because his canter is not balanced etc . Accurately identifying improvement areas along with their underlying causes and then coming up with training strategies to successfully eliminate these weaknesses is paramount.Once you have a clear grasp of the problems then formulate a long term plan to address the issues . Usually there are a multitude of areas that need improvement and also a multitude of assets that need to be protected . Get outside help for clarity , enlist a knowledgable friend or a trainer who isent afraid to say it like it is . A vet and farrier who can make you aware of any limitations, how they affect your performance and strategies to improve those areas . Writing down all the weaknesses and then putting down frank, clear and realistic actions that would be needed to make appreciable improvements will give you a invaluable reality check . Once you have a accurate and current picture of your partnership and a understanding of how to make improvements , it is time to match your situation to attainable short and long term competitive goals . Designing the fitness schedule , scheduling lessons and clinics , xc schoolings, shows and destination events along with veterinary and farrier events all have to be planned with some flexibility to accomodate varying rates of improvement and unforseeable events . The schedule should support and be oriented to the original improvement goals and will eventually and invariably lead to competitive success. Focusing on the competitive goals without prioritizing the improvement goals can lead to being stuck in a rut and repeating the same below standard performances . The best way to stay on track is to judge each outing ;be it a show, a clinic, a lesson or even a trail ride relative to your improvement goals and keep tweaking (no not twerking) your improvement goals monthly . Good luck and may the Blue Be With You :)
Posted on: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 01:06:18 +0000
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