Freedom Equestrian
6558 Central Saanich rd V8m1v8 Saanichton, BC, Canada

#WednesdayWisdom

Instead of questioning your trainer why your kid is not excelling as quickly as others in their riding, maybe look at how much your kid practices. If you’re onl...y willing to commit to two lessons a month for example, that’s 2 hours per every 30 days on average. 2 hours out of 720 hours a month. Now let’s look at a year. 24 hours total. On average your kid then practices 1 day out of 365 days per year... let that sink in. Our sport is much harder than most and takes a lot of practice and skill, but for some reason people do not look at it this way. For example when I ran track, we practiced minimum 5 days a week for 2 hours a day. I put the sweat and time in to improve. Chorus - practice daily. Cheerleading - daily. Football - daily. Now, I also understand our sport is expensive. However, I find it imperative that as a parent you look at these numbers... and before you come complaining my kid isn’t improving fast enough, truly look at how much she practices. I am good at what I do, but I can’t work miracles. I constantly get parents comparing their kid to student X. However, student X is out at the barn working for extra ride time on anything I will give them and always ready to put in the work. As trainers we always have horses that need to be hacked. But I want to jump, I hear so often and the biggest thing is that these riders don’t realize jumping starts with flat work. Come work in exchange for ride time. Drop your stirrups and practice what we do in our lessons. Make yourself stronger and watch how much quicker you excel. All jumping is is flat work with sticks in the way. I was a barn rat growing up. I worked my butt off just to get on any horse my trainer would let me. The bratty pony needs a schooling? Done. The wild TB needs a hack? Done. The true and seasoned lesson horse needs a light hack! Perfect! I can work on me. We need to truly change these mindsets in our industry. Let’s be honest with your expectations. 24 hours - 1 day - out of 365 days. Let that sink in. Now let’s just add once a week lessons. 4 hours a month - 48 hours a year - 2 days out of 365.. PFA

Morning motivation

Keep passing this around The more folks that understand, the better our roads can become

Always good to see things from a different perspective.

So true! Credits to Cheval ta race.

Everyone needs to find their group of people

Love this From the Plaid Horse.... "If a horse says no, you either asked the wrong question or asked the question wrong.... An average hunter course has 100 strides. Only 8 of them are jumps. Don’t sacrifice the 92 for the 8. On approaching a fence: good riders wait until it’s time to go. Great riders go until it’s time to wait. Don’t squat with your spurs on. It is NEVER the horse’s fault. Yes, sometimes a horse may take advantage of a situation, but there is ALWAYS something the rider could do differently to change the situation. Pass left hand to left hand. You can only lie to your horse so many times before they call your bluff. Horses do no know what they are worth. They do not know, or care, what they are capable of. They only care about the way you treat them. Injuries and colic happen almost exclusively at 10:00 pm on a Saturday. Shoes get lost almost exclusively when preparing to leave for a show. If you work hard, try your best, and never give up, your efforts will not go unnoticed. And you will be rewarded with opportunities when you least expect it. If you work hard, try your best, and never give up, you will still fail sometimes. Video doesn’t lie after being told repeatedly that I was lifting my right hand before every fence, and swearing up and down that I was certainly NOT lifting my right hand before every fence I wasin factlifting my right hand before every fence. Sometimes your brain lies to you. Video does not. On being nervous going into the show ring: you’re just not that big of a deal. No one at the show is watching you close enough to know every mistake you might make, except for the judge and your trainer, and you are paying them to watch. Be patient there are no shortcuts. Any shortcut you may try, will actually be the long way. Check your personal issues and emotions at the door. Your horse will know. It usually does not go well. If your horse is in front of your leg, you have options. We never lose. We either win or we learn. Ride like a winner. You cannot act like flip flops and expect to be treated like Louboutins. If you have to pick only two things to think about during a course, pace and track are the two you should choose. The rest cannot happen without pace and track. Give yourself and your horse brain breaks. Go have fun, go hack out in the woods, go swimming bareback, read a book in the paddock, whatever. Just allow yourself time to have fun. At home there’s no reason to jump as big as you show every time. The basics are the basics regardless of the jump height. Save your horses legs. The horse world is very small. Remember this and don’t burn your bridges and be mindful of your words. Clean your tack. Groom your horse. Properly. Every day. If you can control nothing else, you can control your turn out. There is no excuse to not do the minimum effort. No matter what the problem is, the solution is almost always add more leg. Ride the horse you have today. Not the one you had yesterday. Not the one you want to have. The horse under you at this moment is the only one that matters. You go where you look. The human head weighs 10 pounds. Unless you would like to end up on the ground, do not look down. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. " - advice excerpts from the Plaid Horse See more