Setting plans to reach your goals

[Neptune]

How do you do this?

Ie. Its small goals to reach the main goal. So how do you plan each of these small goals to eventually be at the main goal. Then once that it reached how do you plan on going to achieve the next step.

I just seem to be floating around from show to show, schooling for the sake of schooling but still no closer to my goal. There is no structure to the shows I go to to reach the goal. I have tried it once before, do this on that date, do that on this date etc. But found I was never at the point I hoped I would be for some shows and they were ending up to be above my capabilities.

How do you plan and set a path to your goal?

 

[View]

Sorry if I am teaching you to suck eggs here, but goals need to be SMART. I also find that it helps to formulate these goals in a discussion with my coach (to stop me trying the unrealistic).

So, I've got my realistic long term goal. What do I need to achieve to get there? The answer to this help me set my medium term goals and then again what do I need to do to achieve these? This is how I plan but it may not work for you.

 

[PaddyMonty]

Setting of dates are milestones, not goals.
My current goal is to get horse to BS novice level and be competitive (no time scale set). Having established the goal I then look at what the horse will need to be capable of to achieve that......jump 1.00mtr cleanly, be able to turn tightly and stay in balance, not spook at new sights etc.
Having set that I look at the horse I currently have and access where we are. Jumping cleanly and turning tightly requires a balanced canter. I dont have one atm so that needs to be sorted. So then I analyse why I dont have a balanced canter.... horses basic way of going is not there, too weak in muscle. Now I have what I need to work on for the first part of the goal.
Goal also requires the horse not to spook at new sights. Don't have that either at present so need to develop horses confidence and experience so lots of hacking on her own to different places, very low level comps at as many different venues as I can get to etc.
Mix the flatwork requirement and the confidence requirement and you have a map for what needs to happen on the hack. Slow canters, hill work etc.
So that where we are atm

Then I have to constantly check if we are moving closer to the goal. This can be as simple as taking horse to a new arena andpopping a representative course or it could be doing regular dressage comps to check flatwork progress. Reality would be both are required.

So in essence to get my horse to jump BS I need to do lots of hacking and dressage. Who would have guessed.

That's how I tackle it. Others would just keep jumping in the hope that it would come together

 

[Neptune]

PaddyMonty -- Wow!. Never thought of it as being so in depth as that, but it makes sense. I was just breaking down each goal as in what I need to be doing, what classes we need to be going to. Not necessarily the horses way of going and why we were not where I was expecting to be. I Need some serious thought into this by the looks! Thank you

 

[PaddyMonty]

Setting a goal without working out the gap between the goal and where you are now and developing the action plan to close the gap just means the goal will not be reached.
A lot also depends on the person. I ride to compete and by competing I mean win. To do that requires a measured approach. That doesn't mean I win all the time but when I don't I look at why and develop a plan to overcome the barrier that stopped me winning. Even when I do win I look at what I could have done better. There is always something to learn at every comp.

 

[Sprat]

PaddyMonty - What a brilliant way of looking at your development and goals.

It is common sense I'm sure, but I have never analysed where I want to be and how to get there like that before, I will certainly be reevaluating how I achieve what I want to achieve.

 

[View]

Setting of dates are milestones, not goals.
My current goal is to get horse to BS novice level and be competitive (no time scale set). Having established the goal I then look at what the horse will need to be capable of to achieve that......jump 1.00mtr cleanly, be able to turn tightly and stay in balance, not spook at new sights etc.
Having set that I look at the horse I currently have and access where we are. Jumping cleanly and turning tightly requires a balanced canter. I dont have one atm so that needs to be sorted. So then I analyse why I dont have a balanced canter.... horses basic way of going is not there, too weak in muscle. Now I have what I need to work on for the first part of the goal.
Goal also requires the horse not to spook at new sights. Don't have that either at present so need to develop horses confidence and experience so lots of hacking on her own to different places, very low level comps at as many different venues as I can get to etc.
Mix the flatwork requirement and the confidence requirement and you have a map for what needs to happen on the hack. Slow canters, hill work etc.
So that where we are atm

Then I have to constantly check if we are moving closer to the goal. This can be as simple as taking horse to a new arena andpopping a representative course or it could be doing regular dressage comps to check flatwork progress. Reality would be both are required.

So in essence to get my horse to jump BS I need to do lots of hacking and dressage. Who would have guessed.

That's how I tackle it. Others would just keep jumping in the hope that it would come together

Fantastic explanation of breaking down the steps.

 

[PaddyMonty]

PaddyMonty - What a brilliant way of looking at your development and goals.

Thankyou. Given that I ride for owners I dont often have the luxury of knowing I have the horse for as long as I want so have to be focused on result to an extent. If it doesn't go to plan I need to know why. Kind of a pressured way to ride which suits me. Only really as good as my last result if you like. If I had my own horse I would probably spend years getting nowhere.
I also very much keep in mind something I read long ago. "Every time you ride a horse you change it. It is the riders responsibility to make sure that change is for the better". To do that you need an objective (small one) for each time you get on a horse.

 

[Bernster]

Very wise PM, particularly useful reminder about matching where the horse is now against the goal/objective etc.

I am a bit more like the OP - I bimble around between different activities and sometimes feel I am lacking in the overall aim.

However, I am pretty good at the micro aims, like what we need to improve on the flat, jumping, his balance and way of going etc. I then haphazardly assess some of those at whatever event/clinic/lesson might attract my attention next haha. Not very carefully planned but then I'm v much a leisure rider and want to have a play at a few different things.

 

[milliepops]

as PaddyMonty really - with a different sense of urgency as I've been plagued by injured horses for the last 3 years! Just when you start to get somewhere, you are bumped back to square one

And similar to above, I also heard the phrase that you are always either training or untraining your horse, whenever you are with it, so make it my business to try to always be training! Doesn't have to be really full on, but something as simple as trying to never let it do a bad halt, even when hacking, etc. Don't be doing anything aimlessly.

I rarely jump now, my goals are all dressage related. There's no 'end' goal, just to be the best we can. There are lots of small goals along the way - be that shows/going up a level/getting to championships etc. These kind of goals have to be flexible in timing just because things can go wrong at inconvenient moments.

Then there are the tiny incremental goals which we chip away at daily. TopCob is currently on a progression to learning canter half pass. At the moment we are at the stage of shoulder-fore.. this is the hardest bit for her but should take another week at current rate of progress, then we will move to travers for a bit, bit of renvers etc before introducing half pass. Assuming there are no unforseen disasters, this is a roadmap laid out in front of us.

Most importantly I do think it gets easier to see the strategy once you've trained one horse up the grades, because then you have the benefit of experience. Then can see what you did right/wrong and have a better understanding of where your weak areas are that need targetting before you can move on, whatever level you are currently at. Subsequent horses seem to progress a lot faster. A good trainer will help you fill in the blanks if you are struggling with that, so if you haven't done already OP, I'd suggest you seek some help from someone who understands what you want to achieve and can help you plan to get there

 

[Sukistokes2]

There is a great e book by an Australian eventer whose name escapes me which is about confident riding. It was a really good read. I will have to look up the title. It was really good at teaching you about goals, how to set them and how to work towards them. Worth reading just for that.

 

[nikkimariet]

I have goals set for schooling and goals set for competitions. The two combine at points.

It helps having regular lessons and tackling my homework.

For instance; this year I wanted to ride at PSG. Which meant that the changes needed to be better. So I've worked on the quality of the canter and the connection/contact. Which has helped me achieve my goals of PSG AF.

Agree with the comments regarding always training/untraining. I never let a scrappy halt pass, or for him to yawp at my hands. There are degrees of correction of course, and if I'm just hacking I will let him be long and low anyway. But if we're having a stretchy session that is still building the suppleness/strength and he still needs to listen to me.

A big goal for me was to up Figs confidence. I've done lots of despooking with him again and he's very chilled. He's needed to get used to a whip (and he's less reactive about others with a whip being near him) which has helped his attitude in the warm up. In turn that has helped us perform better in the ring (and thus achieve our goals).

Horses are always always always about the bigger picture. The amount of people I teach that say they feel like they're stuck, so I always remind them of where they were a few months or a few years ago. Couldn't canter a circle to competing Prelim with high sixties/seventies! Swings and roundabouts. I'm working on the trot/expression at the moment. Which has compromised the softness in the neck I've been creating. But once he relaxes and settles into the work with being a bit stronger and more balanced, the softness will come back.

 

[chestnut cob]

I love this thread as it's something I've been thinking about for a while. I'm good at having aims but not objectives. I know where I want to get to but am struggling to fill in the blanks in the middle.
I've actually got a DR lesson this afternoon and was going to ask DR teacher to discuss setting goals and homework plans (as in more detailed homework plans - I always know what I need to go away and work on but I'm a scientist really and I'd like something more prescriptive). When I was playing with eventing, an eventing friend was teaching me and she had my weekly and daily horsey routine planned down to a T so we improved very quickly. Flatwork is improving also but I feel like I need to be more structured in how I plan my riding, what I'm working towards in each ride, each week and where I'm trying to get to. I think I need some milestones too.

 

[Sukistokes2]

The book I recommended earlier is called Ride with Confidence and is by Peter Haynes, although it is about confidence it does show how to really set goals and is an all around interesting read.