What piece of horsey advice really helped you?

[CJoe]

always finish on a good note (irrespective of timeframes....)

 

[Ambers Echo]

Failure is the biggest teacher. Those who achieve most are also those who have been willing to fail most. (This is empirically true - figure skaters were studied over a 10 year period. The girl who became world champ fell 3X more in training than the girls who were outside the top 10).

When you are in someone's classroom, be a student.

Focus on riding for what you do want instead of correcting what you don't want.

 

[Misty 2020]

When you fall get back on
Horses have bad days as well
There is more to horses than riding

 

[Scotsbadboy]

Positive thinking. My mantra is 'I believe its going to work out fine'

One bit of advise i gave myself recently ... dont ride with a bunch of keys in your pocket ... it REALLY hurts when you hit the deck and land on them regardless of the surface!

 

[DabDab]

Failure is the biggest teacher. Those who achieve most are also those who have been willing to fail most. (This is empirically true - figure skaters were studied over a 10 year period. The girl who became world champ fell 3X more in training than the girls who were outside the top 10).

When you are in someone's classroom, be a student.

Focus on riding for what you do want instead of correcting what you don't want.

Yes, "if you're not failing from time to time then you're not trying hard enough" was always one that stuck with me.

 

[mini_b]

Too late ??
What about buying a horse for the rider you were ten years ago?? ????‍??‍

this with bells on ?

 

[mini_b]

“Set your horse up for success” has been a huge one for me. I’ve not got the most straightforward one
(I thought he was going to be easier than what he’s been...cue evil laughing)

we have had to go at HIS pace and I’m certainly not where I thought we would be by now but the tiny improvements he (we) makes are consistent.

this leads me to the next one

“Don’t worry about what everyone else is doing”

 

[thefarsideofthefield]

' Heels and hands low , head and heart high.' Jill Crewe ( as in Jill's Gymkhana )

' Try and keep the horse between yourself and the ground .' My OH summing up the basic principles of riding .

 

[Cowpony]

When on the ground, control the head - control the horse
When in the saddle, it's what is behind you that does the work, what's in front of you just looks pretty when the back end is working properly

 

[Ownedby4horses]

Definitely set yourself and your horse up for success.

Don’t worry about failures, just learn from them.

The bit doesn’t stop the horse, the horse stops the horse.

People causes horses problems, for example, a horse is never unbalanced cantering unridden in a field.

If your horse doesn’t understand the question, change the way you ask it.

I could go on and on as have lots of them but these are the ones that come to mind.

 

[Zibby]

No foot, no horse...

 

[Circe2]

English isn’t my first language (although I’ve lived in this country for a while). In my native (Germanic) tongue, one of the widely used expressions when asking a horse to do something (when ridden), is to ‘invite the horse’ to trot, canter etc, as opposed to ordering/directing the horse - similarly phrased as asking somebody to a dance. A bit like ‘asking’, but without the connotation of making a demand.

All the years I’ve been riding, there’s always been a little voice in my head, prompting me to do this; and somehow (possibly by sheer luck), I’ve never had a horse refuse me when the invitation’s been extended politely!

The other key bits of wisdom that always hold up, in anything horse-related are..

Good things come to those who wait

Don’t overhorse yourself

and

Education, education, education ?