Preparing your Equine Mentally

This is something I believe is huge in my training program and you’ll hear me talk about it a lot when I teach clinics. Your pony must be mentally ready for what you’re asking of it.

Prepare them for success. Spend that extra time on ground driving, Work on body control, drag the tire 3 extra times, 30 extra times if needed, drag a trap with pop cans tied to it.

All this prepares them for the cart.

Some people may say “Just hitch the pony up already”

Many things can still go wrong even with preparing them for months. Take your time knowing you’ve done your homework and putting in the hard work. It goes to show later on whether hitching your pony or working on whatever dream or goal that you may have

I spend tons of time preparing them for the cart. Hours upon hours. If you rush it and have a wreck you may have just created some huge issues and set things further back.

I went to a clinic last October, not to audit but to participate. I was having some self doubt and really overthinking the smallest thing when it came to my pony, Steele. I spent time working with Strachen Edward’s and after the first day of the clinic, Strachen had Steele hitched.

I spent the time preparing for the hitch and was still hitting a roadblock and couldn’t put my finger on what was going on. He changed two things:

The energy from himself to the pony
Putting blinders back on

You’re never done learning and never done asking questions. Put in the prep work, take your time. You need to feel confident and ready as does your pony. They need to be ready to take the next step as do you.

When you hit a roadblock, stop and ask for directions or step back and rethink where it was you were going. Reevaluate what you were doing and why. Are you pushing your pony, asking too much too soon? Do you need to take more time?

I promise there will be light at the end of the tunnel!

Cheers!
– Jed