PrintOur columnist believes that advance planning and realistic goals go a long way toward maintaining the welfare of the horse.
Advance planning is one of the key elements of a smooth and efficient business plan, especially when it comes to working with our equine friends.
You might think, “How does a business plan apply to me, who just wants to enjoy riding and competing my horse?”
While advance planning is important for any equestrian, it’s extremely important for those riders choosing to compete, no matter the number or level of competitions they wish to attend.
Planning for the competition horse and rider involves many different components, including training and preparation, health and well being of horse and rider, scheduling within the confines of your life, finances and much more.
Not long ago, a competition schedule existed that focused on us spending the winter and early spring preparing for a summer full of weekly competitions featuring the finest in horses and riders at all levels. Today, the hunter/jumper competition world consists of a year-round schedule in which our environment, by its very nature, propels us into thinking we must compete year round.
This culture means that horses and humans alike don’t get the rest and relaxation time they used to enjoy when I was growing up and a young professional in the hunter/jumper business.
Go, Go, Go
It takes a whole group of support people to get each horse to the ring. Trainers, riders, blacksmiths, veterinarians, braiders, feed store operators, hay farmers, saddlers and many more who are often forgotten or, sadly, sometimes never known to the riders and owners.
All of the people who provide services to horses have seen their lives change over the past 25 years. We’ve gone from being involved in a sport that occurred two-thirds of the year to one that’s around the clock-equestrian, all day and every day!
This change sounds great from a lot of different angles, but when you do anything all day, every day, eventually you’re going to suffer burn out. To avoid this, you have to plan breaks in your schedule.
In the case of equestrian, one player in our world suffers burn out not from his own doing, but because we humans decide how often, where and to what level he’ll participate in our sport. These are our equestrian partners, our horses.
As owners, riders and trainers, we have the responsibility for our equine athletes, so we must be vigilant in observing their behavior and any changes to their mindset that may signal that they’re stressed. If we’re obsessed with qualifying or some other goal, we could easily miss the signals from our friends and forget to consider what’s best for our horses.
Feeling compelled to go, go, go isn’t reserved just for those riders competing at the top of our sport. All you have to do is look around at the numerous regional, state and local competition circuits to know that somewhere, someone is pounding the pavement to attain some goal.
It may seem to you as if I’m against setting goals and competing to achieve those goals, which I’m not. I just feel that we need to assess the goals we set for ourselves and in doing so, remember that we’re not alone; our horses depend on us to set reasonable goals that consider their well being before our own.
