Slow Down To Speed Up

Goal achievement. How many times do we get hyper-fixated on where we want to be, what we want to do, things we want to achieve? How often do we set a timeline for achieving these goals and aspirations? Goals can be a wonderful thing. They can be a tool to motivate us on days we don't feel particularly inspired. They can give us something to work toward with our horses and create a sense of partnership. They can build community and relationships when we work with others to achieve them, or when we support one another as we work on them individually. They can also be an endless source of frustration, and even cause us to despair when we do not achieve them.

Photo Credit: Mutt Love Photography

Humans have a habit of putting timelines on things. Horses, on the other hand, live much more in the moment. They just care about their basic needs being met now - we are the ones who daydream and set aspirations for the future. While setting goals can be wonderful, we have to remember when we’re working with a sentient being like a horse that we need to work on their timeline as much as ours, if not more. Horses don’t set timelines for goal achievement like we do, but physically and mentally they can only handle so much at a time. Working on their timeline means progressing at a pace that is fair to them, with compassion and empathy. We have a responsibility to respect their bodies and feelings and not try to progress things faster than they can handle.

This is easy to do when we feel things are progressing at an acceptable rate. Where it often becomes a challenge for us is when we encounter obstacles that slow down our progression along our ideal timeline. Many things can get in the way and delay goal achievement, such as an injury, a challenge in the training process, a change in topline requiring a new saddle, et cetera. Often, we become discouraged or even frustrated when we experience a so-called setback, and our timeline gets extended. But Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was a dressage horse. One of the greatest things horses can teach us is to be more in the moment and take each day as it comes.

Basics are everything. Training new movements is not the hard part of dressage or other disciplines, it’s executing them well. In order to do anything well, you need to have a solid foundation and be skilled at the basics. Skipping steps in the early stages always ends up creating holes that you’ll need to go back and fill at a later date. If you’re missing any component of the training scale, it will inevitably cause problems down the road. Oftentimes we don’t realize we’ve skipped a step until we encounter an issue in our training. For example, we might think our horse is on the aids when we are riding in our indoor arena at home, but then we go to a show and exit the dressage ring at E when our horse drifts out on a 20m circle. That’s when we realize it was the wall of the arena that was doing part of the steering, not our outside leg.

Sometimes it’s not the going slow in the beginning we struggle with, it’s handling a delay after things seem to be moving along well. The question is, how do we deal with these setbacks without letting them discourage us - especially when there are multiple delays, or they seem to last for an extended period of time? One of the great secrets of training horses well is to slow down. Taking your time to lay a proper foundation is the biggest thing that will advance your horse quickly down the road. The stronger your foundation, the greater heights you can achieve, and the faster your horse will progress through the higher levels down the road. Setbacks are often a blessing in disguise. Any time we have to take some time off or slow things down, we have the opportunity to go back and fix any holes in our training, or at a minimum, strengthen our foundation. The higher you progress up the levels, the more you start to realize that the secret to making each movement better is by going back to the basics. Working on flying changes? Go back to making sure your horse is perfectly supple, straight, and on your aids. Progressing them to tempis? Being supple, straight, and on your aids just became even more important. When you sharpen these basics, it improves all of the movements your horse knows (and will learn in the future).

Improving at the higher levels doesn’t involve drilling upper-level movements repeatedly; it is about sharpening your basics daily. Figure out the root causes of any issues and then do simple exercises to improve them. Riding transitions is one of the most beneficial exercises we can do for any level. Transitions will improve your horse’s balance, responsiveness to the aids, half halts, carrying and pushing power, and so much more - the list is endless. Let’s say your horse is rehabbing from an injury and you’re feeling discouraged because you had planned to show at a higher level this summer, but now you’re limited to walk work under saddle. It feels like you’re not making any progress toward your goals, nor will you be until you can return to full work. This is the perfect opportunity to go back to the training scale; work on the basics and strengthen your horse’s foundation. Improve the rhythm and relaxation in the walk; develop better alignment and suppleness; get your contact perfect; insist on proper self-carriage at the walk with the poll the highest point. Once your horse is back in full work, you’ll be amazed at how many higher levels movements are suddenly much improved from working on these foundational skills.

Progress isn’t linear. We often take a dip right before an upward launch. Setbacks are our chance to go back and strengthen any gaps that we may have missed in our training. While it may feel tedious taking more time in the beginning or when you encounter a delay, laying down those solid foundational skills always pays off in the long run. When we take our time to build the mind and the body correctly, we end up with a happy, willing, and capable partner who is ready and able to help us achieve our goals, when the time is right.