Photo courtesy of Dee Q8, Flickr

As September rolls on, I have observed a great deal of excitement about the fall season.  Excitement about fall traditions, like cider and local festivals, is contagious.  Mother Nature is giving us her own signs:  lower humidity and cooler nights, just the slightest tinge of red in some of our leaves, fall produce starting to hit the market stalls.  While most of the country is rejoicing with the arrival of fall and all it brings, I have some bittersweet feelings about it.  For me, this season isn’t represented by typical fall customs.  For many years, fall was the season of horses and preparation for the Appaloosa World Championship show.  This prestigious event is held every year in late October in Fort Worth, Texas and the months of September and October were always dedicated to training and preparation for the show, which has a qualification deadline of  August 31.  As most of you know, my horse show adventures pretty much came to an end 5 years ago when I started graduate school but this year I was able to get back into the scene a bit, and even briefly entertained hopes that I might be able to attend the World Show this year.  Unfortunately, as the year evolved I realized I wouldn’t be attending the show this time either.  However, last week I received something very special in the mail:  my World Show qualification information. 

 For many people, this might not be a big deal.  In fact, it wasn’t really a big deal for me 10 years ago – it was a given.  I’d worked hard all year, attended many shows, and was generally well over the number of points required to participate.  This year was different:  my horse and I  haven’t worked with a trainer in over 5 years, we attended very few shows, and we haven’t had the opportunity to make practice runs.  We pretty much winged it, doing groundwork and suppling exercises at home and working the barrels and poles at the shows.  Qualification became even more difficult because the game classes at the Appaloosa shows have been very small, making it challenging to get points – we pretty much had to win 1st or 2nd in a class to accrue points.  Combine all that with the extremely limited number of events that we’ve done (4 shows in the past year) and you can understand my pride at qualifiying for the Appaloosa World Championships in 8 events – we actually qualified in every single event that we show in.  It’s a bittersweet pill, because it’s a reminder of how my time competing with Tiny is winding down.  She’s 15 this year and who knows how many more competitive years she’ll have?  While I’m excited and proud to have been able to achieve qualification status, it hurts that I can’t participate with her while she’s still healthy and strong.  So for this fall, at least, I will have to join the masses of “regular” people enjoying their fall season at the arts festival sipping on cider, but I’ll be doing it with a twinkle in my eye as I think of the hundreds of Apps preparing for the World Show next month.

As a competitive equestrian, one of your most important tasks is to set clear, attainable goals for yourself and your mount.  In fact, this skill is important for anyone who rides horses, or does any type of competitive activity.  I trained with Meneely Show Horses for many years, and this skill was one of the first I learned after entering their program.  While goal-setting is critical to achieving success, it is equally important to write your goals down and refer to them frequently.  This keeps your goals at the forefront of your mind, keeps you focused on them and moving forward.  Refer to these handy tips when creating your goals:

*  Timelines are important

When I was competing heavily on the Appaloosa show circuit, our big events were the National Show in July and the World Show in October.  At the beginning of every calendar year, I would reflect for a time on what I hoped to achieve for the upcoming show season.  When setting goals choose a reasonable timeline, particularly if you are riding a young horse or are adding new events.  Give yourself plenty of time to put in the groundwork to achieve the goals.

* Choose a variety of goals

You want a wide variety of goals to strive for.  It’s great to set goals that are challenging or long term – that is what keeps you driving hard for improvement in your game.  However the small, step-wise goals are equally important to keep you enthusiastic and focused.  For example, if you are hoping to win the World on your fantastic new Western Rider, you might set the following kinds of goals:  maintain consistent control of my horse’s hips and shoulders, perform consistent lead changes on a loose rein at a steady speed, perform multiple lead changes on a loose rein at consistent speed, perform lead changes at specific point in arena, master timing of cues, perform well at regional competitions, World Champion Western Riding.  As you can see, there is a logical progression of steps that you may need to accomplish to reach your ultimate goal.  By treating each of these steps as an individual goal, you are able to celebrate successes along your path and appreciate your journey. 

* Be realistic

There is a difference between a challenging set of goals and one that is unattainable.  It is crucial to objectively look at you and your horse’s skills and set goals that are attainable, even if they are challenging.  If you nor your horse have ever changed a lead and you are terrified when competing alone in the ring, chances are good that winning Western Riding might be an unattainable goal – at least for this year.  Maybe instead you could focus on gaining control of your horse’s body and becoming a more confident rider.  By selecting goals that you have the ability to reach, you will avoid frustration and disappointment. 

* Personal goals are OK too

Don’t feel you should restrict your goals to skill related ones.  Maybe your goal is to spend more time trail riding your horse, or eliminate negative thinking, or make new horse show friends.  Anything goes – remember this is your strategy for success and there is no wrong answer.

* Present your goals

Almost anyone that seriously competes at a sport will agree that mental preparation is every bit as important as physical ability.  You will be one step ahead of the game if you write your goals down and reflect on them frequently.  At MSH, we created “goal boards” each year with our ultimate goals for each event and overall goals.  Use a large piece of poster board and some markers and be creative!  If you’re an adult and haven’t indulged your creative side in a few years, you may think you are too old for such antics.  Phooey!  You’ll be surprised how exciting and motivating it is to create an inspiring piece of work.  Make it fun, use bright colors, glitter, inspirational quotes – whatever gets YOU excited and looking forward to your goals.  And put the board in a place where you will see it and reflect on it often, and especially take it to your shows when you will need the biggest reminder to stay focused. 

* It’s OK if you don’t meet your goals

If you haven’t succeeded at meeting some or all of your goals, it’s no big deal.  Did you do your best to succeed?  Goal boards are not a contract – you are not guaranteed success just because you set goals.  Likewise, you are not a failure if you don’t achieve every one of them.  In fact, it’s often best if you have a couple of goals that you haven’t met for the year.  After all, what fun would it be if you accomplished everything you set out to do?  If you met every goal you set, chances are good that you didn’t challenge yourself enough with your “ultimate goals.”  And if you didn’t meet any of them, you were most likely too ambitious for your current set of circumstances.  It’s OK, try again next year!

The ability to create clear, attainable goals is an important skill for competitive riding.  As you progress through the levels of show, it will become more apparent how critical mental preparation is to achieving success.  Good luck with creating your own goals, and feel free to share some of them here to inspire others.

Some of my favorite inspirational quotes:

“I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”  William Ernest Henley

“Self confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.”  Samuel Johnson

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”  Theodore Roosevelt

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“Shoot for the moon and if you miss you will still be among the stars.”  Les Brown