Being an adult amateur is hard enough, #iykyk. Adding a young horse to the mix, well that levels up the difficulty to say the least. Here’s 5 tips I’ve learned so far on my young horse journey.
Do Not Compare! This is true with all equestrian journeys but especially so with young horses. Do not compare yourself to other equestrians, horses, young horses. Don’t even compare your young horse to themselves from day-to-day, week-to-week.
Celebrate the Wins – no matter how small! Some days you might be piecing together a course, other days you’ll be happy to have picked up the right lead. Both are equally as important, exciting and both deserve celebration.
Don’t rush. You won’t have a young horse forever. Appreciate the baby-isms while they last. Hopefully they keep their cute quirks but they might outgrow them some day. Enjoy the journey, don’t rush past it to get to the next step.
Patience. I can write this in a blog but until you experience it… Just wow. Be patient, sometimes things take time – okay most of the time things take time. The amount of rides back to back to back I struggled with the left lead canter. It took constant reminding for me to not lose my patience, that he was learning and some things take time.
Take Pride! It is not an easy feat bringing along a young horse. Take pride in your ability, take pride in the horse you are working to develop. This feeling of accomplishment can help mellow out the baby-horse rollercoaster. Trust me, you’ll need this tempering agent from time to time.
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