Are you spending quality time with your horse?
Most people think that professional horse trainers get to spend all day working and riding their own horses. Ironically, this is far from the case! I’d be willing to bet that all professional horse trainers would agree that they spend so much time working with and riding other people’s horses, they never have time to ride their own!
Horse trainers need to make a living just like everyone else. I’m sure everyone can relate to the expense of merely owning horses, not to mention travel expenses, food, gas etc. The logic is, the more horses a trainer can work, the more money is made. Having said that, trainers tend to work long hours each day, sometimes weeks upon weeks without any down time for themselves. Even though we dearly love what we do, when do we find quality time for our own horses?
As a trainer, I realized this a long time ago so one year I made a New Years resolution … I will make time for my horses!! With rare exception, I schedule my training sessions accordingly and designate time to ride each of my horses at least once per week.
Yes, we all must earn a living. Yes, we all have a social life, however, if you accept the responsibility of owning a horse, you owe it to that horse to spend regular and quality(1) time with him/her!
Let’s all make a New Years resolution this year that we will spend at least four hours of quality(1) time with your horse per week! I guarantee your relationship with that horse will improve!
(1) Quality time means training, riding or otherwise direct one on one activity other that feeding, grooming etc.