Ep 125: Staying Resilient to Reach the Next Level
In the training business, failures are inevitable. There will be seasons of your horsemanship journey that are more challenging than others. Your resiliency during these seasons is what determines whether or not your horse reaches its full potential.
I was on a coaching call with a trainer from Australia earlier this week, and we had a long discussion about this exact topic. This trainer is incredibly talented, and is a mentor to many other trainers in her area; however, she is currently dealing with a very reactive horse that is causing doubt and frustration to come to center focus. I always say that these are my favorite horses to train because these are the horses that teach you the most. However, when you are in the thick of things and trying to overcome these reactive tendencies, these are also the horses that make you question your abilities and take a hit at your confidence as a trainer.
If you stick around in the training business long enough, I can almost guarantee that you will encounter a situation like this at some point in your career. When this happens, resilience is key. Our horses are a reflection of our own commitment. Each horse is unique, and that means each one will come with its own unique personality, fears, and challenges. When I am faced with a challenging horse like this, I always fall back onto mentorship.
In the later years of my training career, I have invested more in mentorship than ever before. And, I believe this investment has paid off tenfold. When any trainer comes to me for mentorship–whether that be through a coaching call, online training program or clinic–I always encourage them to look for one thing that they can apply to their program. When I seek out advice, I’m rarely looking to change my entire approach. Rather, I am looking for one or two small adjustments I can make to accelerate the growth of my program.
The truth is, in the horse training industry, there is a lot of overlap in training methodologies among the top trainers in the world. Most trainers have the same fundamental philosophies; however, the systems they have built around these philosophies have slight modifications based on their experiences. Those slight modifications are what I focus on most. In my experience, I have achieved the most success in my program by manipulating small elements of my training system to produce a different (and better) result. This all ties back into the 1% rule – 1% improvement each day, over time, creates massive results.
If you are in a season where you feel challenged, I encourage you to seek out mentorship–whether that is from me or someone else. Getting an outside perspective on your training program can often be the missing piece that helps you uncover those small adjustments that will help you maintain 1% growth consistently.
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