Create a Pre-Ride Routine

Preparing yourself for a good ride may not be as difficult as you think. Developing a preride routine is an easy and effective way to make sure your rides count. And as a bonus you may just end up with a very thankful horse.
Riding is a team sport. You are partnered with an animal in order to achieve certain goals. As you are the leader you determine the direction and effort necessary to reach those targets. It is your task to communicate these directives in a way your equine teammate can understand. From this perspective every ride can be thought of as a conversation.

Just like our human conversations many distractions can enter the picture to disrupt the message. You may drag any number of issues with you into the ring a fight with a coworker disappointment in a friend or stress from school. All of these moodaltering experiences have the potential to cause static in your riderhorse conversation. Protecting this conversation from unnecessary distraction is only one service a routine can provide.
One Routine Many Benefits
Think of what an athlete encounters when he or she arrives at an Olympic venue. There are a multitude of distractions both pleasant and unpleasant new people rings celebrations foreign food and atmosphere can pull focus away from the task at hand. When stepping into their preperformance routine the Olympic athlete must cut out the noise and focus in on what is really relevant to their performance. Doing so makes for a whole lot less stress.
Before I had a routine my focus was everywhere. I was always watching other riders worrying about measuring up or disappointing someone says Beth an established amateur competitor. Now I know what I should be doing at all times before I go in that ring. And everything I do relates to