Autumn; it’s a time of year I have mixed emotions about. The arrival of autumn is also the end of summer and with that comes an end to the event season. As an event rider, trainer, competitor and coach, the event season is what my year revolves around. Personally, while I love riding in horse trials, more than that, I love all the preparation. So with autumn closing the event season, it’s a perfect time to let down, go for quiet trail rides through the colorful leaf mosaics covering the Vermont hillsides, and to reflect on the previous year’s efforts.
During the months that encompass fall and early winter or the “let down” period, I like to reflect on my goals versus my successes. If things went terribly awry, I’ll consider what was gained or will be gained from the outcome. I get very excited as I realize my shortcomings from my competition season. I love to discover what needs more work or a different approach. I’ll start to set my goals for the upcoming year and to lay out a plan to achieve them. This includes both short and long term goals. I’ll target the weak areas and create exercises, often using cavalettis and gymnastics, to work on improving. Now is the time to drop my stirrups both on the flat and over fences, improve my seat, improve the canter, work on equitation flaws, improve my horse’s acceptance of the half-halt; the list is endless! I love the fact we have months to work on improving, without the pressures of deadlines, but at the same time, I can hardly wait to begin working on my weaknesses from the previous year!
As autumn approaches, I plan exactly when to let down. For me, that usually coincides with the end of the competition season or at a later time, during the holidays. The horses who have had a full, successful season will go on break earlier; they will likely be hacked about three to four days a week, with the occasional flat school thrown in. I’ll do this for three to four weeks. As the holidays roll in, I may start to increase the number of days I do flat work, and will start working on my list of improvements; some light jumping and cavaletti work. For the horses whose season needed work, all conditioning stops after the competition season is over, but we continue to school them on the flat and over fences, and go on long walks.
Enjoy the quiet fall season and enjoy some leisure time with your horse. It’s a great time for introspection and enjoying the other parts of life…the parts normal, non-horse people enjoy year round!