Chevy's Coaching Blog - Get Gritty With Chevy

Get Gritty With Chevy

Your Horsemanship Journey: The Importance of Feel, Timing, Balance, and Experience

3/1/2018

You don’t have to do much research about horsemanship to hear that it takes Feel, Timing, Balance and Experience to become a Horseman.

Of these words, Balance and Experience are pretty easy concepts to understand.

Timing is a little more complicated, but most riders can be taught the idea of the timing of their cues.

Feel, however, is much harder to define, and hard to teach. Feel is a vague word that is often used by trainers, clinicians, and instructors. Most of them agree that to become a True Horseman, you must develop feel.

It is a word surrounded by confusion, with the connotation of having an almost magical quality, leaving the reader confused and wondering if “feel” is some magical talent that only horse whisperers possess.

In this blog, I will examine different definitions of Feel. Some of these definitions come from Natural Horsemanship trainers/clinicians, and some from top Performance Horse trainers. I will look at the connection between Feel and Timing, take a quick look at Balance, and also at the role that Experience plays into developing Feel, Timing, and Balance.

Hopefully this will help clear the confusion around “Feel” and help you on your horsemanship journey.

Can you Accept Compliments?

1/25/2018

When someone compliments your riding, what do you do?

Do you say "oh I'm not that good, so-and-so is better."

Or do you say "thank you," with a smile and then shut your mouth?

Confident riders able to graciously accept compliments because they know their own riding strengths. They recognize what they have worked hard to learn, and they're proud of their skills. They own their riding abilities.

Get Gritty with Chevy: No Grit, No Pearl

1/24/2018

What phrases or sayings inspire you? Tell me what you think-leave a comment!

Chevy

Chevy's Musings on Horsemanship Theory: The Concept of Mañana

1/13/2018

"'Mañana' means tomorrow...and that word should be part of the anthem for every training program. Good training takes patience-there is always tomorrow."

-The Art of Hackamore Training by Al Dunning and Benny Guitron

Get What You Want: Program Your Mind For Success

1/2/2018

“Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you are right.”
-Henry Ford

We often have a gap between what we want, and what we expect.

We also tend to act and behave based on what we expect, not what we want.

For example, if we are expecting our horse to spook in the corner of the arena, we tend to ride defensively. Our thoughts drift to what our horse might do, how we expect him to react. Will he spook? Shy? Bolt? So we act accordingly. We might shorten our reins, tense our muscles, hold our breath, etc.

So how does our horse respond? He senses our fear, and most likely will spook!

When we have this gap between what we expect to happen, and what we want to happen, we often feel nervous, fearful, disappointed, depressed, etc.

So how do we break this cycle?

Six Essentials of Effective Goal Setting

12/31/2017

Happy New Year!

If you follow my Facebook Page, you have probably noticed I have been talking about the benefits of being values-focused instead of goals-focused.

But this doesn't mean that I don't think that goals are not important-because they are!

You just need to be setting the right goals, that is, goals that are driven by your values. (If you haven't set your values for 2018, click here to download my Value Setting Workbook.)

So, what are the goals that you want to accomplish in 2018?

Then ask yourself, does the actions that I need to take to achieve this goal align with my values?

Your values are your guide, your North Star. They direct your horsemanship journey (and your life journey). The goals that you set for yourself are the things that you do along the way, the mile markers so to speak. If your goals are not aligned with your values, the mile markers that you pass won't direct you to where you want to go.

For example, if you value Adventure, and your goals lead to spending lots of time in an arena, you probably won’t be as happy with your horsemanship journey as if your goals included trail rides to new places.

So how else can you ensure that you are setting effective goals that you will actually achieve?

By following these six essentials:

Do You Have a Post Mistake Ritual?

10/8/2017

We all make mistakes. It is an inevitable part of competing, riding horses, and even just part of life in general.

When we make mistakes in competition, it can cause a domino effect, resulting in a loss of concentration, negative self-talk, and more mistakes. Most riders blame themselves, their horse, or other factors. This causes a negative spiral,

Gritty competitors have a plan for when they make mistakes, to prevent the mistake from affecting the rest of their performance.

You can have the same advantage as these gritty competitors by creating your own post mistake ritual.

The 5 Stages of Team Building in Horse-Rider Relationships (and how to get to the performing stage smoothly!)

10/1/2017

In 1965, psychologist Bruce Tuckman published his Developmental Sequence in Small Groups to describe the path that successful teams take on their path to success. You might be familiar with these stages if you have ever participated in company team building events, in fact, that is where I first heard of these stages. As I learned more about the stages, I noticed a lot of parallels between them and building a relationship with a new horse. Since Horse and Rider are supposed to be a team, it makes sense that these stages apply to horsemanship too! By identifying ad understanding the different stages of team building you will be able to recognize common hurdles that most teams experience. I'll also share strategies to overcome them, so that you and your horse can move smoothly through the stages to perform at your best.

Overcome the Perils of Perfectionism by Daring Greatly

7/15/2017

Many a horsewoman experiences the frustration caused by a never ending, and never satisfied, expectation of perfection. It is common for performance horse riders to have high standards and expect nothing less than perfection from themselves and their horses.
In theory, that sounds like a good thing. Striving for perfection can help performance by being dedicated, by having a commitment to practice, by being focused and paying attention to the little details.
More commonly, however, perfectionism is perilous to performance. When a rider has placed so much pressure on themselves to perform perfectly, they become outcome focused. This leads to anxiety, and anxiety leads to not performing their best. When a perfectionist does not perform well, they tend to become extremely self-critical, leading to becoming overwhelmed and discouraged. This can lead to the rider wanting to quit, and not even try since they feel that they will not be able to perform at the perfect level they expect of themselves.

Read more at Of Horse-Click Here!

Did you get lost on your way to your goals? That’s ok-here is how to get back on the trail!

7/2/2017

It happens to all of us. We dream big dreams and set big goals for our horsemanship. We might even start out on the right foot, and work really hard towards achieving those goals-putting in the practice and riding every day.

Then one day the weather isn’t nice, or we are too tired after work, or too busy. Before we know it, we find ourselves off track, and not making any progress toward our goal. Maybe some unanticipated obstacles have appeared that we don’t know how to overcome. (For more about overcoming obstacles, read my blog on the topic here.) We procrastinate, and lack motivation. We might even feel like giving up.

This is a completely normal occurrence.

In this article, I will share 3 steps to get your back on the trail toward your goals.