Inside you is a great rider—a rider who’s full of possibilities, potential, courage, and confidence. All you need to do is figure out how to let that inner greatness out.

Your ability to release your inner greatness depends on a series of important physical and mental skill sets. For example, you might have the world’s best leg, seat, position, and posture, but if you’re constantly freaking out, panicking, hyperventilating, and worrying before every ride, there’s a pretty good chance your brain is going to hold your body back.

Building a Complete Rider

If you’re like most equestrians, you’ve probably spent years developing your hips, heels, and hands because you know they’re a major key to your success as a rider. You’ve probably also spent countless hours developing your horse because you know that without a confident partner, there’s little chance you’ll succeed.

But I want to remind you that your puzzle is still missing a few important pieces—your head, health, and heart. Your head is where confidence, courage, self-belief, and resiliency are born. Your health is how you prepare for (and protect your body against) the physical demands of our sport. And your heart is where your ability to forgive yourself after making a mistake—or finish strong after a slow start—resides.

Combine them all together and they create the ability to turn setbacks into comebacks—to hold it together when it would be easier to let it fall apart. This is what it means to be a complete rider.

A Map for Your Riding Destination

If you want to get somewhere important, you’re going to need some pretty solid step-by-step directions to get you there. After all, when you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll probably end up somewhere else!

Maps are what you use to ensure you’ll arrive where you want to go—physically. Likewise, goals are the maps you use to ensure you’ll arrive where you want to go—mentally.

There are many different kinds of goals. Right now, I’m just going to talk about these three:

◆ Immediate goals: Goals you can complete in minutes or hours. These often act as the spark that lights the fire of desire to accomplish your goal.

◆ Progress goals: Often called “short-term” goals, these goals can be completed in days or weeks and are what allow you to achieve your final goal, one step at a time.

◆ Product goals: Often called “long-term” goals, these can be completed in months or years and will ultimately be the product of all your progress goals.

For example, say you’re a flat rider with a product goal of learning to jump. Your immediate goal might be to simply read a chapter in a jumping book by the end of the day; and your process goals might be to learn to (1) trot over poles; (2) canter over poles; (3) trot over cross-rails; and finally (4) canter over cross-rails.

Put Your Pen Away

Setbacks are a common, and even important, part of the goal-setting process because each time you experience one, you’ll learn something you didn’t know before.

With this in mind, consider writing your goals in pencil so that each time a setback occurs, you can simply erase the original goal and replace it with a new and improved one.

Get Your Pen Back Out!

Achieving your goals can be wonderfully motivating, so each time you accomplish one, pull out a big colorful marker and cross it off.

Make Your Goals SMART

You may have heard of “SMART” goals before, but here’s a refresher on what SMART stands for.

◆ Specific: A goal like leaning to ride without stirrups is better than a goal of becoming a better rider because it’s more specific.

◆ Measurable: A goal like learning to canter is measurable because you know when you’ve accomplished it (or not).

◆ Attainable: When you identify goals that are most important to you, you begin to figure out ways you can make them come true.

◆ Realistic: To be realistic, a goal must be an objective that you’re both willing—and able—to accomplish. If it’s beyond your reach, your motivation might take a big hit.

◆ Timely: Goals need a time frame. Without one there’s no sense of urgency. When you have a complete-by date, you’ll have the motivation to chase after it. But you’d better hurry!

Try This

Create something called a goal-setting ladder. Start by drawing a six-step ladder with a product goal written on the top step and an immediate goal on the bottom step. Next, fill in the remaining four steps with a series of achievable process goals.

The purpose of this ladder is to show you how to reach your goals, one step at a time.

This excerpt from Fit & Focused in 52 by Coach Daniel Stewart appeared in the January/February 2025 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post New Year Riding Goals appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

Spring is a crucial time to start getting your horse slowly back in shape and reach your goals for later this year. What do you dream of and hope to accomplish this year with your horse? What steps do you need to take in order to accomplish these goals? What exercises might your horse require to get back into shape and perform their best? Be sure to talk to your coach and veterinarian and let them know what your goals are so they can help you come up with a plan to set in motion.

Before setting your goals, take time to think about what you want to achieve. Then, once you have some ideas, write down your three separate categories: short-term, which are considered daily or weekly goals; medium-term such as monthly goals; and long-term, yearly or even multi-year goals. Once you have a vision of where you want to be, now you are ready to start the most important part of achieving success: tracking your progress.

Many successful riders create their own “SMART” goals for themselves and their horses, or goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. Stay on track this spring by using this highly successful method below.

What Are SMART Goals?

Smart: “I want to improve” is not specific enough. Think what about what you want to achieve with a timetable in mind. An example would be, “I want to learn the USEF Dressage First Level Test 1 and memorize it by next month.”

Measurable: “I want to improve my First Level Test 1 score by 2 points” is a measurable goal that is specific as well.

Attainable: Make sure you and your horse can achieve the task. The task should be challenging but not one that is too difficult. If your horse is already struggling to perform skills at Level 2, don’t push it and ask him to do those tests yet at a show.

Realistic: Achieving goals requires commitment. Make sure you and your horse are motivated, willing and able to make your goal happen.

Timely: Every goal needs a deadline to keep you focused and working toward it. Set a date by which you want to accomplish your goal. Then, check in with yourself to see how you are progressing and if minor changes need to be made to meet your timeline.

An Example of a Complete SMART Goal

Instead of saying “I want my horse to listen to me,” a SMART goal would sound more like, “I want to improve my horse’s responsiveness to my aids. I will accomplish this by doing 15 sets of up and down transitions (walk to trot, trot to canter, trot to halt)—asking once, then demanding the second time—during each ride for two weeks.”

How Might Goal-Setting Positively Impact a Rider’s Mindset?

Writing down something about your daily activities with your horse is very rewarding to see the progress you make as an equestrian. Sometimes progress can take a while to see, as progress is not liner. You may find some days where everything is going well and other days not so much, but progress is not the moment. Rather, progress is a continuation of moments over the long run. When you have notes, photos and videos of your sessions, it really helps put everything into perspective as you work toward your goals, not to mention this makes for wonderful memories to look back on!

Journaling your daily progress helps maintain a positive mindset. Upon reflection, you will likely learn something new about your horse or yourself and feel proud of an accomplishment or progress after each session. In addition, it’s helpful to record behaviors, attitudes and anything about your horse’s health.

Finally, remember to celebrate and reward your horse (and yourself) for the daily progress you achieve together. It’s about the journey you are on as a team and the beautiful partnership you continue to build. If you need to reevaluate your goals, change them or make adjustments, that’s OK. Your long-term goals are made up of many small daily accomplishments. Good luck with your goals and have fun on your journey with your horses this year!

This article about SMART goals for horses and equestrians is a web exclusive for Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Spring Forward with SMART Goals and Journaling appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.