Monthly Archives: February 2014

DRESSAGE CAN’T BE TAUGHT – IT MUST BE LEARNED

Posted in Horse by

This is specific to dressage, as I am a dressage rider.

I’m not aiming this post at an absolute beginner, who would require teaching on basic horsemanship and position skills.

This is directed at intermediate level riders. These are riders with enough skill to control their horses and deal with most behavior issues.

If you are afraid of your horse, or are just starting out, yes you need a trainer. But if you are trying to learn the nuances of dressage, unfortunately it is a learned skill. Nobody can teach it to you.

I find that teaching someone how to ‘ride dressage’ is difficult if not impossible. The reason is that skilled dressage trainers rely on feel and timing to train their horses to respond. Feel and timing can only be learned by doing, including hours and hours of repetition.  Since we are dealing with an animal, this limits the amount of time you can spend in the saddle developing these skills.

I read a book called Mastery by Robert Greene. In the book, he discusses how much practice it takes to truly master a skill. Some say 10,000 hours, others say up to 20,000 hours. So if you only ride one horse five days a week, that’s 240 hours a year at best. Two horses brings you closer to 500 hours. So for horse riding, at that clip, it would take 41 years to master. Of course nobody ever masters dressage, it’s impossible. But it’s easier to do if you have balance, feel, and timing, and you’ll only get that by riding.

So many people are looking for some magic dressage success formula, like if you just uncover the secret key, you’ll be a success, win at the shows, and be able to train horses with ease. Or they think they just need a fancier horse and then they will be on their way.

The truth is, yes, all of that will help. Trainers will help you see things differently, and find more effective ways to train the movements. Talented horses find the movements easier and learn them faster. But so many people forget that they are also part of the equation. If you don’t ride well, the horse will never reach its potential.

I go out to the barn every day and ride without fail. I even had three horses for a while. I never wanted three horses, I even told myself it was impossible to ride three horses and keep a day job.

But I managed to do it because I saw the bigger picture. That third horse was increasing my time in the saddle. Hour by hour, day by day, weeks to week and month to month, I was adding to my knowledge base. That’s why even when I was tired, it was cold out, or I just plain didn’t feel like it, I still rode. Being excellent at something is quite a reward, no matter what sacrifices you need to make.

The problem when you rely on a trainer is that it shifts your attention from you getting better, to finding a solution outside of yourself to get better. This will never work out.

Whenever I relied on trainers, it took something away from me. I find dressage to be unique to each person, everyone has their own flair. It might be right, or wrong, that’s really not the point. The point is it works for them. If you want to reach the pinnacle of achievement you may have to let go of some of your wrong habits. Whenever a dressage trainer would dismantle my entire system, I would get upset. Then I would try to embrace their vision for my riding. I eventually learned that was a huge mistake. I had to be smart enough to know what to take, what to discard, and what simply wasn’t going to work, right or wrong. I have to work so much on my own I can’t allow my training to become frozen because I’m trying so hard to be right.

I have position problems and I’m grateful for the many people that have taken the time to relentlessly tell me how wrong I am over a period of days until it’s drilled into my head. I can take that back home and keep it up. Yes, it’s hard without someone harping on you every day, but you have to ultimately take responsibility for improving, and it’s not just practice, but ‘perfect practice’ The fact that I could be potentially wasting my time learning a bad habit is enough to scare me straight.

A recent clinic drove this concept home. I was told that yes I needed to practice sitting up straight and not leaning back, but there was no way I would get enough repetitions just practicing in the saddle. I was told that when I was at work I was never to lean back in my chair, to sit on the edge of it always straight. That doesn’t seem difficult until you try to do it. I was exhausted after the first hour. But I kept my awareness up. Every once in a while I have to relax and lean back in my chair, but it feels like a very strange thing to do now.

The reward for all of this hard work and sacrifice is to become truly excellent at something, to master it. I love to go ride now, because I know each day I have a plan, I have the skills to get there, and I’m not afraid to try new things or make mistakes. That makes every day a pleasure, and I’m grateful for the chance to try.

TAX DEADLINES – DON’T LET THEM STRESS YOU OUT!

Posted in Accounting by

With tax season in full swing, it’s easy to get stressed out by the never-ending stream of deadlines. Implement a system to organize your filing deadlines. This will allow you to focus instead of stress out.

Just because there’s a deadline doesn’t mean you have to wait until a few days prior to start the filing process. Wouldn’t it be nice to get done early, leaving the few days prior to the due date for emergency projects?  Here is a simple system that you can start using today.

  1. Today – two weeks or more before the deadline.  Make a list of all the returns that are due. How many of those returns are simple and can be completed in a day? They go in one stack. The rest will be extended by default. For the ones that need to be extended, you probably need information from client.  Spend a few hours emailing or phoning your clients and asking for the information you need. Email is better as it acts as an easily printed record for the file. Once all the clients are contacted, those returns go in a stack. Put a reminder on your calendar to revisit the stack in a week.
  2. Day two – get started on the returns that can be completed by the due date. You will still need to contact the client, but the requested information should be fairly easy to obtain. Spend today on those returns only. Set aside break times to answer email and return calls. Information should start to come in on the emails and phone calls you did yesterday.
  3. Day three through five – continue on with the simple preparation returns they should be almost done.
  4. Week two – one week prior to due date. For clients who haven’t contacted you yet, contact them again, maybe this time with a phone call, if prior contact was email. For those that have responded, get started on the extensions.  As you complete them, email or call client and advise of tax due, if any. Finalize the simple returns you started in step three and deliver to your clients.
  5. Mid-week two – do final follow-up for clients who haven’t contacted you. By this point most everything should be done.
  6. End of week two – for all clients who still haven’t gotten you anything, one more attempt. No response at this point shows lack of respect. You may want to reconsider keeping these clients, they don’t sound ideal.

It’s now a few days before the due date and everything is done. You have time to clean up the loose ends.

Keep a written schedule and calendar reminders to tell you exactly what you need to do every day.  The reminders can start a month or more prior to the due date.  Focus, schedule, and follow through – the keys to de-stressing your tax season.

HOW TO KEEP MOTIVATED TOWARDS YOUR GOAL – DRESSAGE EDITION

Posted in Horse by

I pursued a goal that took me twenty-five years to achieve. I feel that gives me some perspective on self-motivation and how to keep going in the face of overwhelming odds.

My goal was to show Grand Prix dressage. Whether I trained the horse myself wasn’t part of the goal, but the reality was that trained Grand Prix horses are expensive, so by default I had to train one myself. If someone would have told me it was going to take twenty-five years, I may have reconsidered. But nobody can know the future, and this was my dream. I couldn’t let it die.

So I kept on going, even though setbacks were unending. The specifics aren’t important, and would take too long to record here anyway. The thing I remember most is that even when I absolutely, positively wanted to give up many, many, times, and even decided it wasn’t worth all the sacrifice, somehow I kept convincing myself there was no other option but to go on. Following is a list of techniques I used to keep me going:

  1. Habit. Once a habit is established, it’s really hard to break it. We know this is true for things we shouldn’t be in the habit of doing, like smoking or eating too much. It applies just a well to positive habits. I think about NOT doing the thing I’m supposed to be doing.  Then I think, that’s a lazy way to be, it’s just a few hours, do it. I noticed if I got sick and took a few days off, all of a sudden it became easier to take even more days off. So you can’t have excuses.
  2. Step goals. Every day I decided what I would try and teach my horse, or what I wanted to improve on. If I really didn’t want to ride I would decide to make the session a little shorter and get this or that done. I found once I tacked up the horse and made the long walk to the arena, it wasn’t much extra effort to have a normal ride.
  3. That leads to momentum. Habit gets you there. Once you have the step goals, you make a little bit of progress, and you see your bigger goals coming into view. Unfortunately they can come into view and disappear just as fast.  What I’ve found was that like a slippery slope, once I had momentum, even if I slipped and fell, I didn’t fall all the way to the bottom. I landed on some ledge and I was still closer.
  4. Setbacks – this is a tough one. You just have to be mentally strong, and your habits will help you. Your habits will hold you up if your mental will gives out. It is difficult, and your inner voice will tell you to quit. What I say is that if I quit, I won’t get to that wonderful place. Something wonderful is going to happen, it will be better than I can even imagine, but if I quit I will never know it. Mind you, that wonderful thing was decades away in my case, but the habits kept me on.
  5. Loneliness – the road to excellence is a lonely one. You won’t find many kindred spirits. They show up here and there along the way. It’s unlikely they will be with you on your entire journey.  If you’re not careful you may be lulled into believing that where you currently are, is the best it can be. Staying where you are never leads to anything but emptiness. I would rather be lonely than empty. It is a sacrifice, but one worth making. If I didn’t make it, I wouldn’t be able to tell you about it.
  6. Choices – we all make them. Sure you can choose to give up, not pursue the goal, or change the goal. Each person knows what’s right for them. Be sure you ask yourself why and thoroughly understand the reasons. If you’re just tired, that is not a reason. You will regret giving up for that reason. You will never reach your potential. As far as I’m concerned, that is a waste.

Reaching my goal was pure joy – a huge reward. But remember, even when you reach your goal, it isn’t over. You’ve gotten to a new and better place, and now you can set your sights even higher. That’s the beauty of it.

It’s never too late to start the journey to your true calling. It doesn’t matter how old you are, or the mistakes you made in the past. Today is a new day to take the first steps towards your dream. It doesn’t have to happen overnight, but it will never happen unless you do something to change. START TODAY!

http://youtu.be/96N5jEomNaI