Principles, Goals & Timelines: Part 2 ~ Set Goals Your Horse Can Reach Today

Horsemanship isn’t one thing — it’s three.

Your principles, your goals and your timelines all pull on each other, and every rider struggles with keeping them balanced. Most people try to juggle all three at once, and that’s when horses get confused or pressured.

That’s why I’ve broken this into three parts:
 Part 1 is about the principles you stand on.
Part 2 is about the goals you choose today.
Part 3 is about the timelines that make it all work in the real world.

Put together, they shape the horse you end up with — and the rider you become.

PART 2: SET GOALS YOUR HORSE CAN REACH TODAY

Like any journey you’ve taken before, the end is shaped by how you begin. Horses are no different.

When people say “he’s just a two-year-old,” “she’s just a baby,” or “I have my routine,” they use it to justify all kinds of giveaways in the basics—path, speed, personal space, and even standing still.

I remember being about nine years old when a big mare hit me hard on the top of the head and nearly knocked me out. It was a wake-up call to the power of the horse—and how unaware they can be.

As I gathered myself in our family barnyard, dazed and trying to stand straight, that mare was already off somewhere else. I was the least of her worries.

What made it worse was that I had no tools to change it. Yet every day, I still had to turn her in and out, hoping it wouldn’t happen again.

Just like me in those days, a lot of people live on that same "hope plan" with their horses.

People miss this simple truth: every moment shapes the ending. Early free passes turn into a long stretch of untraining and fixing what could’ve been built clean from the start.

Start messy and keep going that way, and you’ll meet that mess again halfway down the trail. Sure, things get messy here and there. That’s nature. But accepting messy in the basics? That leaks into everything. Before long, you’re drowning in herd-bound behaviour, pushy moments, bolts, and out-of-nowhere reactions.

So the real question is: what goal is appropriate for the horse you have today?

Because that beginning is what determines whether the road ahead is smoother or full of bumps, battles and hard lessons. It's how you shape things up for positive progress tomorrow.

IT'S NOT A PHASE

I was working with a lady the other day with a beautiful young warmblood mare. She was starry-eyed over the breeding, the movement, the potential—you know the type of excitement. But what I saw was a young horse already learning to be disconnected, pushy and a little obstinate.

This mare had no sense of where the woman was or that humans even mattered. She’d swing her head through her, walk past her shoulder and barge into her space. Not out of meanness, just pure habit: people don’t matter in my space.

That’s not a phase. That’s the beginning of a pattern.

I told her, “Now is the time to show your horse that she must regard your personal space. Take all the time it takes in a quiet place at home to get this right. She needs to have a sense of you, not indifference.”

I demonstrated some techniques and the mare responded well. One key thing I repeated was, “I wouldn’t worry about anything else until you can lead your horse around this barnyard and her quiet arena and have that personal space. It starts the moment the halter goes on.”

But I could tell she had her routines, tasks and things that just needed to be done, and this wasn’t at the top of the list. I wasn’t sure how much of what I was teaching had landed with her—though it would soon.

A few days later, she took this young fractious mare for a walk along the road. A routine she liked to do with her older retired horse. The mare spooked and ran right over her. She was knocked down hard. A passerby, who happened to be a friend of mine, saw a horse running loose down the road. He pulled his car over and went straight to the woman. All he could see was blood coming from her head, so he called 911.

She made it through after a stay in the hospital, but it shook her confidence deeply. Everything with horses felt different after that.

It doesn’t matter how cute she is, how well bred or what routines the owner was used to. The daily walk she’d done for years with her retired horse wasn’t what this mare needed. I wanted her to establish a boundary—calm, clear and consistent—so the horse could learn how to think around people.

Every moment, especially at that age, is shaping how that horse will think about humans years down the road.

And when we finally put a leg over for the first time, whatever we tolerated on the ground shows up in the saddle. If we taught disconnection, pushiness or a lack of regard now, it won’t magically disappear at ten years old. It’ll harden.

I was heartbroken that she had to pay such a heavy price for not being prepared. Could a horse run you over any time? Yes. They’re prey animals. There are no guarantees. But when I see a horse so indifferent to people on the quietest day, it doesn’t take a great horseman to figure out what will happen when real pressure and emotion show up.

That mare ran right over her and straight home, totally fine. The only harm was to the person. This wasn’t random. That horse had been taught—unintentionally—that the human didn’t matter. Routine, fascination and awe over the mare’s potential had blinded her to the basics, and reality showed up. Hard.

We can’t blame the horse. But this is exactly what shows up when these habits take root, and the problems turn big—when the immediate goal doesn’t line up with where the horse is at today.

IS IT TOO LATE? NEVER!

But how you start matters today.

The question is: will you stay principled enough to pick one simple achievable goal and stick with it until you and your horse get it? Or even simpler—can you go back and make the basics really solid?

To me, it's not just about the tasks. It’s the mindset. It’s how the horse thinks about being with you.

That might look like:

Personal space:
Lead your horse around the yard with a clear 3-foot bubble. No crowding, no leaning, no dragging. You walk, they follow. Quiet, relaxed, connected.

Trailer prep:
Start three weeks before the trip, not the morning of. Practice walking by the trailer, pausing, sending in, backing out, walking away. Make the trailer just another place you go together, not a last-minute fight.

Trot work to earn the canter:
Mark out a 20-meter circle with cones. Maintain the trot until your horse can follow that circle with a low head, a nice forward trot, breathing, stretching and no argument about cutting in or diving for the gate. Only then do you and the horse earn the canter or ride the whole arena.

The hard part isn’t the exercise. The hard part is resisting the urge to do twenty other things!

Stay on these simple, clear tasks and foundational goals. They may not be easy or polished in a day or two, but if you stay with them, you’ll get them. Then you move on.

I had a young mare the other day that reminded me of this. She was sticky in the shoulders, tight in her body, shallow in her breathing. You could feel her mind glued to the gate. She was spooking at the back corner that was 100 feet away. Out of shape, leaning into the circle, trying to duck and weave her way out of the work.

So I marked out a circle with eight cones, just a clear path we could both focus on.

Then I trotted her for ten minutes.

That was it—ten minutes on one job to get a baseline this horse could achieve. A place to work from and come back to.

When she rushed, I quietly brought her back to the speed I wanted.
When she tried to quit and pull to the gate, I put her back on the path.
When she leaned in, I shaped the shoulder back out to the circle.

One thing at a time. No drama, no big show. Just correcting the drift and returning to the plan. When she trotted and relaxed, I left her alone as much as I could. You could feel she was starting to get it.

By the end of those ten minutes, she was still a green mare but a different green mare. Breathing deeper. Less pull to the gate. More tuned to the path I had in mind, instead of every distraction she had in mind.

That’s the power of one clear, achievable goal—and staying with it long enough for the horse to find it. Now do it every day for weeks. THAT's what builds a foundational pattern in the right direction. 

Once that foundation is solid, your horse is in a position to take on the bigger goals you’ve been dreaming about!

SO ASK YOURSELF
 

What principles guide you?
What goals will you commit to?
And what habits or excuses are you willing to give up for the good of you and your horse?

If this doesn’t resonate, my program isn’t for you—and that’s okay.

But if this way of thinking hits home in a positive way, then you’ll fit right in with riders who want real progress built on clarity, consistency and foundational work. 

Join me in Leadership to Partnership: Course 1 or inside the Open Field Membership, and let’s begin shaping the foundation goals that will carry you and your horse forward.

Thanks for being inspired by horses and walking this far with me.