Featured Columns

Each December as the calendar gets ready to flip from one year to the next people spend time in reflection of the year past and in contemplation the year ahead. Many will make New Year’s resolutions and while they are made with the best of intentions, a mere 8% will actually see success.

It’s that time again. You made it through Thanksgiving, the presents have been opened and 2014 is coming to a close. Finally with a moment to yourself you prepare to partake in the last holiday tradition of the year, which isn’t to fire up the blender and and binge drink margaritas , it’s time to reflect on the past and make resolutions for the future. That’s right, it’s Resolution Time!

Their next GoSmart column is about their amazing success in the western riding classes at the AQHA World Show. Any horse trainer would be thrilled to say that they have won the AQHA World Show ten times. But to have won a specific class ten years in a row, that would be impossible, right? Think again.

It always sounds so obvious, but lack of preparation is one of the biggest faults I see in the show ring. Riders often show up late to the cone, reins uneven, with hair tumbling out of their hats, mud on their boots rushing into the pen. Sometimes it is their horse that is unprepared, unsure of the circumstances with sweat marks from a previous work or thrown into circumstances for which they have no basis of understanding.

I don’t know about you, but if you are going to tell me what I’m doing wrong, you better tell me what to do about it. In case you can identify with some of the behaviors in last month's article or are just wondering how to stop the things we do to sabotage success, here are some ideas. Most of the top Sport Consultants and Psychologists would agree that one of the biggest obstacles to peak performance is the lack of proper focus, and quite frankly, I could write a 300 page article about it.

Finally, the day has come and you arrive at the gates of the Ohio State Fairgrounds. If you hauled your horse and are responsible for unloading, make sure that you know ahead of time where your stalls are. Have bedding delivered ahead of time - it will save much time and energy. The bedding office is open and ready for business. Anything that can be done ahead of time to ease the work once you get there is optimal.

When you look at the definition of sabotage, the key word that makes an act of failure a true work of sabotage is “deliberate”. Let me ask you, how many of you decide ahead of time exactly how you are going to create failure by snatching it out of the jaws of success? Therefore, in the true spirit of sabotage, I would say that very few people commit “Conscious Sabotage” by pre-planning the type of monkey wrench they are going to throw into their winning run.

The Congress, we look forward to it for every year, often for years before we finally get there. Excited, we arrive full of anticipation, energy and hope for hearing our names called out for something other than a parking violation. After spending two weeks in closed up barns, air damp with ammonia, moisture dripping from every surface surrounded by 650,000 of our closest sneezing, coughing runny nosed friends, we get the one thing nobody wants, the Congress Crud.

Fall is in the air – it is Congress time again. Much goes into making the Congress a success. On every level it is the efforts unseen by the public that dictate the outcome of the event. The Ohio Quarter Horse Association has teams that work behind the scenes to make sure everything goes off without a hitch. They prepare for next year’s event before this year’s event begins. Much like great riders, the quality of preparation done backstage is the difference between a hit and a flop.

Over the past few years, Charlie and Jason have been experiencing the extreme highs and lows of owning and competing with their barrel racing stallion, Slick By Design. Cole and Martin said it was challenging to deal with the quicker highs and lows in barrel racing, but it has helped them develop new coping skills to handle the pressure and disappoints on the AQHA show circuit.

Fall is in the air and along with the changing colors come the season’s biggest horse shows. Whether getting ready for a local championship show, your Association’s season finale or maybe your very first horse show, there are some tricks to getting off on the right foot. As we all know from riding horses, getting off to a good start is half the battle. The following will help you and your horse get off to a good start regardless of the size or scope of the event.

In order to accomplish anything, you must first have a goal. You must decide what you want to become or what you want to achieve. For riders, that often is best accomplished by watching other successful riders – mirroring the image of the rider they want to become.