My students always ask, "How much practice is enough?" They worry their horse will get bored or sour. My answer is that you can never practice enough. The more you practice the better you get which changes things for your horse (hopefully for the better). You can also be creative and practice your skills in different situations to keep life interesting for your horse.

When someone learns a new skill they are usually awkward or clumsy at the beginning. Practice helps you become smoother and more fluid in your actions. More importantly though, that new skill becomes more automatic and so replaces the older, less effective techniques as the "default response."

There will come a time when you are pushed outside your comfort zone. Your horse will spook or do something unexpected that will alarm you. The first thing we do when stressed is to fall back on old and familiar patterns of behaviour - and the old patterns are not usually productive. If you have practiced the new skill to the point where it becomes automatic it will become the default action in times of stress.

Let me offer an example. Like many people who are afraid I used to instinctively pull on both reins if my horse picked up too much speed, bolted or spooked. Then I learned to do a one-rein stop. For those not familiar with the technique it is exactly as it sounds. Instead of pulling on two reins you use one rein to bend your horse and ask his back end to step over. I practiced one-rein stops until I could do them lightly and smoothly and almost without thinking. Now, when something happens with any of my horses, instead of panicking and pulling I calmly bring them back under control with the one-rein stop. It has also become my horses' default response and they calm down instantly. That automatic response has given me the confidence to ride my horses through all sorts of spooky situations.

Malcolm Gladwell wrote in his book The Outliers that if you want to be truly great at something you have to practice for ten thousand hours. Realistically most of us are not going to practice our riding skills for that amount of time but we do have to put in the time and effort if we want to be successful.

You would be surprised at how many riding skills can be practiced when you are away from your horse. In fact it is much easier to practice some of these skills when you are not in the saddle trying to deal with everything that is going on.

I can practice breathing and relaxing my mind and body while driving my car. I can practice good posture, positive energy and clear intent while walking my dogs (thank you Cesar Milan!). I can practice seated balance on the Pilates ball that has replaced my office chair. I can practice core stability on my elliptical machine. The list of opportunities is endless and only limited by your own creativity and self-discipline.

Good riding weather is just around the corner. Now is the perfect time to get a jump on your riding by choosing some skills to work on and getting out there to practice, practice, practice.

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