Back to time frames and results - What, exactly, are you accomplishing in your hour on your horse? People learn in different ways, so do horses. The same thing will not work with each horse in the same way. The mantra is "Analyze and Adjust".  What, exactly, is happening now? If I do this......what just happened? Was it something I like or don't? Now what? What if I do this???? Hmmm...better? Or not such a good idea?

I'm always amazed when people tell me how good their horses are. Not that I mean there are a bunch of bad horses out there, because there aren't. It's just people's idea of good is lame. I have prospective students telling me about themselves and their horse and they repeatedly use the term 'awesome' to describe their horse. Well, just what is it that's so awesome? Then they go on to either show or tell me that their horse won't stop, goes the other way when they want to turn, pushes through the bit, reaches around and bites their leg when horse gets mad, spooks, bucks, runs off....etc, etc. Sheesh, if you use awesome for that, what are you going to use if your horse actually whoa's?

I'm all for you liking/loving/enjoying your horse, but a bit more word accuracy will probably help you produce a better horse. If you believe yourself when you say how good your horse is, you're less likely to buckle down and work on making it 'awesome'.