Today my friends, I'd like to hear from you. What do you consider to be a training program? Do you think having a trainer ride your horse three times a week is necessary to constitute being in a program? Does taking lessons multiple times a week from the same instructor count as being in a program? Could a capable amateur keep her own horse in a program on her own? Or on her own but with regular lessons? What say you?
I ask because today's confession is that apparently, after all of these years, I evidently do not know what a training program is. My horses, despite being plenty successful doing whatever it is that I've been doing, have not been in any sort of program at all. Or so I'm told. And I just really want to figure out what it means to have a horse in a program.
I've always thought that having a thoughtful, careful schedule/plan/goal for your rides constitutes a training program. If I can supplement that with lesson or rides from a pro, great! And if not, staying consistent, setting goals, and achieving them still seemed like a program to me. And I'm just really wondering if I've been doing it wrong all these years.
So please weigh in below in the comments section, and let me know what you think it means to have your horse in a program. Help me understand where I've gone astray.
