Gillian Warner is bringing us along for the ride as she strikes out on her own to launch her business as a professional. You can catch up on more installments from this series here.
I took a breath as I stepped back from the horse. I always try to keep emotion out of my training, but I couldn’t help but let out a sigh of frustration at the situation. I had been working with the horse for a month, and yet felt like we were treading water, making no progress.
He was a bit of a tough case. Inconsistent handling, and some periods of down time made starting at square one a little more confusing — he knew just enough from the years past, but hadn’t retained all of it, or had had some holes in the training.
After we found a good stopping point for the day, I let him back in his field and took a minute to think through the process, and some options. This wasn’t the first time I had worked with a horse like this. I have started many horses that have had significant time without being handled. And the one thing that it all really boils down to is consistency.
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With each of these horses, I’ve found the fastest way to make progress is to do little amounts, slowly and often. Showing up to be with them — either doing a full session, working on a new skill, or even just being around them — makes a difference. It “just” takes showing up, each day, and chipping away at the progress.
There will be a few days where it feels like you’ve accomplished it all, a few days where it feels like you’ve never handled them before, and a majority of days where it feels like you make a 1% improvement each time. Some days you can spend an hour developing a new skill, some days you can only spend 10 minutes working on boundaries and awareness. Both are important, and both serve a purpose in the role and power that showing up consistently has on training.
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It can be hard to see, because the day-to-day improvements and subtleties aren’t always obvious to the ones that see them the most. But when you realize the horse now stands in the cross ties without supervision; when the lead stays loopy and soft walking in the indoor; when barn staff tell you how much easier they are to manage in the field; the little bits, every day are worth it.
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So while the days where it feels like my work hasn’t been adding up to much keep coming quite frequently with this one, I look at the successes of my consistency and dedication to the baby steps — I see Winston successfully taking a lesson kid on her first trail ride, Abbey finding comfort and confidence in her canter, and Harold stepping up into a sporty and sensible family horse.
The road had seemed long and uncertain with some of them previously. But with dedication to showing up, and a commitment to chipping away towards progress, the baby steps can turn into something truly remarkable.
