Success - But how?

Remember my last post about the catching game? Well, coming back after a couple weeks to prepare for our Parelli Demo at Springvalley Farm, my catching game was still broken.

My horses watched me with eagle eyes marching across the pasture, then checked whether I had any food (after all for the last two months humans equaled yummy food once a day) and then they took off - yet again.

The next day I finally realized that going out to the pasture was not the thing to do. I had three days, with just a couple hours a day to spend. I simply could not fix what was broken in the amount of time I had.

So, how could I set myself up for success?

Seeing my horses take off at a dead beat gallop, kicking up, rearing and bucking with pure joy would have been lots of fun, but not when you have a demo coming up! I was disappointed but also could rationalize why this was happening. I had not played consistently with neither Cash nor JB for about half a year. First pigeon fever, then a new job and consequently moving 6 hours away... But still, my feelings were hurt.

Did that help the situation? Absolutely not.

So, I decided to put my emotions aside and set up a plan.

Most likely, neither Cash nor JB, would take off once they saw their feed buckets. The catching game was also no challenge in a smaller area. So, I literally forbid myself to go out and check whether my horses wouldn't catch me and used feeding time to ask them to follow me in the playground. Of course, having two buckets with food in my hand, made that an easy task. While they were eating, I just hang out with them. Once they were finished, I asked them to come over and halter. No problem... hhmmm, how interesting!

What I learned from this:

1. Analyze the situation that you are in

I had limited time and I needed to play with my horses to prepare for my demo

2. Assess your goal

My goal at first was to have my horses come to me out in the pasture and halter willingly.

3. Put your emotions aside

Feeling left behind, while Cash and JB ran off, didn't help. I acknoledged my feeling and then decided to put it aside since it was not useful

4. Reassess your goal

• Do you have a realistic goal that does not conflict with your current situation?


• Adjust your goal, if necessary

I had to adjust my goal because I did not have enough time to fix my broken catching game.

4. Find a solution to reach your goal

Once I assessed my goal and acknoledged my emotions, I was able to put my emotions aside and reassess my goal. It was simply unrealistic. I then found that the solution came to me - easily!

It was all about finding a solution that fit the situation...

How do you set yourself up for success? I'd love to hear from you!

Yours naturally,

Petra