Week Ten: Foundations Are Not Basic

There’s a misconception in riding (or really in anything learned) that foundations are something you outgrow. That once you’re winning, once you’re moving fast enough or jumping big enough, you can skip the quiet parts and get straight to what looks impressive and ‘fun’.

The best horsemen never abandon the basics—because they understand exactly where things unravel when pressure shows up.

Now that the extreme cold has started to lift here - I think we are going to reach 32° once this coming week, we are quietly getting back in the tack and checking in with our horses and returning to details.

The Ride Starts on the Ground

Many accidents with horses don’t happen over fences or at speed. They happen while mounting. That should tell us something.

This isn’t a formality—it’s information. It tells you whether the horse is settled or braced, attentive or distracted. It also tells you where you are mentally. If you’re rushing, the horse will answer that question immediately.

Old-school horsemen didn’t hurry this part. They didn’t label it “groundwork” or make it trendy. They simply handled horses like every moment mattered—because it did.

The tone you set on the ground  and into getting on follows you into the ride. The patience of actually waiting for them to stand and not move off until you ask is extremely important. 

We have one horse in our barn, James who is an expert at mounting and unmounting - now but as a younger horse if you didn’t include getting on as a valuable part of his ride he would act like a kid in class with a substitute teacher the WHOLE ride. 

Five Things That Change Everything

When I was younger, my grandmother prepared her students the same way she prepared horses—through repetition, clarity, and a relentless focus on the basics. There was never pressure to win or beat anyone else. The expectation was simple: perform the way you trained.

She built riders by reinforcing strengths, not chasing results. And year after year, our entire barn did very, very well—not because anyone was fixated on the scoreboard, but because the foundation underneath us was strong.

That base stayed with me when I later moved into the jumper ring—a discipline that pulled me in with its speed, precision, and challenge. But by then, I was no longer riding with my grandmother as my trainer. The environment changed. The conversations changed. And the training, in many ways, shifted to only the show ring and many years in a row I’d be showing no less than 48 weeks out of the year, sometimes hitting several shows in one weekend. 

My position went from correct to getting it done. From patient to riding the knife’s edge learning the art of winning (and losing), by the expectations to win every single time. There were NO warm up classes. Warm-up rings became about who to beat. The language was sharper—you can be better, you have to be better. I knew I had to find a way to filter that out without losing myself.

So I created a ritual. My ‘Five Things’. I repeated them over and over in my head until everything else went quiet. I wrote them down and taped them to my bathroom mirror, the doorframe I walked through each morning, the screen saver on my phone. Those five things became my safe space—a place I could go regardless of the chaos around me.

My five things have been very private all these years but they reminded me who I was when I rode my best, who I wanted to be, what I wanted to become, and lastly ‘I can do anything’.

Now, I can say them and smile. The goals are just a little different than they were then, but they still do the same job. They bring out my best. They sharpen my focus. They block out the noise.

Same practice, different season of my life.

Snow, Silence, and Knowing What You Want

This winter storm slowed everything down. Between plowing, mucking, and snowshoeing with arm loads of hay and grain, there were long hours alone—quiet stretches that left space to think.

I found myself re-reading (listening) old favorite books instead of searching for something new. Familiar words, familiar lessons- There’s something invigorating about knowing exactly what you want to work toward. Strong riders don’t just train their bodies they train their attention. This is where the work starts before the show ring or the big event you might be focusing towards. When conditions get hard—when plans change, pressure rises, or distractions creep in, you’ll be ready!

Foundations don’t limit progress. They protect it.

This is a good time to check in:

• What do you want this season to feel like when you’re in the saddle?
• What habits helped you most last year—and which ones quietly worked against you?
• When things got difficult, what did you default to?
• If progress slowed, did you push harder—or go back to the basics that stabilize everything else?
• What are your ‘Five Things’?

Decide calmly, what matters to you—and what doesn’t need to come with into the next season. 

If your barn was like mine this past week, stopping entirely to let the horses just be through the bitter cold, then you’re probably preparing like us to step into the new week and get back to riding. 

Horses remember how you leave them last. Trust me. But more importantly, trust your horse.

xx - P

#minfulnesshorsemanshipjourney #seethebeautyaroundyou #gratitudeforthejourney

Bonus: 

Podcast: Practical Horseman: Jimmy Wofford 2019

YouTube: Choosing Relationships Over Results 

Reading/Audible: The Last Hill

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