07/30/2025
If You Only Ride on Good Days, You’ll Never Have a Good Horse
Look, I get it.
It’s cold. Or it’s hot. Or it’s windy. Maybe your horse is feeling fresh. Maybe you’re feeling tired. Maybe you had a long day at work, or your back is sore, or your schedule got away from you. Maybe you just don’t feel like it today.
But let me tell you something that doesn’t get said enough:
If you only ride on good days, you’ll never have a good horse.
Because the truth is, consistency trumps comfort. Horses don’t get trained on the days you feel like it. They get trained on the days you show up — especially when you don’t.
Training Isn’t a Special Occasion
Training isn’t something you do once a week when the weather is perfect and the birds are singing. It’s not a special occasion. It’s not a vacation destination. It’s a daily investment.
And I’m not talking about riding six hours a day, seven days a week. That’s not realistic. I’m talking about showing up consistently. About doing something, even if it’s small. About putting in reps that matter. About not letting three, four, five days go by with that horse sitting idle — especially if that horse is still learning, still developing, or still working through problems.
Because every day you skip? That horse is learning something anyway. Horses don’t stop learning when you stop showing up. They’re just learning without your guidance. And that’s when bad habits form. That’s when regression creeps in.
Progress Comes Through Repetition — Not Randomness
I’ve seen it a thousand times. Someone rides once on Monday, then not again for a week. The next ride feels like starting over. And it is. Because you are.
You’re not building a habit. You’re just reintroducing a concept. Again. And again. And again.
You ask your horse to stand quietly at the mounting block — and he does. You skip three days. The next time he’s dancing around again. You think, “He just won’t stand still.” No, he will — he just forgot. Because you didn’t follow through.
You work on lead departures. They start getting better. Then it rains for four days, and you don’t touch your horse. Next time you saddle up, he’s cross-firing again. It’s not the weather’s fault. It’s the inconsistency.
Horses learn through repetition. That means what you do today — and what you do tomorrow — and what you do the next day — that’s what builds the horse you end up with.
And if the repetition is broken? So is the progress.
Your Horse Doesn’t Care If It’s Windy
I hear this one all the time:
“It was too windy.”
“He was just fresh today.”
“There were trucks going by and he was jumpy.”
So what? That’s life.
You’re not training your horse to ride in a vacuum. You’re not preparing for a world where everything is controlled, quiet, and calm. You’re preparing for reality. And reality is messy.
If you only ride your horse when the conditions are ideal, you’re setting them up to fail in every situation that’s not. You’re reinforcing the idea that the only time they have to listen, the only time they have to focus, the only time they have to be calm is when the world is perfect.
And that’s just not how it works.
You don’t get a broke horse by avoiding tough days. You get a broke horse by working through them.
That doesn’t mean you pick a fight. It doesn’t mean you punish nervousness or push past what your horse can handle. But it does mean you show up, you assess where your horse is, and you work through it with fairness and consistency.
The Horses That Change Are the Ones You Show Up For
I’ve had plenty of horses come in to be started or retrained that had all kinds of baggage — buddy sour, barn sour, spooky, pushy, reactive. And you know what changed them?
It wasn’t one magic ride. It wasn’t some fancy tool or trick.
It was showing up every single day. Working through things every single day. And not just the good days, either. Especially not just the good days.
Some of the best rides I’ve ever had didn’t start good — they ended good because I stuck it out. Because I didn’t quit when it got hard or frustrating. Because I didn’t make excuses. I made progress.
You’re Building Habits — Even When You Think You’re Not
Every day you choose not to ride, you’re teaching your horse something.
Let me say that again, because it matters:
Every day you choose not to ride, you’re still teaching your horse something.
You’re teaching him that the rules are flexible. That the routine doesn’t matter. That the pressure comes and goes without reason. That today’s behavior might slide, depending on your mood.
Or worse — you’re teaching him to get away with behaviors that you don’t correct because you’re not there to see them.
You don’t build a broke, consistent, respectful, relaxed horse by accident. You build that horse through intention. Through structure. Through showing up — even when it’s inconvenient.
You Don’t Have to Ride Hard — But You Do Have to Ride Often
I’m not saying every day has to be a boot camp. You don’t need to lope perfect figure-eights every single ride. But you need to do something.
Some days that might be groundwork. Some days it might be riding out for 15 minutes just to keep the muscle memory fresh. Some days it might be reinforcing a mounting block routine or working on softness at the walk. It doesn’t always have to be intense. But it does have to be consistent.
And honestly? Those short, simple, focused rides are often the most productive ones.
Final Thought
You’re not going to build a dependable, willing, broke horse on the back of fair-weather rides. You’re not going to progress when you let life dictate your schedule more than your commitment does. You don’t get confidence — in yourself or your horse — by waiting for the perfect day to show up.
You get it by showing up anyway.
The people with the best horses aren’t just lucky. They aren’t just talented. They’re consistent. They ride when it’s cold. They ride when it’s hot. They ride when it’s windy. They don’t let a little weather or a little inconvenience or a little resistance get in the way of the bigger goal.
So if you’re waiting for everything to feel just right before you put your foot in the stirrup — you’ll be waiting forever.
Ride today. Especially because you don’t feel like it. Especially because it’s not perfect.
Because that’s how good horses get made.
