Winter is the time to plan for improvement. Long walks during this time give your horse the strength and fitness to perform better in the coming year. While you are conditioning your horse, leave your headphones behind. If you disconnect yourself from the natural world, you are a menace to society and a danger to your horse. Headphones are mental “bling”—they tell me that your riding is about you, not about your partner. When told they are a defense against boredom, I ask, “How can you be bored when you are connected to the most wonderful creature in creation?”
As your horse makes a long series of solitary footprints, consider what author John Moore said, “Wherever man has left his footprint in the long ascent from barbarism to civilization, we…
