Lesson Plan Workshop: Summary

The process of writing a lesson plan is made up of the following steps:

1. Define your goal
2. Define your starting point
3. Know yourself, your horse, and obstacles you may encounter
4. Define the elements of your goal
5. Discover which elements need to be improved
6. Create and implement a plan that integrates the newly developed elements with the other elements of your goal and the techniques you plan to use.
7. Continue to refine as necessary until you reach your goal.

Taking the time up front to define your goal and define a lesson plan to achieve that goal can help save many hours or even months of training. With horses it is very easy to get caught up in the moment-to-moment behaviors and seek to control them. Then progress becomes haphazard at best. Lesson plans make it easier to pinpoint the root cause of an issue so that it can be dealt with rather than being stuck in dealing with the symptoms.

Thanks for following along during these last seven weeks. I would appreciate any feedback that you would like to give so that I can improve future workshops, or if you have any suggestions for topics for future workshops. Good luck in finishing your lesson plans and implementing them. Feel free to email or comment if any questions come up as you complete the process.