United States Eventing Association

You have good intentions in life, but sometime life has a crazy way of getting in the way of your good intentions! When things like school, work, and a ridiculously short 24-hour day come in between you and your good intentions, its time for the how-come trick.

If you’re like most riders, you have a coupled of meaningful tasks you’ve been meaning to do for a while, but haven’t yet gotten around to. It can be anything from cleaning your barn-car (really, when was the last time you saw the floor mats?) to speaking to your trainer about something that’s been worrying you. When you find that task, simply ask yourself, ”How come I haven’t done it yet?" Be honest with your answer because they’ll help create the plan to finally achieve it. For example, ”How come I haven’t learned to jump yet?" leads to the answer, "Because I don't have a jump trainer, jump tack or a jumper.” Armed with this information you can start looking for a trainer in your area with school horses and tack. Yay… the answer to your question is the answer to your problem!

This week think of something you’ve been putting off and ask yourself how come you haven’t done it yet. Think about it for a while and then write down your honest answers… then, get out of that chair and go do it!

Here are few good examples:

How come I haven’t moved up a level recently?
How come I learned to canter yet?
How come I haven’t stopped worrying about riding in front of others?

How come I haven’t started dressage lessons to improve my jumping yet?
How come I haven’t leaned how to back that trailer up yet!

At the end of the day, always remember that procrastination is like a flat tire… you can’t go anywhere until you change it.