Journaling is more than just writing down your thoughts—it’s a habit that can improve mental clarity, emotional health, and even productivity. Whether you’re jotting down daily reflections or to set and achieve goals, the practice can be hugely beneficial in so many ways.
As we welcome the start of another year, why not make keeping a journal about you and your horse a goal for the next 12 months. Keeping a journal dedicated to your horse and training routines can be an invaluable tool for improving your horsemanship, performance and building a stronger bond with your equine partner.
In this article, let’s look at some of the key benefits and tips for maintaining a horsey journal. Plus, a few simple tasks to document that will give you an insight into your horse’s health, well-being and progress throughout the year ahead.
The Benefits of Keeping a Horse Training Journal
Tracks Your Progress
Documenting your horse’s behaviour, performance, and milestones helps you see progress over time. This can be especially motivating when you may feel that your training isn’t progressing.
Identifies Patterns
A journal allows you to spot trends in your horse’s behaviour, energy levels, or responses to training exercises. For example, you might notice your horse performs better at certain times of day.
Improve Training Strategies
Reflecting on what works and what doesn’t helps you fine-tune your approach. Making notes makes it easier to adapt training methods to suit your horse’s individual needs.
Monitors Health and Well-Being
Recording details like feeding routines, vet visits, and physical changes can serve as an early-warning system for health issues. A journal can also help you maintain consistency in your horse’s care routine.
Strengthens Your Bond
Journaling encourages you to reflect on the relationship you’re building with your horse. It's a place to record and reflect on the highs and lows of horse ownership.
Preserves Precious Memories
A training journal is a keepsake of you and your horse’s journey. Looking back on old entries can bring fond memories and inspire you further with your riding and training.
What to Include in Your Horse Training Journal
Daily Training Notes
Record what exercises you worked on, how your horse responded, and your own observations about the session.
Goals and Achievements
Set specific training goals and celebrate when you reach them. For example, mastering a new movement, exercise or improving your horse’s responsiveness.
Health Records
Keep track of vet visits, vaccinations, worming, farriery, and any changes in diet or supplements.
Observe Behaviour
Note your horse’s mood, energy level, and behaviour in different situations. This can very useful and help you identify and address any potential underlying issues or adapt your approach.
3 Things to Regularly Record in Your Journal in 2025
Assess your horse’s posture
Take time to simply look at your horse from each side, in front and behind. Make notes of what you see. Also, take pictures and save them with the date on them. Repeat this every month – you’ll be surprised at the changes that you notice each time you do this.
If you're uncertain how to assess your horse's posture, we highly recommend out on-demand recorded webinar - Understanding and Assessing Your Horse's Posture.
This easy to follow recorded webinar shows you a clear and structured postural assessment system and looks at how you can determine what is good or bad posture.
Also, learn how through good management practices, in-hand exercises and correct riding, you can improve your horse's musculoskeletal comfort, longevity, flexibility and efficiency.
Watch your horse move
Ask a friend to walk and trot your horse up in-hand, while you watch. Observe how your horse moves in each pace and watch from both sides, from in front and behind. Videoing your horse is also really useful, so you can re-watch it. Make notes of what you see. You
can also do this with your horse on the lunge in walk, trot and canter. Repeat this every month.
Understanding and Assessing Movement is a three-part on-demand recorded webinar series, where Gillian Higgins looks at walk, trot and canter. Each episode looks at the biomechanics of each pace and discusses problems and irregularities.
Gillian also offers lots of tips and suggests exercises that will help to improve the quality of the walk, trot and canter.
Assess fitness and condition
Body condition score (also called fat scoring) your horse every month. This will help you determine if your horse is a healthy weight and highlight if he is gaining or losing weight and condition. If you're not sure how to do condition score take a look at this from the British Horse Society - How to fat score your horse.
"Most owners leave taking their horse's vitals until their horse is unwell. The trouble with that is not knowing what is normal. We recommend taking your horse's resting respiration rate, temperature and pulse once a month so you can build up a picture of what is normal.
Also, it's worth working out if there are variations before vs after work or as your horse gets fitter.
Resting Statistics for a Healthy Horse
Temperature: 37.2 – 38.3 degrees c (99-101 degrees F)
Pulse: 35-42 beats per minute
Respiration rate: 10-18 breaths per minute (bpm)
If you want to learn more about fitness and condition (related to equine anatomy of course) including training and conditioning programmes check out Horse Anatomy for Performance.
Tips for Keeping a Journal
You may be thinking that keeping a journal will be time-consuming, but give it a go and you will soon start to see and feel the benefits. Here are a few tips to help you give journaling a go.
Set Aside Time
Dedicate a specific time, for example after each training session to write in your journal, doing it this means it will soon become a habit.
Keep It Simple
Use bullet points or quick summaries to make journaling less time-consuming. Just a few sentences can be all that’s needed to be effective.
Make it Personal
Use a format to keep a journal that works best for you - a physical notebook, a digital app, or a spreadsheet.
Incorporate Visuals
Add photos, diagrams of training patterns, or video links – these are a great supplement to your notes.
Time to Reflect
Review past entries regularly to evaluate your progress and tweak your training plan as needed.
By keeping a journal for your horse's training, it will help you to improve your technical skills but also deepen your understanding and connection with your horse. Give it a go - it’s a small investment of time with enormous benefits. If you have any tips for organisation with your horse please do share them in the comments below. We would love to hear your feedback.
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