Stephen Bradley is Back! Clinic on Wednesday, April 16th!

Stephen is making his migration back north and will be back at A Bit Better Farm (Brookeville, MD) on Wednesday, April 16th.

Small group lessons (no more than 3 people) are $115 each.  A limited number of private dressage lessons are available, and are $155 each. Cash, checks and credit cards are accepted. 

We typically start around 11am and go until we're done, but he will teach until 7pm, so we always have one or two groups for the "after work and school" crowd.  :-)

Please let me know if you'd like to reserve a slot (or two) now. Simply e-mail me at margaret@mythiclanding.com.

Stephen enjoys teaching all levels of riders from beginners to the advanced competitor. His enthusiasm, talent for communication, and ability to inspire confidence in the horse and rider make him a hit with riders of all levels. When training with Stephen, you can be confident that you will receive expert instruction for your level of riding. You can learn more about Stephen at www.stephensbradley.com.

Newest Grid Pro Quo article out!

This month's Grid Pro Quo for EventingUSA magazine just arrived in our mailbox!  Special thanks to Imtiaz Anees for working with me on this month's edition.

Keep your eye out for future Grid Pro Quo articles with: Jenn Simmons, Sally Cousins, Melissa Hunsberger, Holly Hudspeth and Jessica Bortner-Harris!

New! C.O.R.E. Rider Clinic!

One of Mythic Landing’s clients, Playland Farm, is doing something for the first time that we are really excited about and want to share! They are hosting a C.O.R.E. Rider clinic on Saturday, March 22nd.  C.O.R.E. Rider is a program that Playland’s owner and resident trainer, Glenda Player, has been working towards for many years now, including multiple trips to Bad Tolz, Germany each year for proper certification.

So, you may be wondering, what exactly is C.O.R.E. Rider? CORE Rider is an acronym for Centered, Organized, Responsive, Effective riding. Through this method one learns how to use aids in a clearer, more organized and effective manner, thus developing a responsive, balanced horse. The method assists in learning a clearer sense of awareness of one’s own movements and use of self. In the process, the method promotes ease of movement, coordination, and flexibility. At the heart of the CORE Rider method is teaching oneself a greater awareness of his/her own movement. CORE Riding is about learning stability and balance through alignment.

The clinic will be broken up into two parts: an un-mounted group session and then mounted small group lessons afterwards. This format allows for riders to work on themselves and their body in the morning session without having to worry about their horse. Then, once they have the basics down, they will take what they learn in the morning and apply it while mounted in the small group riding lesson.

For more information you can visit, www.playlandequestriancenter.com, OR, to sign up for the clinic you can email Erinn Murphy at: emurphy@arbee.net 

Check out the clinic details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/380194892121649/

The EN Business Academy!

As you all know, part of my mission with MLE is to help our clients run their businesses effectively, efficiently and profitably!  With this in mind, I approached Eventing Nation about starting a business focused column on their site, and the "EN Business Academy" was created!

Check out the first article here: http://eventingnation.com/home/en-business-academy-whats-a-business-plan-and-how-do-i-make-one/

Another great read for business owners ...

Maybe it's because it's just been one of "those weeks," but this short little article definitely got my attention.  I hope you're able to get a "take away" that will motivate you to keep on keepin' on!

http://www.businessinsider.com/hard-things-you-need-to-do-to-be-successful-2014-1

Great read for business owners! (Riders ... this includes you!)

This came across my Facebook news feed this morning and I thought it was a great read.

Here's a link: https://medium.com/i-m-h-o/3dc264023df5.  Take a few minutes today and give it a read ... it's worth it.

It immediately made me think of the below graphic, which I'm sure most business owners can relate to.

But back to the article by Ms. St Clair.  The first item on her list really got me thinking.  Luckily I quickly realized that in order to run a successful business, I had to devote A LOT of time to the running of the actual business.  I think the ratio spending 15% of your time doing what you love and 85% of your time running the business is pretty accurate.  One of my first business goals was to make enough money to be able to hire a bookkeeper, because I knew that in order to be able to successfully grow the business I needed multiple eyes on my financials. And I've recently made some changes that will allow me to spend more time than I already do to the administrative side of things.

But this got me thinking ... how many riders spend 85% of their time running their business??  If you consider the "doing what you love" portion of your job to be the actual riding and teaching, I would venture to guess that for most riders this ratio is reversed with 85% or more of their time spent riding and teaching, and 15% or less of their time spend "in the office."  But I'm also pretty sure that if you told most professional riders that they needed to spend 85% of their time in an office running their business, they would run the other way.

So what's the answer?

Personally I have this theory that you need to create "life teams"to help you reach your goals.  For me, I have my business team, my horse team and my life team.  If you're lucky, and I consider myself to be a very lucky individual, you'll have a core group of people that are on all of your teams.  And other people will only show up on one of your teams.  But the point is, each team needs to be made up of people that not only understand your goals but also genuinely support you in your efforts to reach your goals.  So if your business goal is to be able to spend more time riding, then you need to find someone to add to your team that can fulfill the administrative role.

I could go on and on about this theory, but I need to get back to work!

So go ahead, read the article, and let me know what your take away was!

Field Trip to C Square

I always enjoy my field trips to Courtney Cooper's C Square Farm, and today was no different.  While it would have been nice if it was about 10 degrees warmer, it was still lots of fun.  I love getting to play with the babies and got to meet her newest youngsters Jaguar Star and Rising Star.  Fun fun fun!  AND I got to snuggle with my most favorite "star" of all, R Star (aka Hope).

Rising Star & Jaguar Star

Grove of Stars (I think!?)

My love, R Star