Here is what I learned from walking my horse for 10 consecutive days...
It sounds deceptively simple: walking your horse 10 days in a row for 10 minutes. Yet... it was pretty challenging! But, it was also very insightful!
I was struggling with two major issues at that time:
Doing something fun with my horse
Chores, housework, my family and my work always seem to get firstMy horse needed to get in shape. Suffering from EMS (equine Metabolic Syndrome) can lead to obesity and laminitis.
I worried. I’ve been there with my previous horse Kyra. It was no fun, it cost heaps of time and money to rehabilitate her.
A personal Challenge
I wondered where I fell off the wagon of exercising my horse.
Here is what my struggle was:
A never-ending struggle with exercising.
Doomed to fail.
This Changed Everything
Then I decided to ease myself into exercising by tricking my brain.
I lowered the bar.
I made it feel accomplishable.
Lowering the Bar to Start Exercising
With the advice of James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, in mind I designed my own challenge.
The bar was low: only 10 minutes of handwalking a day.
I made it doable: only 10 consecutive days.
10 Minutes of walking on the road meant: 5 minutes up, and then 5 minutes down.
Now suddenly ‘Exercising my Horse’ was very accomplishable.
I only had to do this for 10 days in a row.
It was still challenging. All kinds of excuses came up. The voice in my head tried to convince me to start ‘later’.
I encountered bumps in the road: weather, and ‘emergencies’ at home (leaking faucet or cat litter box that had to be cleaned. Now!)
Benefit of an End Date
Having an end date(after 10 days) was really reinforcing.
It made it feel very doable.
And if I skipped a day: that would be 10%. I didn’t want to lose 10% of the walks!
Most exercise goals end up as failures because they are ‘never-ending. Therefore, you will encounter a snag. You stop and…it feels like failure!
3 Rules only!
Here’s some valuable advice from David Goggins: Never skip 2 days in a row!
That’s how I’ve set my 10/10 Challenge up.
Only 3 rules:
Walk my horse for 10 minutes a day
Ten consecutive days
Never skip two days in a row
It was still challenging.
Here’s what I’ve learned
Make it easy. Start with 10 minutes
Turn your goal into a habit. Habits are effortless and don’t take brainpower
Set your environment up to trigger the behaviour: walking my horse first thing in the morning. Hanging my Tracking Sheet for the Challenge, where I see it a couple of times a day. Hanging the halter and treats at the gate and deciding where I wanted to walk (road). Making all these small decisions ahead of time helps with execution
Celebrate mistakes. Turn failures into learning points so that you never fall into the same pitfall. Celebrating mistakes is just as important as celebrating success. Mistakes are the Stepping Stones to Success. Without them, you don’t learn.
Celebrate success! It’s easy to downplay the accomplishments after you succeed. I used to do that. Now I realize that they were BIG accomplishments. For me! Starting was the hardest part!
Want to join me in my upcoming 10/10 Handwalking Your Horse Challenge?
This time we’ll do it together: together is better!
Friday, January 23, 2026, my first group 10/10 Challenge opens. Saturday, January, 24 will be our 1st walking day. If you want to join me, you can!
10 minutes a day
10 consecutive days
Never skip twice in a row
Join today and we’ll do it together!
Happy Horse Walking!
Sandra
