Love

Love

Inspiration and perspiration at horse expo

Posted on June 10, 2015 by horsegirlonajourney

Nothing like spending a day on metal bleachers in the full sun and 100-degree weather to test your dedication to horsemanship! And yet we managed to come away from horse expo with new ideas and renewed inspiration along with our heatstroke and sunburns.

I can be inspiration and motivation, but the dedication and perspiration is up to you.” – Pat Parelli

Respond with relaxation

One of the ah-ha! moments of the weekend was when Jonathan Field talked about how he doesn’t want to desensitize a horse. He wants the horse to respond to the stimuli — to “react with relaxation,” not with tension or fear. This especially resonated with me, as I’ve been playing the Friendly Game with Rocky and looking at Rocky’s future with the question “how brave can I help you become?” I’ve been allowing the stimuli to go on longer than I used to, to give Rocky time to find the relaxation on his own. Bring the emotions up and then settle them down. Set up the puzzle and really, truly give Rocky time to solve it.

The point of bridleless riding

I overheard a woman ask someone in a horse training booth “What’s the point of this bridleless riding anyway? It’s not like you’re going to go out on the trail without a bridle. You’re not going to jump or do dressage without a bridle.”

Never mind for a moment that people do those things and more bridleless. What struck me was that the woman in the booth — not the trainer, but a person helping out while the trainer was away — said “I’m not sure” and “I know what you mean.”

I didn’t interject or interrupt (“Oh, I have some thoughts on that,a may I share them with you?”), but Scott and I exchanged a look of surprise that the woman in the booth didn’t have an answer handy. Unless she was simply shocked speechless, she could have smiled and explained that the bridleless riding really isn’t about the bridle or lack thereof.

It’s about developing the relationship to the point where your horse wants to be with you, where you have the communication in your body, where you don’t rely on leverage or mechanics to steer, and where you know that your horse is into dancing the patterns that you are asking for.

It’s about testing your horsemanship to see if you use the bridle as a communication system or as a pulley system. If you can ride bridleless and guide your horse and have the horse be a willing partner in your guidance, you have confirmation that you’ve reached a certain level of the relationship and are on the right track for further development. If you can’t, then the bridleless ride can help you see what else you need to improve in order to get there.

And that’s just what popped into my head in the first moment.

What’s really cool though is that the women were asking questions, and admitting they didn’t know. This shows me they are open to accepting that there is a purpose, and that they are willing to be vulnerable in that they could admit that they didn’t know something.

Categories: Events, Love | 1 Comment

Hogwarts school of horsemanship

Posted on May 30, 2015 by horsegirlonajourney

I have wondered if Rocky would be Sorted into Ravenclaw for his cleverness or into Gryffindor for his courage. Today I had to lean toward Gryffindor, because it’s only session 3 (out of 7 planned) of “bravery with flags” and he was less reactive than he was yesterday, and took less time to recover from EEK! and get to “look I’m touching it / lowering my head/ reaching under it can I have a cookie now.”

After playing with Rocky, I got River out and set up our obstacles for the patterns we’ve been practicing. Just like yesterday, trotting felt jarring and stiff. Instead of giving up though I tried several things like asking for a bend, asking for more forward, asking for some soft feel, and trying a combo of straights and curves.

There was a hay bag in the arena from earlier in the day and I worked it into our patterns for rest breaks and rewards. River was Aware of the bag the whole time and did some interesting moves in her attempts to get to it — turning her nose as if to circle the barrel while drifting sideways in the direction of the hay. This added a challenge for me because I only have so much stamina for riding the trot in a bareback pad, and yet I didn’t want to stop unless things were going well.
I think I’m doing okay too, because she saw me coming and met me at the gate. And River would not hesitate to express her opinion if she felt disrespected or unhappy with our sessions. Her whickering at me, meeting me at the gate, shoving her nose into the halter, all tell me that I have a green light from River.

I am so excited that I’ve reached a level where I can feel the difference, where I have some arrows in my quiver to try to improve things, and where I can actually do more than just “hold on and not fall” in a bareback pad. In fact it didn’t occur to me until afterward that I could have switched to a saddle, when not long ago I was sitting on River’s back for five minutes while she walked around and then jumping off delighted with my achievement.

I haven’t solved the unfluid thing yet but we did end more pliably than we began. And she was sweet and put effort into her part of the dance when it was Scott’s turn, so I know that my experimenting with language and leadership did not leave her upset.