This video speaks for itself. It’s just funny.

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Have you every felt like this? Please leave a comment.

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One thing I did then that I am attempting to bring back into my life is that I focused on my own physical fitness.

I searched and researched exercises that were good for riding. When I heard a term like Feldenkrais and Rolfing or myofascial release I looked it up to see how it might apply to my riding. I started my own little workout routine consisting of stretches and strength building exercises. I focused a lot on the hips and lower back.

At the time I just threw some things together, it was pretty hap hazard but it got results. I now realize that I was working on my core and know how important strength in the core is to riding and almost any other physical activity.

I came across this 9 minute video that gives some simple exercises for strengthening your back and core. I’ve been doing them for several days and I can already feel a difference in my posture.

Like I said they are real simple and can be done in less than 10 minutes. Although this is not specifically about riding, strengthening your core and correcting your posture will make a big difference in your riding.

I hope this gives you a starting point and that you will do your own research and discover a path for you to become more fit and enjoy your life to a greater degree.

Please leave a comment and share how your fitness level has affected your riding.

That simple phrase seems to have become my theme since then, both in my own horsemanship and in helping others raise their expectations. I have come to realize that my horses don’t give much because I don’t expect much of them, consequently I don’t ask for much. It becomes a vicious cycle that slowly grinds us to a halt.

At a few points during the summer Pat pushed me and my horse pretty hard and I never really questioned why he did it. But he explained to me that day that he pushed us hard so I could see what my horse was capable of. It was at that point the lesson became clear. He never pushed beyond what either one of us were capable but he did push us out of the usual. He had an expectation for both of us and we tried to live up to it.

To me an expectation is simply the picture we have in our mind of how something should or will be. As I have explained to many of my students we need to have expectations that are appropriate for ourselves and our horses. Much like we have expectations of a first grader and the skills that are appropriate for their grade level. However, as they grow and learn our expectations change. The expectations we have for a first grader are going to be different than a fifth grader and still different than a freshman in high school and so on. The same is true with our horses, we need to have realistic and appropriate expectations.

Sometimes in our endeavor to create a good relationship with our horse and not be too “direct line” we lower our expectations for ourselves and our horses. And on the other hand we can see in certain segments of the competitive world unrealistic expectations for horses, such as performing a sport before they have a foundation which can lead to disappointment, frustration, undue stress and finally force. But not having clear and appropriate expectations can be harmful in not living up to your full potential. We vacillate between two worlds, unrealistic expectations of our horses and no expectations. What we fail to see is the middle ground of appropriateness.

I challenge you to raise your expectations and ask for more and you may be surprised at how much your horse will give. As you raise your expectations of your horse, I want to challenge you again as students to “raise your expectations of yourself” and what you can accomplish in your own horsemanship.

Please leave a comment below.

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I have such a vivid picture of the speech that it haunts me to this day. That image I recall monthly if not weekly in the course of my life because I would be the one he was talking to because I tend to quit before I get started.

In our journey with our horses as with our journey through life, we have choices. The biggest choice is to quit or move on. Some of us never quit on things that we should have abandoned long ago but most of us give up far too easily on the things that matter most to us.

What is it that you want from your horsemanship journey? Have you already quit and now you are settling for something less than what you really want? Take heart from a great statesman and “Never give up”.

I found this video on youtube that has the same message but presented in a different way.

Please leave your comments. I now have an additional image to recall when I get knocked down. Get Back Up and Never Give Up!

This video was sent to me by Ale G, a very accomplished dressage rider herself. It’s of Edward Gal and Moorlands Totilas’ and their performance at the World Dressage Masters series in Hickstead, 2009. As we were watching this together later she commented ” If they perform like that at the Olympics they will take GOLD”.

Here is the winning event that broke the world record with a score of 89.40%.

Enjoy!

Click Here for Video

I am not an expert by any means but this is an inspiring performance and it’s definitely World Class.

Please return here and leave a comment.

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“Don’t saddle the the young horses in the barn because someone saddled Presence in here and she started bucking and about jumped through the plate glass window into the office” was one of the first comments I heard about Presence even before I knew her name. Little did I know that she would end up being mine.

The second time I heard her mentioned was when Pat asked if there were any problems with the horses that he needed to know about. One of the externs spoke up and said that Presence bucked every time you saddled her. The reason I remembered her name this time was because just minutes earlier I had looked on the board and realized she had been assigned to me for the week.

After the meeting I went out to do my assigned chores and when I came back to start my horsemanship time an extern told me she had groomed Presence for me but she bucked like a fiend when she saddled her. I thought to myself “What have I got myself into here” and then told the extern, “Don’t saddle her, just groom her and let me saddle her so that I can help her through this.” I knew I needed to take it slow and see what was going on inside the mind of this little horse.

My first play session with her I took it slow but at the same time I pushed her a little to see how she would react. On the ground she did great and she seemed to have gotten past the bucks.

When I went to get on her all the comments came flooding in. “She’s really sensitive”, “she bucks when you saddle her”, “has she bucked yet” all just comments but enough to make you think twice about putting your leg over her. Needless to say, I took a little extra time with my pre-ride check before getting on. She seemed good and it was now or never and I got on.

The first thing I noticed was she didn’t argue with me. If I asked her to go right she went right, no muss, no fuss. I brought the life down in my body she slowed with no hesitation. No pushing or pulling and she seemed to want to obey, what a pleasure.  From that first ride I was hooked. I never had a problem from that point on or had a second thought about riding her.

Anyway Presence is now mine. She was part of the Parelli Dream Horse Program and now she is in my Dream Horse Program.

I’ll share more about her in later posts so keep tuned in…

What is your dream?

Here is a lady that was unemployed and caring for her sick mother in a tiny village in Scotland. She has had a dream of being a professional singer since she was a little girl. To the outside world she looks foolish and a very unlikely prospect for a professional singer. From all that I read about her she had about given up on her dream.
Have you ever had a dream that others laughed at or worse you laughed with them at it? Have you ever wanted to do something or be something that made no sense to those around you? And sometimes it didn’t make sense even to you but still you were drawn toward it? Have you ever dreamed something so big that it was deemed foolish by those around you?

Do you have a dream inside of you that you have just about given up on? What is it?

What is your Dream?

Think of it right now as you watch this video and be prepared to be inspired to drag it out and dust it off and start to live your dream.

This video is a clip from the TV show “Britain’s Got Talent”, Britain’s  equivalent to “American Idol”.
Many of you may have viewed this video clip previously but take a look at it again in light of your personal dreams!

Watch the video here

Then return and leave a comment about your Dream.

I encourage you to Dream Big and never give up!

Lyrics to I Dreamed a Dream

I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high,
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving.

Then I was young and unafraid
When dreams were made and used,
And wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung,
No wine untasted.

But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hopes apart
As they turn your dreams to shame.

And still I dream he’ll come to me
And we will live our lives together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms
We cannot weather…

I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I’m living
So different now from what it seems
Now life has killed
The dream I dreamed.

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Flashback…

…to a job I had over 30 years ago. I mowed the fairways of the country club golf course. I always hated to mow on Tuesdays because it was “Ladies Day”. That was the day I always had to dodge several balls that came flying my way. If the ball didn’t hit me or the tractor I would usually run over it with the mower and tear it to shreds. Not good for customer relations.

I had to ask myself…

Are women that much worse shots than men? No! I don’t think so! I do, however, think they were more concerned about hitting me than most men. Therefore, their focus was more on me than down the middle of the fairway. Naturally, the balls followed their focus and headed right towards me.

So many times we focus on where we don’t want to go, instead of where we do want to go and wind up exactly where we didn’t want to be in the first place.

I don’t know about you but that sounds a lot like our horsemanship journey at times. The results we’ve been looking for and working towards seem to get further away, without realizing it we are focusing on the wrong thing and as a result we wind up exactly where we didn’t want to be.

Remember, we determine our focus and as an outcome we determine our results.

Please leave a comment about how focus has affected your results.

Why do we have horses?

I think for most of us, at least those of us that abide by natural horsemanship, we have horses in our lives because of the connection that is possible. It is that interconnection that causes us to have horses. Somehow it makes us feel better.

Kind of mushy… but you know what I mean.

What is that connection, that mystical bond we seek? I think that this bond has different facets for each one of us. For some it could be as simple as a connection to another living being, to others a deeper connection to oneself and for others it’s a spiritual connection to nature. I don’t know what it is for you, but I do know that for most of us this connection is not a means to something more but an end in itself. And that’s why the idea of relationship rings so loud in our ears.
If your relationship with your horse is simply a means to an end then your horse becomes a tool to further your own ambitions or an extension of your ego. When we use our horses to further what we want then I’m not sure that we can call that a relationship. Maybe an association would be more appropriate.

Ok I’ll get off my soap box…

Sometimes I get a little carried away.

Recently I heard an idea that “relationships are emotion intensifiers”. They are the place where we feel our deepest, most intense emotions. Although this was directed toward human relationships I believe it holds true for our relationships with our horses and other animals as well. We feel the deepest hurts and the greatest joy in our relationships along with a whole range of feelings in between.

I found this video and I think it embodies all I have been trying to say. This clip is a story about a relationship two young men had with a lion. Many of you may have seen this but I just discovered it and it moved me enough to share it with you.

Enjoy and please leave a comment about how a relationship with an animal has impacted your life.

A story I like to tell about Kahn is how he showed me that horses never lie…

It was sometime back when we were in level 2 and I was really focused on liberty. So everyday I would get him out and ‘play’ at liberty. I thought it was great fun. After a couple of weeks of me drilling him on liberty he started to limp. Each time I sent him out on a circle he would hobble around like he was crippled for life and got slower and slower.

That first day I thought maybe his arthritis might be acting up so I turned him out. As I let him loose in the pasture I noticed that he walked off just fine.

Hmmmm…

The second day I got him out and led him to the round pen to “play”. As soon as I took off the halter in the round pen he started to limp again. So I haltered him and led him out to the pasture. This time no sooner had I released him into the field, than he ran off kicking up and bucking, no sign of lameness.

That got me thinking. Was he smart enough to trick me? What about that saying “Horses never lie” was he lying to me to get out of doing things with me?

On the third day the same thing happened again but this time I didn’t fall for it. I insisted that he trot out with a little more energy and the limp magically disappeared. I had learned my lesson the night before. So as soon as he trotted out without a limp I brought him in, haltered him and turned him out to graze and play in the pasture.

What had I learned the night before? That night as I pondered on his behavior I was deeply puzzled. Was he lying to me? But on further reflection I realized that he was actually telling me the truth. He was telling me that he was sick and tired of liberty and maybe our relationship was not as great as I thought either. That revelation hit me like a ton of bricks and I changed right then and there. I chalked it up as another lesson learned.

I’ve learned a lot from that old horse and some of those lessons are just now beginning to make sense to me.
Jerry

This is a tribute to Kahn that my wife created in honor of him. If it had not been for him I would not be where I am today. He carried me to my first star as a Parelli Instructor. We had 13 good years with him and I still think of him often.

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*Note* For those of you that have seen the article. There is a picture on page 86 of Kahn and I jingling the horses in on a cold Colorado morning. Some of my favorite memories of him are of those times. If you look closely in that picture, on his right front leg there is the scar that reminds me of the injury that started our relationship. It’s interesting that I have seen that picture dozens of times before but I never noticed that scar until it was published in the “Savvy Times”.

Please leave a comment about either the post or the article.