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I had occasion to revisit one of my favorite books, Xenophon’s Art of Horsemanship. Xenophon was a Greek general who lived 2500 years ago. This is the first book on horsemanship that has survived the ages.
What I love about this book is the chance to take a glimpse into another time. We experience a little of the day-to-days with horses as they were then. And, really, they have not changed at all. This first passage is a perfect example:
[5.9] Washing down of the legs we disapprove of; it does no good, and the [more...]
In my Secret Weapon post I talked about how important it is to remain focused on what we want and rewarding that and only that.
Read it here if you want to be reminded about it or missed it the first time.
In her article in Psychology Today titled, Trainers with Jackhammers Need Not Apply, Susan Friedman, Ph.D. talks about this very issue from a slightly different point of view. And, hearing the same thing said differently is always a useful learning strategy. She brings up two key points to consider when training (any animal, horses included):
Identify what you want the [more...]
Lots of rain and mud means I’ve only managed to say hello to my girls at feeding time. On nicer days I’ll visit, groom and massage. Actual riding is a distant memory. Ha! So posts have been thin at best as I await the inspiration of spring and more riding exploits! Something interesting did come up recently in conversation, though, that I thought I would share.
The topic was what I call my “secret weapon”. Do you want to know the secret to getting along with pretty much every horse? It isn’t a [more...]
Those who have hung around me for some time will know that I’m very fond of saying, “If the horse knew what I wanted and believed he was able to do it, he’d BE doing it.” I used to say “…and was able to do it…” but people would just say that they knew a horse who knew very well thank you very much what they wanted and simply didn’t WANT to comply. So, I adjusted the phrase to include the word “believe” because it is my opinion that those horses who “don’t want to” usually have something else on [more...]
 Recently my husband and I decided it was time to get rid of the burn pile. We have a small excavation project coming up that requires we finally burn the darn thing. The burn pile consisted mainly of small cherry trees we had to remove when we decided to bring the horses home. With all the rain we’ve had the pile of tree limbs, branches, and leaves were quite wet. But the task needed to be taken care of, so one sunny morning we got out there.
The whole pile burning experience was really quite a [more...]
I just added a link to Leslie’s blog, to my Links page. Here’s the description from the site:
“In this blog you can follow how Leslie’s approach is helping horses coast-to-coast and gain insight about how to work with horses through “feel and release”. We will post photos, audio clips and video clips as they become available, including highlights from Leslie’s 2009 Horsemanship Seminar tour, and from clinics with trainers in her program. You can also catch other news from Leslie and Diamond Lu Productions.”
There are several photo essays on the site already, each with [more...]
I’m often asking people to ask themselves, where is your horse, mentally? Is he here with you or is he mentally back at the barn or with his buddies in the pasture? There are a number of things we can look at which give us clues as to what the horse is thinking about. Let’s say you are longing. The obvious things are eyes and ears of course. We can also look at the head and neck. A kink in the neck and or tension are also give aways that the horse [more...]
Recently, on the Yahoo Classical Dressage group talk has turned to how to deal with ‘bad’ behavior such as biting and kicking. Absolutely all agree that this is not something that we ‘wee humans’ can really tolerate since our bodies are pretty fragile when compared to horses. They can do Real Damage to us! There is no agreement, however, as to what is the right way to deal with such behavior.
Several people weighed in with their techniques for biting or kicking back those horses who offered such behavior. I shake my head reading these suggestions. [more...]
 In Whole Heart, Whole Horse , through stories about his days as a kid working for the “Old Man” as well as people he’s met through years of doing clinics, Marks brings the process of building trust between the horse and rider to life. As is typical for Mark’s books, this is not a ‘how-to’ book. Having tried to write something of a how-to book I can appreciate his desire to avoid that. So instead he focuses on our attitude and though processes which I know have a huge impact on our success (or lack thereof) with horses.
Mark sold me [more...]
I’ve been working with a new horse recently. It has been so interesting because it has given me a chance to really think about what I click for in the beginning, especially when the horse isn’t “with me”. I wanted to write it down while it was still fresh.
This mare is 10 years old, and pretty set in her ways of bracing and leaving when she is uncertain.
The first session I spent just getting to know her in the stall and turning her on to c/t. She got it pretty quick.
Next session in the round pen she [more...]
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