I have started feeding my horses Timothy Pellets twice a day, and I soak them first. What have I learned from Three Buckets of Timothy Pellets and how it relates to my riding and my horses?
Strength, Flexibility, Coordination on BOTH Sides of our bodies are as important as our horses being good on both sides!
First Thought - Strength - Is our strength EVEN. We expect our horses to have even strength on both sides but do we do what we need to for our own even strength?
I have to STIR the soaked pellets. I found out that me left arm is NOT as strong as my right arm and so, I stir two buckets left handed and one right handed. Guess what, IT MADE MY ARM SORE! This got me to thinking, how much do we work on strengthening our horses "weak" side and over do it? This was stirring two buckets, 3 minutes tops and I hurt. How many times have I done 10 or 15 minutes on my horse on something I am trying to help them learn?
THREE BUCKETS of feed and water are HEAVY, 50 pounds heavy, and lopsided 34 pounds on one side and 17 on the other side! I have about 100 yards to carry the feed buckets from the feed shed to the pasture.
My first question, How do I balance 3 buckets? I think the first few trips, I must have looked like a circus clown in an act gone BAD.
Second Thought - Flexibility - Are you flexible enough to easily reach down and adjust your foot in the stirrup or tighten your girth if you ride English? Both sides? We expect our horses to be flexible "Pokey" ponies on both sides, reaching under with a hind foot, bending around our leg, or even just going up and down switchbacks on a trail ride, can we do the same?
I was sitting on the bed one day, putting on my socks and I realized, I could NOT put my foot on the bed next to my butt to put my sock on. I could when I was younger but NOT ANY MORE! That changed over a few years and I am now so much more flexible, but what if I had not made changes? Would I be a great partner for my horse if I wasn't Flexible? Would I be "Gumby" for my "Pokey"?
Third Thought - Coordination - Can you brush your teeth with either your right hand or your left hand? LOL…..not really relevant directly to riding but yet, it is very relevant. We expect our horses to drop their nose and bend left or right with the slightest cue from our right or left hand and yet, we may not be that precise between our left and our right side!
I was thinking about my coordination and can I really be a GREAT "Hand" for my horse on both the left side and the right side and finesse the rein to have the smallest cue for my horse? This would improve communication and reduce pressure. I tried brushing my teeth with my left hand (and I am left handed mostly) but I brush my teeth right handed. I dropped the toothbrush in the sink three times! That is NOT coordination. That is NOT finesse. I tried cleaning my saddle with my left hand it also needs a lot of work! Guess I will be doing the 60/40 on EVERYTHING for a while to improve my coordination just like I would do with my horses!
To sum it up, we owe it to our horses to be the "BEST" that we can be. We expect it of our horses, why don't we expect the same of us? I will be pondering this question because I certainly have NOT been the best I could be.
I am putting together some posts on "BALANCED" Rider in my Finding Courage Facebook Group. I think the better we can become, just like we expect from our horses, the more courage and confidence that will bring while riding. Would love to have you join our facebook community (if you are not already part of it!) JOIN OUR GROUP!!!
Strength, Flexibility, Coordination on BOTH Sides of our bodies are as important as our horses being good on both sides!
First Thought - Strength - Is our strength EVEN. We expect our horses to have even strength on both sides but do we do what we need to for our own even strength?
I have to STIR the soaked pellets. I found out that me left arm is NOT as strong as my right arm and so, I stir two buckets left handed and one right handed. Guess what, IT MADE MY ARM SORE! This got me to thinking, how much do we work on strengthening our horses "weak" side and over do it? This was stirring two buckets, 3 minutes tops and I hurt. How many times have I done 10 or 15 minutes on my horse on something I am trying to help them learn?
THREE BUCKETS of feed and water are HEAVY, 50 pounds heavy, and lopsided 34 pounds on one side and 17 on the other side! I have about 100 yards to carry the feed buckets from the feed shed to the pasture.
My first question, How do I balance 3 buckets? I think the first few trips, I must have looked like a circus clown in an act gone BAD.
Second Thought - Flexibility - Are you flexible enough to easily reach down and adjust your foot in the stirrup or tighten your girth if you ride English? Both sides? We expect our horses to be flexible "Pokey" ponies on both sides, reaching under with a hind foot, bending around our leg, or even just going up and down switchbacks on a trail ride, can we do the same?
I was sitting on the bed one day, putting on my socks and I realized, I could NOT put my foot on the bed next to my butt to put my sock on. I could when I was younger but NOT ANY MORE! That changed over a few years and I am now so much more flexible, but what if I had not made changes? Would I be a great partner for my horse if I wasn't Flexible? Would I be "Gumby" for my "Pokey"?
Third Thought - Coordination - Can you brush your teeth with either your right hand or your left hand? LOL…..not really relevant directly to riding but yet, it is very relevant. We expect our horses to drop their nose and bend left or right with the slightest cue from our right or left hand and yet, we may not be that precise between our left and our right side!
I was thinking about my coordination and can I really be a GREAT "Hand" for my horse on both the left side and the right side and finesse the rein to have the smallest cue for my horse? This would improve communication and reduce pressure. I tried brushing my teeth with my left hand (and I am left handed mostly) but I brush my teeth right handed. I dropped the toothbrush in the sink three times! That is NOT coordination. That is NOT finesse. I tried cleaning my saddle with my left hand it also needs a lot of work! Guess I will be doing the 60/40 on EVERYTHING for a while to improve my coordination just like I would do with my horses!
To sum it up, we owe it to our horses to be the "BEST" that we can be. We expect it of our horses, why don't we expect the same of us? I will be pondering this question because I certainly have NOT been the best I could be.
I am putting together some posts on "BALANCED" Rider in my Finding Courage Facebook Group. I think the better we can become, just like we expect from our horses, the more courage and confidence that will bring while riding. Would love to have you join our facebook community (if you are not already part of it!) JOIN OUR GROUP!!!
The Road Runner view of fear! Who loved watching the Road Runner as a kid? If you haven't watched it before, check it out on Youtube. I love that no matter what, the Road Runner was always fine and no matter what, Wile-E-Coyote was in a pickle. Isn't that true with us when we stand in courage vs. when we curl up in fear?
My accident felt like one of Wile-E-Coyote's disasters! Every time I thought of it or talked about it, I could feel the overwhelming fear rise up and consume me. Have you had an accident that seems to just take over your life, especially when you think about riding your horse? Your fear is preventing you from enjoying the riding you and your horse deserve? Are you the SMASHED Wile-E-COYOTE????
Why not rewrite our memory in the form of a Cartoon? And if the fear is in the future, why not write an amazing cartoon of cool places you are going to see or goals you are going to achieve with your horse? Be the Road Runner!
I turned around my "TERRIFYING ACCIDENT" and made it a cartoon!
There I am, the Road Runner, Running around the campground on the back of a big bay horse, who happens to be wearing a pink Tootoo and ballet Slippers! We are zipping along and out of nowhere, Wile-E-Coyote attacks us with his ACME product of the day. The big giant ballerina horse FLOPS Over from the blast on top of Wile-E-Coyote, and as ALWAYS, he is SMASHED right there in the campground! I pop up fine….BEEP BEEP…..and off I go for another adventure! (If you want to hear my original story of terror, check it out here on Youtube!)
You can convince your brain of anything you want to. Why not look at the funny side of things instead of the bad? Why not store things in your brain in a way that makes you feel good even when bad stuff happened?
If I look back over my 51 years of riding history, I have had maybe 5 scary falls and only ONE that was terrifying and yet that one has defined the last 20 years of my riding on the trails. I added it up, and conservatively, it is TEN THOUSAND HOURS of joy to less than a minute of TERROR. The percent chance of something happening is much less than ZERO!
And yet, for 20 years, this fear has held me back from trail riding. I can honestly say, the process of creating a cartoon of the accident and really feeling the laughter bubble up was HUGE for me. I can now look back and instead of tears, there is laughter, I am lighter. There is HOPE!
I challenge you to look back at your accident and create a cartoon, make it as funny as you can make it. Revamp it to make it funnier! Get to where you can laugh about your situation. If you have not had an accident and are just having a growing fear of getting hurt. Picture that accident you are afraid MIGHT happen and then turn it around into a cartoon. The laughter will serve you well as you feel fear. Embed this cartoon memory into your brain, replace the original. Nobody says we have to keep our memories "true". Fear never goes away, we have to know that we can handle the fear and laughter helps us to see that WE CAN HANDLE IT.
If you would love help writing your cartoon, or just want to rise to Courage, please join my free FB Fear to Courage support Group and share your CARTOON With us! We all need a little laughter and levity when we are sharing our fears!
My accident felt like one of Wile-E-Coyote's disasters! Every time I thought of it or talked about it, I could feel the overwhelming fear rise up and consume me. Have you had an accident that seems to just take over your life, especially when you think about riding your horse? Your fear is preventing you from enjoying the riding you and your horse deserve? Are you the SMASHED Wile-E-COYOTE????
Why not rewrite our memory in the form of a Cartoon? And if the fear is in the future, why not write an amazing cartoon of cool places you are going to see or goals you are going to achieve with your horse? Be the Road Runner!
I turned around my "TERRIFYING ACCIDENT" and made it a cartoon!
There I am, the Road Runner, Running around the campground on the back of a big bay horse, who happens to be wearing a pink Tootoo and ballet Slippers! We are zipping along and out of nowhere, Wile-E-Coyote attacks us with his ACME product of the day. The big giant ballerina horse FLOPS Over from the blast on top of Wile-E-Coyote, and as ALWAYS, he is SMASHED right there in the campground! I pop up fine….BEEP BEEP…..and off I go for another adventure! (If you want to hear my original story of terror, check it out here on Youtube!)
You can convince your brain of anything you want to. Why not look at the funny side of things instead of the bad? Why not store things in your brain in a way that makes you feel good even when bad stuff happened?
If I look back over my 51 years of riding history, I have had maybe 5 scary falls and only ONE that was terrifying and yet that one has defined the last 20 years of my riding on the trails. I added it up, and conservatively, it is TEN THOUSAND HOURS of joy to less than a minute of TERROR. The percent chance of something happening is much less than ZERO!
And yet, for 20 years, this fear has held me back from trail riding. I can honestly say, the process of creating a cartoon of the accident and really feeling the laughter bubble up was HUGE for me. I can now look back and instead of tears, there is laughter, I am lighter. There is HOPE!
I challenge you to look back at your accident and create a cartoon, make it as funny as you can make it. Revamp it to make it funnier! Get to where you can laugh about your situation. If you have not had an accident and are just having a growing fear of getting hurt. Picture that accident you are afraid MIGHT happen and then turn it around into a cartoon. The laughter will serve you well as you feel fear. Embed this cartoon memory into your brain, replace the original. Nobody says we have to keep our memories "true". Fear never goes away, we have to know that we can handle the fear and laughter helps us to see that WE CAN HANDLE IT.
If you would love help writing your cartoon, or just want to rise to Courage, please join my free FB Fear to Courage support Group and share your CARTOON With us! We all need a little laughter and levity when we are sharing our fears!
How many of you (of the wiser generation) dreamed of having Mr. Ed? I remember thinking, Wow, a horse that I could have conversations with! That would be the Bees Knees!!!! I really believed that it was possible, that it was the normal way of the horse and the human, I had the rose colored glasses on for sure! Communicating with your horse is powerful.
In steps my Co-riders, trainers, and others, always saying: "Show them who's the Boss", "Step up and be the Leader", "You can't let them get away with Anything", etc! How many times have I listened (and acted) but it just didn't seem right? More than I would like to admit and I still fall into that trap once in a while. Telling my horses to do something! There are times when you have to tell them, like when I was on a trail ride and saw a Rattle Snake, but it should be like a parent telling a child, once in awhile. Most of the time, it should be a two way conversation!
I listened to a popular trainer and was doing the things he told us to do, and my horse was getting more and more frazzled! It got to the point, I couldn't catch her in the pasture, if I did catch her and take her in to "WORK", she was a wreck, sweating, nervous, completely wanting to get away from me. It was like being slapped in the face! I DID THIS TO MY HORSE!
Well, I went on a mission to LEARN all I could and to have conversations with my horses and it has changed my life (and theirs)! I have amazing conversations with my horses now! It takes time, they really didn't trust that I was listening to them at first. They didn't "TRUST" that I was really hearing them and going to have a two way conversation.
Once I saw them starting to trust me, our relationship really started to blossom! My horses would come to the gate and put their heads in the halter, ready for whatever adventure was going to come our way! Mutually grooming became MUCH MORE Interactive! They would show me where they wanted scratched and I could point to my back and get the BEST back scratching EVER!!!! They are really good!!!!
The more our conversations blossomed, the more my courage returned riding them! My mares are calm, quiet, not buddy sour, not herd bound, and the best part, THEY ARE CURIOUS! I feel completely Blessed to be having true conversations with my horses. They don't always get what they want, again, think Parent and child relationship and I am responsible for their health and well being so I do have to do things they may not like. Treating wounds, trimming feet, staying safe riding, etc, but for the most part, we get to be PARTNERS in the joy now and it is worth everything to me!
I know you want to hear more, you made it this far! Here I talk about my 3 favorites in my goofy Youtube video, or, if you prefer you can read them in my Snippets!
I FELT the horses with me, I FELT Their HEART.
I was in a conversation this morning and the person really wanted to move to Hawaii, but was "LED" to move to Florida instead. As soon as she said it, I had a POWERFUL HEART emotional reaction!
Our horses, trust us to LEAD them, they do not know where they are being led, they put complete TRUST into us keeping them safe, leading them on their journey, and they trust us 100% to know the destination. This is so powerful for me. I need to trust and have faith that I am being led on this journey to courage and the journey to help others find their COURAGE!
I have struggled with fear and riding. I am coming to Trust my horse, for her to keep me safe. The more I trust her, the more confidence she gets. The more I LEAD her and keep her safe riding or on the ground, the more TRUST she has in me.
Courage Pennies!
Every step of trust, for me, for my horse, is a COURAGE PENNY! Picture a beautiful bowl for you and a beautiful bowl for your horse, and every step of trust, puts a shiny Courage Penny into those bowls. As those bowls fill up, FEAR has no room, Fear diminishes, FEAR GOES AWAY!
Simple exercise to start filling your bowl with your Courage Pennies:
I have been doing this and it is so rewarding! You can do it mounted or from the ground so that is a bonus!
- As you are with your horse or riding your horse, pay attention to them and their ears. Their ears tell a lot about their emotions so this is so important to get in tune with their ears. The best time to do this exercise the first few times is when their ears are relaxed or they are calm.
- Move as little as you can to get their ear to flick to you. In some cases, this might be a touch on the lead rope or rein, or a slight move of your foot, or a wave of your hand. In some cases, you will have to become a mountain lion to get their attention on you. Play with this. The goal is to get an ear to flick to you with just a SLIGHT movement. There are two purposes for this! They will start to pay attention to you with just very subtle connection and you will begin to pay attention to them before you get into a situation that they are already gone mentally.
- Once you have this working really well, it can take a few minutes or a few months so don't worry about how long it takes, start practicing it when things are escalating. When their EARS are FOCUSED on that DEER, That CAR Screeching BY, and you can control this with having people help you. Have someone crinkle a water bottle, that is a good one for triggering. Again repeat the exercise with getting an EAR.
- You want to do all of this on the ground and riding!
- Reward - 100 Courage Pennies for being able to do this subtle on the ground when they are VERY ALERT and 200 Courage Pennies when you get it riding!!!!!
If you have enjoyed this post and you are not already in my COURAGE group, please join our free group and get the support of all of us on this journey! Click Here! Happy, Courageous, Horses and Riders!
I absolutely LOVE summer, heat, humidity, they agree with me. But I also use summer heat as an EXCUSE not to ride!!!!
Who is with me on this one???? You get all dressed up to go ride, you walk out the door, and you think, maybe later, maybe I will get up earlier, maybe after they eat, maybe after I eat, EVERY EXCUSE in the book, I have used.
But what if you look at this differently. My main reason for not riding is FEAR, I will admit that. The FEAR of getting hurt! The heat seems like as good a reason as any NOT to ride. Can I USE HEAT, to my advantage?
What CAN I DO in the heat?
- Walk
- Halt
- Backing
- Small Bending Circles
- Turn on the forehand/haunches
- Leg Yields
- Serpentine - Using Reins or just the legs
- Etc.
GENIUS!
I have been doing this for a few days now with Taika and I have to admit, I am having a BLAST. Every minute spent on her back adds Courage Penny's into the Piggy Bank! I can feel my confidence growing and it is so simple. We are developing our partnership!
It is hot so she doesn't want to run off or bolt or do anything except stand. She gets the reward of a nice cool bath after. We find places that are in the shade which pushes me out of my comfort zone and are places I haven't ridden before but it is easy because she wants the shade too.
There is some prep involved that I recommend. If it is really hot you can hose off before riding, just make sure you sweat scrap. I always use my Thieves for Courage and Stress Away for Calm and they really help me! I wear my FROGG TOGG which has been a HUGE game changer for me (link at the bottom). I keep a bottle of water right by my grooming area, with my amazing electrolyte stuff to save me from passing out when I get off.
All of this has made for a GREAT Summer and I know that every foot step I take on the back of a horse, gives me one more penny in my Courage Bank!
If you have read this far, you might be interested in joining my FREE SUPPORT GROUP for people searching for their riding Courage!
I also have a bonus for you, 3 Easy Ways to Build Courage with Your Horse! Click Here To Get the BONUS!
