Why Horsemanship through Leadership

My intention for this blog is to offer a resource I wish I had as I moved along my horsemanship journey. The clinics I attended were too far apart for the right sequential learning to happen, my horse and I were in a beautiful but isolated spot and I often felt unsure as to the progress we were making. The advice, the videos the examples demonstrated rarely seemed to reflect the problems I seemed to encounter with my horse.

In hindsight I realise what I faced with my horse stemmed from the same place and it was only through repetition and making the same mistake I started to recognise my horse was simply reflecting my own bad behaviours. Horsemanship is not extrinsic - it is not about the awards or the ribbons, it is about the internal journey we must make in order to become a better person, both with horses and those around us.

I'd be happy to chat with you if you are in need of additional support in your horsemanship journey.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Saddling a Horse that doesn't like to Stand Still

This post reflects the fact that sometimes where a horse starts isn't necessarily where they stay.

What I mean is a horse may well have been started the right way but time, lack of repetition and of course beginning to accept less than the best means little things can slide.

The goal is to have your horse stand quietly while you groom, saddle and accept the bridle.

What is always interesting to me is the reasons people come up with as to WHY their horse isn't standing right now
- the weather
- he can't see his buddies
- it's darker in here than outside
- he's not used to being tied up
- he's not used to being tied up inside
- this is a new area and he doesn't like change

are a few I've heard.

I can use all those same reasons but it all comes down to how I handle what shows up. I'll be posting a video of me working with Sydney. Sydney is both my baby girl and my devil horse. I don't ride her as much as I should, she is a very dominant and confident horse and as you will see is pretty good at throwing her weight around.

I admit I let this get pretty bad - but then I wouldn't have anything to show you if it wasn't. I've seen lots of videos of someone introducing a blanket and saddle to a horse for the first time - the difference is you are working with something that is new to the horse. So you are working through an introduction & possible fear of a new item. Completely different issues than what Sydney demonstrates and what I have seen show up with other probably well started horses that have learned they can push their human around.

Ok I will be filming this on the second day as we spent a while the other day when I realised things were worse than I'd like. But it took a while to get bad so I want to make sure this time it sticks.

There are three key things I want you to watch out for;

My body language
The energy I put into my actions
Repetition until you see a change

I'm fairly confident we won't be perfect after this session and I will have to repeat - Sydney has nothing but time and I know she won't have a problem repeating her actions.

So now on to the filming.

Nancy
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