Learning is uncomfortable. If you are comfortable in your learning, you probably are not be challenged enough. If you are comfortable you are not changing enough. Learning begins where our comfort zone ends.

I was going to get on here and say I had a terrible day. But that is not true. I probably had the absolute worst hour of my teaching career. How I let it affect me the rest of my day is on me. There was a lot of good today! Much more good than bad. But isn't funny how we can let the one bad thing override all the good. We become fixated on that one negative thing and let it affect our perceptions of a situation, our opinion and our emotions. What if we let the good do

Humans are too busy for horses. We are always moving and fidgeting. We are picking and fiddling. We need to quiet our bodies and minds. We expect our horses to be quiet and responsive. But we we are giving them too much stimulation and too much useless information. We need to become better at being in the moment and recognizing all our busyness is giving the horse too much useless information. They are trying to process it, usually by getting busy themselves. Then we

It is fulfilling to do the fun things with our horses visible to other people. Trail rides, shows, clinics, riding with friends, etc. To prepare for the fun, we must be committed to the everyday work to prepare our horses. If you want to enjoy your horse during outings, you must show up for your horse when no one is watching. You must commit to the work each day they develops the skills and partnerships. When you don't commit, your horse pays the price. It isn't fair to expec

A day late.

Can you let go of a grudge? Can you be persistently patient? Both are required for young horses.

Wisdom Wednesday

Time - we all seem to be short of it and there are only 24hours in a day. Young horse take time - daily.

I am going to start some a series on young horses. It may take me awhile to get through them. With weaning season in full swing, baby ads are up everywhere. We are only about 5 months from new foals hitting the ground.

Going to canter without preparation creates undesirable behaviors

Wisdom Wednesday

I felt more intelligent when I was ignorant. I had more answers and fewer questions. I felt more confident. I can remember the day that I first caught a glimpse of my lack of education. I was shocked and looked away quickly. But that picture stayed with me and niggled in the back of my head. I have always been education minded but I think in my younger years, I just kept seeking education that validated what I already knew. I also remember the turning point. I spent a

It is ok to own a horse and never ride it. Horses can be enjoyed from the ground. Many people find enjoyment from just grooming and caring for horses. The horses love it. They did not volunteer to be worked and they aren't built well to carry a human.

With the excessive heat in Texas most of my rides, groundwork sessions and lessons are composed of primarily walk work. I'm not wandering aimlessly, I'm walking with a purpose. I am focusing on details of balance, straightness and relaxation in the walk. I'm focusing on accuracy of geometry and lateral movements. I'm working to develop different walks. All of this will work to improve our trot and canter when the weather shapes up.

We do not need to dominate our horses

Pausing to process will get you farther than drilling for perfection.

Containment won’t create self carriage

It's that time of year in Texas...super cooker season. We feel like we melt when we go outside. We move more slowly. Do a little less. So is your horse. They are standing around more and stomping flies. This makes for sore, tight horses. If your horse already has known issues (joint, muscle, etc.), they get aggravated with the lack of movement and the impact of stomping.

A day late.

This popped up in my memories from 4yrs ago. Worth a reshare.