Love, Language, and Leadership

LOVE:

Understand the individual horse’s needs.  Some horses are extroverts, others introverts.  Some are right brain (unconfident/fearful) others are left brain (confident/dominant).  Each needs a different approach or difficulties ensue.

Put the relationship and the horse’s needs first-his need for safety, comfort, food play; for bonding, for communication and interaction.

Learn to flex your behavioral style to gain rapport and respect from the horse.


LANGUAGE:
Use equine psychology and an understanding of heard dynamics in terms of bonding and hierarchy.
Learn the language and way of horses, which is primarily body language and playful interaction.
Start on the ground, it is better for horses and for humans.  This is the best place to form a relationship, read the horse, communicate and gain understanding.


LEADERSHIP
Become a good leader for your horse, override predatory tendencies (impatience, direct-line thinking, autocracy, tendency to micromanage) understand the horse’s perspective, put principles before goals.
Train your horse without punishment.
Analyze your horse and determine his or her individual Horsenality.  This ensures horses are treated according to their needs for calmness trust and motivation rather than all horses being treated the same.  You’ll learn when to speed up or slow down, to ask more or ask less, when to focus on confidence and trust, and when to focus on advancement.

Put the relationship first.  When a horse truly trusts you, there is no down time.    Even after long breaks horses remember everything.  It’s like picking up a relationship and conversation between best friends.

Practice

When I was a kid I took piano lessons. Even though my piano lessons were just once a week, my piano teacher gave me the assignment of practicing every day. That way when she came back a week later I could show some improvement from the week before.
 
Think about how you approach delivering a presentation. Do you think about it as a one time event, or as an opportunity to practice your preparation and delivery skills?

I think one of the most important principles of success is the concept of PRACTICE.


I think most people, myself included, lose value in the simple fundamentals of the game, such as “going out to practice.”

There is no limit to growth.  There is no level where you’re “too good to practice.”  There’s always another level.

For those that view going out and improving yourself to be “work” or a “chore”, then this might upset you.  You will never reach a point where you’re “complete.”  This is something you must accept. 

Might as well learn to ENJOY the process. ;)

The best in the world continue to PRACTICE . 

“Practice as if you are the worst, perform as if you are the best.” To this day, I continue to go out and “practice” and look for ways to become more excellent with my horsemanship skills.  As should you.


Naturally
Hannah & Blaze

Consistency

Consistency and persistence can work wonders in your progress with your horse. Everyday playing can make a huge differnce in your relationship, progress, and everything in between. A few days ago I had a major hassle with Angel, she was literally throwing a hissy fit for no apperent reason. All I was asking her to do is move her FQs over, and I was very gentle about it because she is very sensitive (RBI). anywho I was quite discouraged after that, our session ended well but I just felt like we were never going to make progress if she kept getting fustraded with anything new I was asking of her.

I then remembered what Mirka said to me when I was an intern for her: "Consistancy is one of the keys to my progress, riding your horse 1, 2, 3 times a week just isn't going to cut it. It has to be everyday." I then decided if I truly want angel to be as good as her 3 year olds in 1 year then I am going to have to ride her everyday and even I don't have time to play with her everyday atleast take the time to do some mosey!

Another thing I learned is don't stop doing some thing just because it is hard. All to often I used to say "oh riding is to hard so I'll just play on the ground." this is also the reason why me and blaze's online and liberty are much more advanced then our freestyle and finesse. So now I have made myself do things that are hard and I have learned so much since then.

So I want to encourage each and everyone of you to do the hard things. Don't stop doing something just because it's hard, now I know you don't do this is all situations because you want to make sure that your horse knows what your asking.

That is all for now!

Naturally
Hannah & Blaze

Moved to a new location!

http://heartfelthorsemanship.blogspot.com/

My new blog URL!

PS: Thank you Lea for showing me how to do this!

Conditioning

Lately my patience has been my best friend. I've been taking my time to watch our herd, and researching on horse physiology.

I have learned that Whether your horse is competing at high levels or just being used for the occasional trail ride, it must have a certain level of fitness to perform well and endure the activity without injury. Asking the horse to do too much, too soon, can spell trouble. This is especially true for those pasture potatoes that have had little in the way of regular exercise, and are then suddenly expected to carry their owner on a two-hour trail ride. Regardless of the discipline the horse is used for, they should be gradually adapted to greater workloads over time.

I guess in other words my horses are about to go though boot camp. Tho they get played with they are still not in shape, Blaze is in pretty good shape but the others not so much.

My training involves a combination of physical conditioning and task-specific schooling (i.e., schooling in the various tasks required of a specific event or competition).


Since I play on competing in the future I am starting them on a fitness program.

success of a conditioning program relies on the body's adaptive response to the stress of exercise. If the horse performs the same amount of exercise every day, a certain level of fitness is attained as the horse adapts to the workload. However, without a further increase in training load (an increase in training duration, intensity, or both), there will be no further increase in fitness. To achieve a conditioning or training effect, the horse must be subjected to gradual increases in workload. Each new level of training is maintained until the body has adapted to the added stress, after which a further increase in training load can be applied. Alternating periods of increasing workload with a period of adaptation is known as progressive loading.

one great exercise is working the horse over hilly terrain, it has the advantage of increasing the heart rate (workload) without increasing speed, thereby sparing the bones, tendons and ligaments from excessive stress. One of the most important principles of conditioning is that of individual differences. Horses vary in their individual response to conditioning. Therefor all of my horses will have a different fitness program.

An adequate level of fitness is necessary for horses to perform to their potential. Proper conditioning also helps prevent injuries that may arise when an unfit horse is pushed beyond its physical capacity.

Really interesting stuff I'm learning!
By the way
My conditioning program will have lots of playing and not dull boring drills.
I will keep everyone updated on their progress.

Hopefully our laptop will be fixed so that I can start uploading pictures.

Naturally
Hannah & Blaze

Working on things

Well as usual I've been over and beyond busy, that seems to be the routine lately. Also the internet has been out.
But anyways

I actually haven't had a whole lot of time to play lately. But I finally found time today and rode Blaze and Angel.

After having a fabulous ride on Mr. Blaze I rode Angel and she was wonderful! I have decided to show her in reining when she has had more training. which her training starts tomorrow, she should be ready to show in a year, or so. I'm considering showing Blaze, and Amour in dressage, Blaze is ready to show, but Amour isn't. I need to buy the suit to be able to show and everything for Blaze of course. I think that Joie would be better in cutting, just needs to be trained. I'm hoping to begin showing when we move to Tennessee, and maybe show a little while we're still her is Georgia.

well just a short little update! hopfully I can keep this updated more often.

Naturally
Hannah & De Alumbrado