Winter contemplation

What happens in winter? I really hate the cold and the snow, and yet here I sit--having lived in Northern Vermont for over 25 years.
Getting out there and riding is truly hard. Especially my own horse. I will ALWAYS make sure the clients' horses are worked. Then I just want to curl up in by the stove, and hope my horse knows I love him, but I just can't face another nose/toes/fingers-numbing 30 minutes.
And yet...
When I DO ride him, wonderful things seem to happen in winter. He goes well, and I am very clear and simple in my requests and requirements. Our half-steps are really coming, and his canter--though it still is his area of greatest tension, eventually starts to jump softly under me.

So many things go so well, even when I can only muster 2-3 days a week. It remains a mystery why I don't carry the same spirit and ability when it is lovely and green and the sand footing is perfect....

I'm sure the answer is right there. Whatever it is, I'll take it :)

Workshop for Middlebury College Equestrians--Wonderful!

Amazing! Every clinic we teach, every workshop we do I learn something new. And I am amazed and honored by our participants who are open, honest and really in tune with their horsiness.

Thank you to the participants in the Middlebury College CEGA workshop on Monday. You were so impressive in your capacity to understand the connections between mind body and horse, and so willing to expand your awareness to feel the changes in your selves and the horses.

I always feel honored by the folks that attend our workshops. Thank you all, and we look forward to working with you again!

Sometimes we get it right

Lately my focus and energy have given me some sort of extra inner confidence that comes out as I ride. It's an ease of doing that comes from knowing.
I've felt this before--and I realize that I have too often assumed that since a thing is easy--flowing--I must in some way not be doing enough or trying HARD enough.
But you know what? Sometimes we just get it right!

I can totally accept this knowing in some areas of my life. Riding my own horse is the hardest place for me to feel it. Indeed, sometimes we just aren't trying enough or asking enough and we settle, and it feels comfortable, easy, and, well--average. This is a hard place to push ourselves out of. It's why so many of my students tell me they ride better and try harder during a lesson than when riding on their own. But for now, I've found that place for myself and my horse, when I can ask for and expect really great things, and we get them and we're together and nothing could feel better--transitions, lateral movements you name it. It's truly a mind-body-spirit connection.

So for now, I've got it right, and I'll hang onto to it for as long as I can!

Turn off your brain!

This week is my week to do the CEGA blog posting.  Kate, Barb and I have structured some of our CEGA responsibilities on a three-week rotation, and the blog posting is one of them.  Sometimes, a topic comes to me pretty easily.  Sometimes, I feel like I have to just sit down and start typing, then my brain starts working.  The funny thing is, when I am writing, it is actually much more productive if I shut my brain off, and just let the ideas and thoughts come out my fingertips.  It is when I am over-thinking that I get into trouble.  

And so it is with riding.  I consistently find that two things are true when riding.
 

1. Over-thinking gets me into trouble, or at the very least, interferes with the feel that I am striving to develop.  
2. Sometimes, I have to just go through the motions of grooming, tacking up, and hopping onto my horse, to sort of prime the pump and enable me to have a really good ride.
   

This is precisely what happened to me yesterday. I had ridden Sid, my really fun, solid, reliable little Standardbred.  Good conditioning ride, no expectations of anything else.  We had a blast.  

Then it was time for me to ride Monarch, my Thoroughbred, who is also a great amount of fun, but let’s just say that he tends to be more “highly aware” than Sid.  And once again, right before I got on him, the neighbors across the road decided to try setting off some bottle rockets.   Another neighbor was walking down the road with her three unruly dogs and a little kid who was pulling one of those noisy plastic sleds.  Oh boy. Combine this with the fact that I hadn’t ridden Monarch in over a week, and my mind was full of the possibilities for things to go wrong.  So you see, I was already in defensive mode when I mounted Monarch.  

How silly!  As it turns out, we had a great ride!  I was aware that I was defensive and over-analyzing the situation, and just decided to trust myself and my horse.  I worked on getting Monarch’s attention on me, and not on the sled or the dogs, and I did some deep breathing and relaxation exercises for me so that I could be back in my body and less in my mind.  You want to lean on my leg, Monarch?  I will give you ONE good nudge with my leg to get off me, and that will be that.  And I will expect you to respond appropriately. You want to accelerate in the trot and start flying around? Nope.  ONE good half-halt will suffice.  Then you will resume that nice one-two, one-two cadence.  I focused on feeling, and not on thinking.   The results were fabulous.  Monarch really liked me being clear and not nagging him.  He was reaching out for the bit, flicking his ears back and forth, and responding much more willingly and quickly.  I really liked being able to communicate with Monarch in a clear, way that left no room for misinterpretation and that relied on feeling rather than thinking.   

Here’s wishing you all a wonderful New Year, filled with fun times with your horses!

Sometimes in all the bustle of the holidays, our horse partners get a bit lost in the shuffle. We have too many errands, it is too cold (and we aren't used to it yet), we get too tired, it's too dark... the list for reasons not to ride, not to spend time in the barn can get pretty long.

Can I offer some advice? Try going out anyway. Just once, even. I don't mean to feed or muck or do other chores. I mean go out once, when you really don't "feel" like it, and go for a ride in the snow, do a little schooling session to see what you both remember, or even do some unmounted work--lungeing or liberty work. Anything that lets you reconnect.
Put some carols on the stereo or ipod and ride with a friend to the music. Or listen to the gentle hiss of snow as it falls around you, or the birds in the bushes wrangling over the berries and seeds. When you share these moments with your horse, they take on a deeper meaning, ad you'll enjoy them all the more.

Just before Christmas there is a calm that settles over me. I don't mean that I have all the shopping done, or that the house is all clean. It's the spirit of the season. The joy, love, hope and remembering those who are no longer here to share it with us. That's when I remember to get my self out to the barn, and even if it is for five minutes, reconnect with my horses.

Happy Holidays to you all, and may your New Year be filled with light, hope and joy for the future :)

November

I have a confession to make.  Are you ready?  I LIKE November.  

Those of you who don’t live in the Northeast are probably thinking, “Big deal.”  But for those of you who live in this climate, I can almost hear the gasps of shock.  

Why do I like November?  I’ll tell you.  I have thought for a long time that November gets a bad rap.  October foliage is a tough act to follow, sure, but November is quite lovely too, with the varying shades of silver and brown.  And the visibility in November is spectacular!  Being able to look deep into the woods offers a perspective we don’t get the rest of the year, not even in springtime.  Also, my daughter Hannah, one of my favorite people in the world,  was born in November.  

Mind you, I have not always been a fan of November, and I still don’t enjoy the endless days of rain  and gray that we can get.   But overall, I really like the whole hunkering down for winter feeling—more cooking, making sure my horses are tucked in and cozy for the night.  Nothing like the sound of rain on the roof while listening to my horses contentedly munching their hay, then going back in the house for some nice hot soup!

So many things in life come down to perspective.  You know, the whole glass half full/half empty thing.  It can be so easy to focus on the negative aspects of anything. Think about your horse.  For instance, do you have the mindset that,”My horse doesn’t like ring work—he gets so bored!” Is it your horse that doesn’t like it, or is it really YOU who gets bored? Or maybe you spend a lot of time wishing something about your life was different—a different horse, different place to live, different job.  All of these may be valid things in your life that need changing.  But two thoughts come to mind.  It’s easy to spend a lot of time wishing things were different and imagining how much better our lives would be if they were.  Wouldn’t this time be better spent enjoying what we have, and finding the beauty in it?  And it is so easy to spend time wishing for a change, without actually doing anything about it.  Not a very satisfying way to live!

I invite you to consider that your glass is half full.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Just do it! No, really.

I recently had a truly fabulous trail-ride on my horse, Simon.  No big surprise there, you say.  Regular followers of this blog know that I have raved about Simon more than once. He is my Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome—a 17h1” dark bay Bavarian Warmblood.  What made this ride so memorable was the variables that were thrown in.

1. We were in the middle of a nor’easter that weekend, complete with a temperature of 37 degrees, high winds, driving rain, a few inches of snow, the works.  But my horses had already been in their stalls for all of the previous day, and Simon was clearly antsy.
2. I decided to bring along my Border Collie, Beck.  Now, if you know anything about dogs, you know that Border Collies are very high-energy—a tired Border Collie is a happy Border Collie, and I try to  bring Beck along whenever possible.
3. I was wearing my winter riding boots, which meant I couldn’t wear my spurs, as they don’t fit those puffy boots.
4. And oh yeah, I had taken the flash noseband off Simon’s bridle, which had the potential effect of allowing Mr. Wonderful to ignore the bit a little more effectively.
   

What the heck, I figured, it’ll be fun! And besides, I was at the Fair Hill Three-Day Event last year, when the weather was absolutely horrific.  They had temps in the 30’s for the first three days, and pouring rain.  But they got out there and did their job.  I resolved after that weekend to never again complain about riding in a little inclement weather.  As the saying goes, “There is no bad weather, only bad clothes.”  

We set off up the  road, all of us happy to be outside, even in the teeth of the nor’easter.  Simon was high-headed and looking around, shying and spooking a little, being silly. Beck was bouncing in and out of puddles.  As we made our way up the road, the wind picked up and the rain came down in buckets.  When we got to a neighbors driveway, her four golden retrievers came barking and charging down the driveway toward us.  Mayhem ensued. Simon bucked and spun around,trying to bolt for home,  Beck charged off after the four goldens, and I was rather abruptly woken up out of my la-la land state, which is where I often tend to go when riding.  Meditative and relaxing, sure, but not always the most useful place to be on a horse.  

I sat up, took up some rein, and insisted that Simon pull himself together.  I called Beck, who mostly ignored me (it was too much fun to be big and tough and chase four dogs all at once), but then came back to me, and we continued up the road.  

For the rest of our outing, I had to be at my most alert, trying to ride every stride, and not get lulled into inattentiveness.  I insisted that Simon pay attention to me, and kept changing up what I was asking him to do, so that he always had at least one ear flicked back at me, checking in to see what was next.  He was that best possible combination—highly aware, light, responsive, forward.  It was wonderful!

Just do it?  Well, just do it for me meant making myself get out there when it would have been so easy to stay inside by the woodstove with a book. The tipping point for me was asking myself whether I would feel better about myself if I stayed inside for the morning, or got outside and worked my horse.   And just do it for Simon meant shut up and listen, with me insisting on the correct response the first time I asked him for something.  We returned to the barn feeling really pleased with ourselves.   

Here’s to pushing ourselves and our horses to become just a little bit better with every ride!