|
|
 |
|
horse-back ridingMotivation from Moshi 90, by Jane Savoie
“You are really smart. You are very talented. You are a good rider.” All those things make you feel good right? I used to think so. I used to compliment all the other horses in the barn, thinking I would be helping their self-esteem by reminding them how great they are. But, new studies indicate that this may not be the case. An article by Po Bronson, posted in New York Magazine, states that certain types of praise can have a negative effect on the behavior of people. (For the entire article, go here: http://nymag.com/news/features/27840/.) A study was done that indicated that if a child is constantly told they are “smart” or “talented” or “the best,” it can create a situation in their minds that makes them “risk adversant.” They become so sensitive to any task that isn’t immediately easy, that they stop trying. They won’t take risks that might prove to their parent(s) or teacher(s) that they don’t have the natural talent or brains with which they’ve been labeled. In equestrian terms, it takes away their “try.” How to Connect the Lazy Horse, by Jane Savoie
This month I’ll explain how to use the “Connecting Aids” with a lazy horse to put him on the bit. Next month, I’ll talk about connecting the hot horse. Here’s a review of the connecting aids: (1) Close both calves to generate power from behind. (2) Close your outside hand in a fist to capture, contain, and recycle that power back to the hind legs. (3) Squeeze and release (vibrate) the inside rein, like squeezing water out of a sponge, to keep your horse’s neck straight. Apply the three sets of aids for approximately three seconds. To an observer, it will appear that you’re giving the aids simultaneously, but in reality the legs slightly precede the closing of the outside hand, which is applied just before the vibrations with the inside hand. In order to get the desired effect from these connecting aids, it’s important that your horse responds obediently to your aids. This is often overlooked, as many of us have a very lazy that seems to ignore our aids. Here are some tips to help you. Motivation from Moshi 78, by Jane Savoie
I’m a people whisperer. A Moshi Level Five People Whisperer, to be exact. Fellow horses come to me when they are confused by their people and ask what their person really meant by their crazy people language. These poor confused horses say things like, “my person says she’s the boss when on my back by directing where we go, but then moves her feet and backs away from me on the ground, which says I’m the boss instead of her. I’m confused!” I remind them that people have a different language than we do, and we horses need to learn to be “people whisperers.” That means we have to do our best to learn to listen to human commands with our ears, and to ignore the loud body language people scream at us. It’s very hard for us to do, as we naturally listen to body language much more readily than noise. People are very confusing and incongruent to equines, and sometimes the mixed signals make us a bit crazy. To help, I am posting this message to all my horse friends: Dear fellow equine: When your human freely gives you lots of treats or lets you push her around with your nose, that means she loves you, not that you’re her boss. I know it is uncomfortable and confusing because to you this behavior means you’re in charge, but you need to learn to tolerate this and not take over. Try not to get confused when she then turns around and asks you to yield your feet to her direction and control. Motivation from Moshi 77, by Jane Savoie
Two brains. That’s right, I have two brains. So do you. The difference is you have a bundle of nerves called the corpus callosum between the two halves of your brain that lets the sides chat. My brain doesn’t have that. It’s true that my brain, or brains, have a very difficult time talking to each other. For a horse, this means I have to be trained to do things from both sides. What might be easy for me to understand through my left eye may be difficult to understand through my right eye. It’s a pain, but it’s the price I pay for having eyes on the sides of my head like a prey animal. Humans can have binocular vision, so you can see things with both sides of your brain. That means your left brain hemisphere, the logical, linear, thinking side, can analyze things and explain that to the right, the more artistic, big picture, emotional side. That corpus callosum is very handy, as long as it’s working. When humans are under extreme stress, the corpus callosum shuts down. Communication stops. That means you could get stuck in responding to the situation from only one side of your brain. If it’s the logical side, you’ll probably analyze the situation and handle it without emotion. If it’s the emotional side that takes over, you may find yourself hysterical or locked up and frozen. Speech is located in the left, logical side, and if the emotional side takes over, that’s why you get tongue-tied if you get upset. Have you noticed that when you’re stressed and can’t think of what to say, but then calm down and the corpus callosum starts working again, suddenly the perfect words for that snappy comeback show up in your mind? Frustrating, isn’t it? What Are the Aids to Ask My Horse to Stop or Slow Down? by Jane Savoie
It’s important to know you can slow your horse down or stop completely (your brakes) so that he’s a safe and obedient mount. With a young horse, your outside hand is your primary speed control aid. Give a quick squeeze and release on that rein as if you’re snatching a fly out of the air. For example, if your horse is going too fast in the trot, give a quick squeeze and release on your outside rein to slow him down. When you first use your brakes, combine the squeeze on the outside rein with a voice command that your horse knows, like “slow” or “whoa”. The voice command helps him make the link between the rein aid and what you want him to do. As your horse becomes more educated, you’ll add your “stilled” or “retarding seat” to your outside hand aid. If your horse ignores your light aid to slow down, don’t pull harder. Instead, make a correction. Correct your horse by halting sharply. Sit deeply in the saddle and give a firm, upward pull on the outside rein. Then go forward again. Within the first stride or two, RETEST with the original polite squeeze and release on the outside rein. If he slows down immediately, PRAISE him. If he doesn’t react immediately, repeat the steps above. Note from Jane I want to thank all of you who wrote in asking how we fared during Irene. I truly appreciate your concern and am so grateful that personally we didn’t suffer from this horrific hurricane. Horsemen Embrace Wildlife Opportunity in Western Kentucky
Many volunteers were members of the Western Kentucky Back Country Horsemen, a non-profit affiliate of Back Country Horsemen of America. BCHA advocates for continued, responsible horse use of public lands and provides information about conservation and maintenance of land and other natural resources used for equine-based recreation and travel. The Kentucky Horse Council provided volunteers as well. Western Kentucky Back Country Horsemen, formed in 2005, hosts cleanup days for the equine and hiking trails in the Higginson-Henry Wildlife Management Area. This WMA, located in Union County, holds much appeal for those who yearn for access to the natural world. Acquired in 1968 by the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, the 5450-acre property has ridges and bottomlands; streams and lakes; wooded and cleared areas; wildflowers, butterflies, and birds of many kinds. According to Foreman Curt Divine, the WMA is most revered for its deer and turkey, particularly for bow hunting, and small game as well. Safari Ride to Raise Money for Starved and Abused Horses
August 24, 2011 – Monroe, North Carolina – The United States Equine Rescue League, Inc. (USERL) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, incorporated in North Carolina in the year 1997. This horse rescue organization is funded by private donations/fundraising, and staffed solely by volunteers. “All of the money raised goes to the starved and neglected horses that we bring into our Foster Home Network,” says Tracy Kloc, Regional Director of the USERL’s Central Piedmont Region of North Carolina. “We rescue abused, neglected, and/or abandoned equines; provide them with care and rehabilitation; and finally find them a compatible, loving home.” For information on events, volunteering, donating, fostering, or horses available for adoption, go to www.userl.org or www.userl-nccp.org. With the approaching winter months and an ongoing national economic recession, monetary donations have been extremely difficult to obtain. The organization is hosting a Safari trail ride at Why Not an American Ark (WNAAA) in Monroe, NC on Sunday, August 28, 2011. Ride between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. The “safari” will be a hunt for stuffed animals along the trail. Bring back a stuffed animal and win a prize. The harder the animals are to find, the better the prize that will be attached to it! After the ride, enjoy lunch (concessions available) and continue to school your horse on the Ark’s cross country course, the new Extreme Cowboy race course, or go for a swim in the pond. You can also find out how your horse reacts to a real live camel or a zebra! There is also a covered arena, jump arena and dressage arena. If you don’t have a horse, you can still come out and enjoy the day on the walking trail! $15 to ride (your own horse). Current Coggins Required. Riders will have to sign a waiver for USERL and for WNAAA. WNAAA (http://www.wnaaa.com/) is located at the intersection of Medlin Road and Charlie Williams Road in Monroe, NC. For more information on the Safari ride or to make a donation, contact Deb Carl at dbcarl@bellsouth.net or 704-651-1831. For more information about the US Equine Rescue League, Central Piedmont Region go to http://www.userl-nccp.org/. Contact: Motivation from Moshi 76, by Jane Savoie Photo by: Liz Ritz Photography A terrible thing happened today, and I’m really struggling to get over it. There was a loud hissing sound that hit my nervous system with a scream that said, “RATTLE SNAKE!” I was so startled, I jumped sideways really hard and fast, and unseated Jane! Her off balance body clinging to my side triggered “MOUNTAIN LION!” in my brain. So, I bucked. Not just a little, I bucked from one end of the arena to the other until I shook off the “Killer Lion!” But that lion was actually my best friend, Jane. I dumped her! In the dirt! I bucked her off! I’m so upset! Jane and I have been best friends for ten years! I’ve never bucked her or anyone else off. NEVER! Not even once. Fortunately, Jane was not seriously hurt. She’s a bit banged up, but no broken bones. Of course she was wearing her helmet. She ALWAYS wears her helmet. Thank goodness! I would never have intentionally hurt her, but I could have anyway just reacting like a normal horse! No one has ever come off me before, and it freaked me out. I was wide-eyed for twenty minutes. But I’m not going to let this ruin my time with Jane. I’m going to look at this with clear thought, do some EFT meridian tapping to release the energy pathway that my neurons created during this fear episode, and move on. Jane understands that I was acting out of instinct, not maliciousness. Still we both feel really bad about it. We have to just have to make sure that we FEEL our feelings, do the techniques we know to release the energy of the past, and move on. Motivation from Moshi 72, by Jane Savoie
Words have power. They have energy. They create a state of being in our minds. Horses don’t use words, but we understand the energy behind what you say. You’ve probably heard the saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” I say, the wounds from a stick or stone will probably heal, but the damage caused by the negative words we hear may sting for life. Never underestimate how your words affect those around you, as well as how they reflect back and affect YOU. If your self-talk is negative, your experience is going to be negative. If you speak positively, your experience will reflect the same. If you bark and growl at your horse without careful thought to the attitude you’re projecting, your horse is going to feel insecure and you’re going to maintain a negative vibration. If you’re snapping at the people around you, the energy you’re projecting can be just as damaging as a pointed stick jabbing into someone’s heart. Have you ever asked yourself, is it better to be right, or is it better to be kind? It’s a very pertinent question. Sometimes you have to stand your ground and be firm in what you consider “right.” Sometimes being right is just not that important. Choosing which applies in each situation is one of the things you have to decide on your own. Observing the results of your choices, right or wrong, is where wisdom is born. Motivation from Moshi 71, by Jane Savoie
Winning. What does that feel like to you? For me, I’ve “won” when I feel that flow through my body and everything comes together. I find it easy to feel flow when I’m cantering. I have a “winning” canter. It’s my favorite gait. When Jane was first teaching me tempi changes, I lost that sense of flow until I had the muscle memory of changing leads whenever she asked. Once I got that muscle memory, the changes became easy and flow returned. I felt like I’d “won.” Winning doesn’t have to be about blue ribbons. If you’ve been away from riding for a while, you may feel like you’ve won if you simply get out to the barn and get on your horse for ten minutes. Walking around may be as far as you want to go today. If you’re a serious competitor, you may have that sense of a w in by perfecting that challenging movement. If you’re a teacher, you may feel like you’ve “won” when your student ends the lesson with a smile. There are many ways to find that sense of a Win. The key is simply to look for it. And when you do, remind yourself to pay attention to how it feels. Then you can consciously create it again and again. It’s being in that positive space that creates even more success. What could you do today that would make you feel like a success? I’m going to perform perfect pirouettes today, both directions. That gives me a terrific successful feeling! |
Morganfield, KY, September 5, 2011 – About 40 men, women and children gathered on August 14th near Morganfield, Kentucky to clear hiking and horseback riding trails at the Higginson-Henry Wildlife Management Area. Cicadas provided the music. Volunteers provided a rewarding lunch that included smoked deer meat sandwiches.
