Tag Archives: Horse Training

Motivation from Moshi 64, by Jane Savoie

Patience. I hear it is a virtue. I think it’s a habit that can be developed.

Having patience with your horse is very important. He or she thinks differently than you do, so you have to be able to recognize when he tries to do what you’re asking, even if he didn’t quite get it. Rewarding the “try” is very important.

It’s also very important to recognize why you might be losing patience. Very often it’s because you’re afraid. Fear is very uncomfortable, so many people appear angry when they’re actually afraid. It’s a natural human coping mechanism. Recognizing this fact is very important, especially if you’re working with children and animals.

Do you have a temper? Are you sure it’s anger you’re feeling, and not fear or lack of control? If you suspect this might be true for you, or really don’t know why you get angry, it may be time to take a second look. Next time you feel your temper flare, stop and examine what’s going on. What caused this? What are you REALLY feeling? Could it be fear you’re covering up with a different emotion?

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Dressage Radio Episode 105 – Debbie McDonald & Lendon Gray Discuss Common Training Issues

Debbie McDonald and Lendon Gray are back in conversation to share some helpful training advice and offer sharp observations on typical challenges for dressage riders. Take a listen right here.

Dressage Radio Episode 105 – Show Notes and Links:

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Motivation from Moshi 63, by Jane Savoie

There are all kinds of dreams. Big dreams, small dreams, fantasy dreams, and the important dreams you really want to realize before you leave this life.

Funny thing about dreams. Sometimes they take on a life of their own. The key is holding the vision of what you want to accomplish, and then follow the trail that providence sets before you. A good friend of mine calls it “following the spiritual popcorn.”

Do you have a clear vision of what you want to do? Do you think about it much? Are your thoughts positive or negative? Do you see yourself accomplishing the dream, or do you fret about the obstacles in the way? Remember, you get more of whatever you give your attention to. Knowing this, how might you direct your thoughts in a way that serves you best?

I have a dream of rolling in fresh, dew covered grass with the bright sun warming my shiny black coat. Then I dream of sleeping the afternoon away in total peace and relaxation. Maybe today is the day.

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Win a Chance to Ride at the O’Connor Equestrian Camp

Want to ride with Olympic three-day eventers David and Karen O’Connor? Kentucky Equine Research (KER) is proud to offer one grand prize winner a rider’s slot at the 2011 O’Connor Equestrian Camp, to be held at the Virginia Horse Center June 26 – July 1. Enter the contest.

The grand prize winner will take his or her own horse to camp to learn:

• O’Connor safety system for cross-country
• Horsemanship and stable management skills
• Professional show-grooming techniques
• O’Connor “horses-first” training methods
• Secrets of dressage
• Fundamentals of show jumping
• Keys to success in cross-country

In addition to the grand prize winner, second- and third-place winners will be drawn. The second-place winner will receive $250 in KER nutritional supplements, and the third-place winner will receive $150 in products. All winners will get an additional prize package that includes a nutrition consultation for one horse, an embroidered saddle pad, and a hat.

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Improve Your Seat & Learn from the Best via Trilogy Saddles’ ‘Developing Your Dream Seat’ Drawing

Trilogy Saddles encourages dressage riders to develop their very own dream seat, so they’re helping FIVE (5) lucky winners receive coaching from some of the very best riders in the world.

The Developing Your Dream Seat program reflects the philosophy at the core of the company. “We want to inspire and educate riders to take responsibility for their own riding position, and to get the training they need to improve their own seat,” says Debbie Witty, Trilogy Saddles founder and president. “Plus, all riders should have dreams and goals, and we’d like to help some of our customers make theirs come true.”

In the Developing Your Dream Seat drawing, Trilogy Saddles customers of all levels and abilities will have an equal opportunity to learn from the best: Winners will receive two lessons from the participating Trilogy Saddles Ambassador of their choice; a ‘lunch & learn’ session with Witty to help understand the mechanics of saddle fit and rider position and how they affect his or her horse’s individual response, performance, and well-being; and a custom fitting of their new Trilogy saddle.

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Motivation from Moshi 62, by Jane Savoie

Today is the day! Right now, this moment, is the point where you can change everything you’d like to change. Right now! You have the ability, you have the power, you just have to make the decision.

What would you like to do/be/experience? Are you ready to commit? If so, now is the time! You can do it! Just set the goal and then plan the steps you need to take to get there. If you don’t know the steps, find a mentor who can help you. Find someone who’s where you want to be, and ask them to help you make a plan. Then, one step at a time, follow the plan.

Horses live in the moment. We don’t really plan ahead. Living NOW gives us an advantage in that we don’t carry a lot of grudges or baggage. Sure, we can get programmed to respond with fear at something that’s hurt or scared us in the past, but we don’t wallow in the memory. We just react. Because of this, we can be re-programmed to react in a different way. Humans can do this too! But, with people it takes a conscious decision to let go of the past and move on to a new way of being.

You can’t move forward if you cling to the past. It’s like the old saying, “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got.” You have to let go of where you are, to get where you’d rather be.

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Dressage Radio Episode 103 – Training Topics with Heather Blitz

Heather Blitz discusses common training issues with Hannah Michaels and also offers a little known Tip of the Week. Take a listen right here.

Dressage Radio Episode 103 – Show Notes and Links:

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Perfect the Two-Point with Shane George

Balance over your horse’s center of gravity in the two-point position.

By AQHA Professional Horseman Shane George with Christine Hamilton for The American Quarter Horse Journal

The red shaded areas in this photo show common problems riders have with the half seat: hands and arms too far back, poorly positioned or swinging lower leg, and rounded shoulders and back. Journal illustration.

There are two basic seats for a hunter rider: full seat and half seat. For the hunters and jumpers, it’s important to have the ability to use both.

In a “full seat,” you have contact with your seat in the saddle. You sit on the horse’s back, riding each stride in a collected manner. It’s the seat you use in rail work.

In a “half seat,” you get up off your seat, out of the saddle and find a balance that’s a little more forward. It allows you to get your balance up and over your lower leg and over the horse’s center of gravity in his shoulder and wither. It’s a dynamic position, giving the rider more flexibility in how he moves with the horse.

How much your seat is out of the saddle depends on what you’re doing at the moment. If you’re in between jumps in a course, you might ride with your seat up but closer to the saddle, almost hovering over it. But if you’re going over a jump, your seat will be clearly up out of the saddle.

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Motivation from Moshi 61, by Jane Savoie

“Aha!” I love those moments. Don’t you? When you suddenly GET IT? It’s such a rush when everything comes together and really works for the first time.

How do you create more “Aha Moments”? When Jane is riding me, they come when both sides of my brain kick in, along with the muscle memory of the new movement. And that comes with both intellectual understanding and physical practice. It happens when the left side of my brain, where logic and linear thought resides; meshes with the right side, where emotion and artistry lives, and then shows up in my physical body as the execution of perfect movement. My whole being responds to everything coming together with an exciting and satisfying “Aha!”

Learning to ride well doesn’t take good luck or exceptional talent. As the cowboys say, it just takes wet saddle blankets. In our case, it’s wet dressage pads. I learn something from Jane every time she rides me. And she learns from me too. Sometimes our progress is imperceptible, and sometimes it comes in huge Aha’s. But we only have forward progress when we actually put what we’ve intellectually learned into physical practice. And that takes commitment and work.

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Dressage Master Walter Zettl Teams Up with Linda and Pat Parelli to Appear on Dressage Training Online

Linda Parelli rides one of her own horses in a lesson with dressage master Walter Zettl. (Photo courtesy of Barbara Schnell)

Ocala, FL (May 5, 2011) – Classical Dressage Master Walter Zettl has built his successful dressage career on understanding the relationship between the horse and rider.  Zettl coaches Linda and Pat Parelli, founders of Parelli Natural Horsemanship, Inc., and regularly conducts private dressage clinics at the Parellis’ Ocala facility. Zettl recently spent time in Ocala with the Parellis, teaching and being taped for dressage videos which will appear on the Dressage Training Online website.

“The Dressage Training Online website is a wonderful venue for us to be included in,” said Linda Parelli. “Walter is a great bridge for us because he believes in what we are doing in natural horsemanship and he sees how closely our approach relates to the principles of truly classical dressage.”

Zettl taught lessons and was taped for the Dressage Training Online segments with Linda and her horse West Point as well as with Canadian Para-Equestrian Team member Lauren Barwick, a para-equestrian who won Gold and Silver Medals in the Beijing Paralympics in 2008. Barwick is a Four Star Parelli Instructor and a Senior Protégé in the Mastery program of the Parellis’ Natural Horsemanship Program.

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