Hi Lorel,
Yes I do have lots of fun. It almost seems wrong to have so many things to do that I enjoy.
The photos on my page are all from Arizona. We live in Northern AZ, in the mountains at a little more than 7,000 feet. As a matter of fact we just had a blizzard. That slows all of us down a little bit. Arizona is sort of a weird place. No one owns much land so we make do with what we have.
The horses in the pictures are all mine but the riders are students, not me. I don't jump very much anymore (I'm 60) but miss it terribly.
Your part Clyde horse sounds like a great combination. Many years ago I had a friend who was retired Cavalry. His passion was to breed Clydesdales and Thoroughbreds. They were terrific horses. Easy to work with, very athletic and tough.
What's the weather like where you live for December?
Hi Lorel,
Wow- 200 acres... IU bet you can spend hours on a horse and not have to travel in circles!
It's interesting, I have some friends that have been to parts of Australia and they say Arizona is sort of like it, especially the Red Rocks that are in Sedona. The southern parts of AZ are quite hot- since I do things in degrees, rather than celcius I'm not going to try to give you temps but I know that the Pony Clubs in Phoenix meet to begin to ride at 5 in the morning, in the summer. Phoenix is the desert with the tall cactus with arms. I'm in Northern Arizona, in the mountains. It's considered high desert. Our elevation is 7 or 8 thousand feet...once again a different measurement but it's high enough that the olympic team has sent teams here to train because the altitude makes their lungs work harder. And we get plenty of snow but never enough rain in the summer. AND we are in an area of dormant volcanoes. How's that for coincidence? My 2 acres is volcanic sand. It's black and sand like sand dunes. I can see the volcano from my back door. There is not such thing as grass.
My horses really miss grass and soon we hope to move east into the farming part of the US.
I just finished my workout and was thinking of you while I was doing it. I feel so much better every day after I do it. I ride a number of horses every day/week, teach a lot, do barn chores, etc., so I'm more fit than the average 52 year old, but I was experiencing all the same issues with straightness in the tack.
Heather pinpointed my problems immediately, and put together a great program for me, which has resolved my problem of feeling not quite straight in the saddle (and blocking the change to the right in my hip) as well as completely clearing up the back problem I've been having for a couple of years. The back issue really reared its ugly head last summer at a competition, where I rode changes in a tst and everything went into spasm, resulting in my having to scratch the rest of that show and confront the source of the pain. Both my morses and I are much more comfortable and productive now, and as I told Heather the last time I spoke to her, I've lost 2" from my waist - extra benefit!
I'm glad you're taking on an online training program as I'm sure you will feel the benefits just as I have.
I know what you mean about getting older - I never used to get sore or have back spasms, but I'm 52 and coming up on 53 this summer, and things have changed.
I do Heather's regime at least 5 times per week. The wonderful thing about it is that I don't have to do it all at once, and I can do it in my breeches. I can do 20 minutes when I come in for lunch, and another 15 or 20 when the late afternoon chores are done, before I start dinner. I could do it in the evening while I watch the news, before late chores, if I wanted to. I don't have to dress up, I don't have to drive anywhere, and I can break it up into chunks which fit into my day.
I have a boutique boarding barn and training business, and I teach all over western Canada. That means a lot of hours sitting in the truck driving, sitting in airports, and sitting on aircraft. Heather's program is something I can take anywhere, and that helps a lot. I can do it in hotel rooms (have done) and in billets (have done) and some of it I can even do in the airports! I also do chores in my barn every day, and that, plus a lot of old fractures and injuries, can make me quite one-sided. Heather's program has straightened that out, and made me much straighter in the saddle.
The system cut me off, so here's the rest of my last comment:
We are currently experiencing a heat wave of sorts (for us in mid-winter)! The temperatures have been above 0 for the past 5 days, and it's raining! Usually we're at between -5 and -25 at this time of year, and we have feet of snow. Unfortunately, it's due to the El Nino phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean, which means we are likely to have a very hot and dry summer, and where I live that means forest fires. Living in Oz as you do you will have an understanding of what that means, but we are surrounded by thick boreal forest, which burns very hotly and very fast. We and our horses have twice been evacuated (the first time for 3 weeks) due to fires. At least a lot of the fuel right around our farm has burned in recent years, which lowers the risk!
Good luck with Heather's program - it's done wonders for my day to day comfort, as well as for my effectiveness in the tack.
I'm so glad you're finding Heather's exercises so helpful. I have really benefited from them, and my students are finding the same result. I just get better and better in the tack, and all of my clients who are using Heather's information are improving, some of them quite rapidly!
I have never been concerned about colour with my horses. I like athletes with good minds, and they come in various colours! The one thing I don't actually want to ride again in competition is stailions. I did that for 15 years, and they're just so undependable. I love riding mares, and I've had lots of gelding. We currently have 3 chestnuts, 2 KWPN geldings and a KWPN mare, and they are all very different. I have young Anglo-Trakehner mare coming up but she's bay.
I know how scary fire season is. We have been evacuated twice, the first time for 3 weeks and the second time for 4 days. Our boreal, or coniferous forest interspersed with grassland is extremely flammable, and the right combination of fire, wind and heat can create firestorme, which cover enormous amounts of territory within seconds. We are having an El Nino winter, which is very warm and icncludes very little precipitation, so concerns are rising for the summer. The last time we had a strong El Nino (and it wasn't nearly as strong as this) we had major fires, and 40,000 people were evacuated for 3 - 4 weeks. We have almost no snow, which is very unusual (by this time in the winter we usually have about 4 feet) and the temperatures are above 0 most days and nights.
At least I don't have to worry about flash flooding where I live, but farther down the Okanagan valley it's a major problem, especially in fire-ravaged areas. California is having a horrible winter due to the El Nino rains on the fire-stripped hillsides, and they are having mudslides and flash floods regularly.
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Barbara Ellin Fox
Yes I do have lots of fun. It almost seems wrong to have so many things to do that I enjoy.
The photos on my page are all from Arizona. We live in Northern AZ, in the mountains at a little more than 7,000 feet. As a matter of fact we just had a blizzard. That slows all of us down a little bit. Arizona is sort of a weird place. No one owns much land so we make do with what we have.
The horses in the pictures are all mine but the riders are students, not me. I don't jump very much anymore (I'm 60) but miss it terribly.
Your part Clyde horse sounds like a great combination. Many years ago I had a friend who was retired Cavalry. His passion was to breed Clydesdales and Thoroughbreds. They were terrific horses. Easy to work with, very athletic and tough.
What's the weather like where you live for December?
Dec 9, 2009
Ruth Hogan Poulsen
Dec 9, 2009
Barbara Ellin Fox
Wow- 200 acres... IU bet you can spend hours on a horse and not have to travel in circles!
It's interesting, I have some friends that have been to parts of Australia and they say Arizona is sort of like it, especially the Red Rocks that are in Sedona. The southern parts of AZ are quite hot- since I do things in degrees, rather than celcius I'm not going to try to give you temps but I know that the Pony Clubs in Phoenix meet to begin to ride at 5 in the morning, in the summer. Phoenix is the desert with the tall cactus with arms. I'm in Northern Arizona, in the mountains. It's considered high desert. Our elevation is 7 or 8 thousand feet...once again a different measurement but it's high enough that the olympic team has sent teams here to train because the altitude makes their lungs work harder. And we get plenty of snow but never enough rain in the summer. AND we are in an area of dormant volcanoes. How's that for coincidence? My 2 acres is volcanic sand. It's black and sand like sand dunes. I can see the volcano from my back door. There is not such thing as grass.
My horses really miss grass and soon we hope to move east into the farming part of the US.
Dec 13, 2009
Heather Sansom at Equifitt.com
Dec 22, 2009
Jan Jollymour
I just finished my workout and was thinking of you while I was doing it. I feel so much better every day after I do it. I ride a number of horses every day/week, teach a lot, do barn chores, etc., so I'm more fit than the average 52 year old, but I was experiencing all the same issues with straightness in the tack.
Heather pinpointed my problems immediately, and put together a great program for me, which has resolved my problem of feeling not quite straight in the saddle (and blocking the change to the right in my hip) as well as completely clearing up the back problem I've been having for a couple of years. The back issue really reared its ugly head last summer at a competition, where I rode changes in a tst and everything went into spasm, resulting in my having to scratch the rest of that show and confront the source of the pain. Both my morses and I are much more comfortable and productive now, and as I told Heather the last time I spoke to her, I've lost 2" from my waist - extra benefit!
I'm glad you're taking on an online training program as I'm sure you will feel the benefits just as I have.
Jan 11, 2010
Jan Jollymour
I know what you mean about getting older - I never used to get sore or have back spasms, but I'm 52 and coming up on 53 this summer, and things have changed.
I do Heather's regime at least 5 times per week. The wonderful thing about it is that I don't have to do it all at once, and I can do it in my breeches. I can do 20 minutes when I come in for lunch, and another 15 or 20 when the late afternoon chores are done, before I start dinner. I could do it in the evening while I watch the news, before late chores, if I wanted to. I don't have to dress up, I don't have to drive anywhere, and I can break it up into chunks which fit into my day.
I have a boutique boarding barn and training business, and I teach all over western Canada. That means a lot of hours sitting in the truck driving, sitting in airports, and sitting on aircraft. Heather's program is something I can take anywhere, and that helps a lot. I can do it in hotel rooms (have done) and in billets (have done) and some of it I can even do in the airports! I also do chores in my barn every day, and that, plus a lot of old fractures and injuries, can make me quite one-sided. Heather's program has straightened that out, and made me much straighter in the saddle.
Jan 13, 2010
Jan Jollymour
The system cut me off, so here's the rest of my last comment:
We are currently experiencing a heat wave of sorts (for us in mid-winter)! The temperatures have been above 0 for the past 5 days, and it's raining! Usually we're at between -5 and -25 at this time of year, and we have feet of snow. Unfortunately, it's due to the El Nino phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean, which means we are likely to have a very hot and dry summer, and where I live that means forest fires. Living in Oz as you do you will have an understanding of what that means, but we are surrounded by thick boreal forest, which burns very hotly and very fast. We and our horses have twice been evacuated (the first time for 3 weeks) due to fires. At least a lot of the fuel right around our farm has burned in recent years, which lowers the risk!
Good luck with Heather's program - it's done wonders for my day to day comfort, as well as for my effectiveness in the tack.
Jan 13, 2010
Jan Jollymour
I'm so glad you're finding Heather's exercises so helpful. I have really benefited from them, and my students are finding the same result. I just get better and better in the tack, and all of my clients who are using Heather's information are improving, some of them quite rapidly!
I have never been concerned about colour with my horses. I like athletes with good minds, and they come in various colours! The one thing I don't actually want to ride again in competition is stailions. I did that for 15 years, and they're just so undependable. I love riding mares, and I've had lots of gelding. We currently have 3 chestnuts, 2 KWPN geldings and a KWPN mare, and they are all very different. I have young Anglo-Trakehner mare coming up but she's bay.
I know how scary fire season is. We have been evacuated twice, the first time for 3 weeks and the second time for 4 days. Our boreal, or coniferous forest interspersed with grassland is extremely flammable, and the right combination of fire, wind and heat can create firestorme, which cover enormous amounts of territory within seconds. We are having an El Nino winter, which is very warm and icncludes very little precipitation, so concerns are rising for the summer. The last time we had a strong El Nino (and it wasn't nearly as strong as this) we had major fires, and 40,000 people were evacuated for 3 - 4 weeks. We have almost no snow, which is very unusual (by this time in the winter we usually have about 4 feet) and the temperatures are above 0 most days and nights.
At least I don't have to worry about flash flooding where I live, but farther down the Okanagan valley it's a major problem, especially in fire-ravaged areas. California is having a horrible winter due to the El Nino rains on the fire-stripped hillsides, and they are having mudslides and flash floods regularly.
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Feb 4, 2010