Sometimes, you just have to.....

Pause......

One of the toughest lessons

in great horsemanship is to just....

simply.....

pause.

Every great horsemanship professional uses The Pause in training.

Western horsemanship trainers call it "soaking", my mentor called it "taking a break". Whatever you want to call it, it's all about…

I have always been pretty good with horses, but never with predators.  This includes men and dogs.

Scout, my Jack Russell Terrier, confirms everyday to me that I have no business attempting to train predators.

Scout is a serial killer.  I am pretty convinced that she must be reincarnated from some famous serial killer madman.  When she is locked in on the kill, there is absolutely no reasoning with her- she cannot see or hear anything else.  After the kill, she always…

People ask me all of the time how I got into natural horsemanship- and I always tell them at the beginning of any of my clinics…

11 years ago I had no idea what natural horsemanship was- Seriously- no clue.

I was eventing at the Preliminary/Intermediate level on my Thoroughbred George, and we either did really well or…

Highlights from Canada

When we crossed the border, I was pretty sure that we crossed over to the Arctic Circle.  The temperature dropped around 30 degrees, and the wind kicked up to hurricane force.  I had on three jackets and the border control officers were in short sleeves and cargo pants- and obviously bothered by the heat.

As I approached the booth with Jack Russell in lap, towing a huge camper and 2 year old strapped…

Last Friday I thought that my truck was fairly operational- besides the fact I could not turn it off- then it did not want to start again.

So I figured, just don’t turn it off ‘til I get to Virginia- it’s a diesel, so I really don’t have to turn it off to fuel up.

Technically, that is correct.  However, if your truck DIES while you are driving it 75 miles per hour down the highway, while you are talking to someone in England- well Houston, you have a…

I think that a lot of people are under the impression that my life is glamorous.  As I write this, I am sitting in a campground that spans about 5 acres and am surrounded by at least 500 people in campers and tents parked 10 inches from each other.  Everyone has a Boston accent except for me.  The campground is located across from Santa’s workshop.  My son is watching Elmo for the…

We have been having a record breaking amount of rain this summer, and yesterday was no different.  It was our 16^th day in a row of rain.  Huge storms barreled through in the afternoon, but stopped just in time for our ride.

My niece came out to ride.  Since Ranger is recovering from a stone bruise, my sister offered me Dante to ride.  (I…

Big News!!!!

My sister sent me an email to tell me she rode Dante across the river this morning—all by herself.  I didn’t even know she was going to try.  So I had to call her.  She said that at first he tried his spinning, but that didn’t work for him.  Then he tried to back up a few times, but that didn’t work for him, either.  Then, he put his head down to look at the water.  At that point, she knew she had him.  She clicked and treated him, so he did it again.  she…

Cruiser and the River

Yes, another river story, but this once starts quite a few years ago.  Back when Cruiser was probably 13-14 years old, he got really weird when he was crossing the river in the spring.  I don’t know exactly what he would do, since I was always on his back and couldn’t see it, but it was terrifying.  All of his legs went all different…

Dante and the River

Life got in the way, and we weren’t able to tackle the river again for weeks.  There was high water one weekend, extreme cold on another and then there was the awful weekend that Ellen had to work.  We really wanted to get past the river, and we were both frustrated.

 …

Friday”s Ride

Catching up on my riding blogs.  I rode by myself on Friday, as Kevin had plans and Starry was due to have a day off.  I took Cole on a fast 5-mile ride.  I always ride faster when I’m by myself.  This was our day to canter.  We cantered in all the good spots.  When we reached the spot that I practice that hard-to-get-right lead,…

Rainy Weekend

It didn’t rain when we rode, but it rained at night so much that we weren’t able to cross the river on either day.  Sigh.  Another roadblock in our way of getting Dante on the trail.

The good news—I rode Cruise.  I just stayed on the little trail on the property, which isn’t very exciting, but it was just nice to be back in the…

Saturday June 1 2013

I didn't get out all week to see Cooper, between stomach issues and being too darn tired after work. We were supposed to go Friday night but my spouse fell asleep and we didn't it out.

Cooper was very happy to see us, squeezing up against the corner of the stall door trying to get to us. 

I tacked him up with the bridle and bit and did some ground work for about 30 minutes. We did some half circles to the back of the indoor arena and once there we…

Wednesday evening, my older niece, who recently came home from college, came out to ride.  Since I’m not riding Cruiser, yet, she got to ride Ranger.  It has been a couple years since she rode him, and last year, she only rode Cole once or twice.  Life got in the way, last summer.  She did admit to being a little nervous about riding Ranger.  He is a big horse, and he is…

On the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, I met Ellen at the barn.  After we did our chores, we decided to work with Dante.  Ellen is still a little nervous.  She is used to riding more experienced horses than Dante.  Dante hasn’t given her any…

Kevin and I went on an evening ride together on Starry and Cole Train.  It was on the hot side, and since it was Cole’s 4^th consecutive day of trail riding, I thought he might be a little sluggish.  Wrong.  He was just right.  We did a lot of trotting and a little cantering—on the hard lead!  We walked all the way home to cool them off and enjoy each other’s…

Horse-Filled Weekend

Friday evening, I went for a ride by myself on Cole Train.  Since I was alone, I did a lot more cantering than when I am with other horses.  We did get the hard lead once on a sharp corner—that same corner that we were successful before.  He was doing great until we reached a sharp corner the other direction—and he switched.  Well, at least I had it for a little while.  We trotted a lot towards home, too.  The ride was about 5 miles round trip, and the…

Bug Crazy Starry Starry Night

Cole and I went with Kevin and Starry on a ride yesterday evening.  it was a very warm evening.  All went well on the way out.  We rode to the fallen tree—lots of fast trotting and a little cantering.  Kevin wanted to see if he could clear the tree off the trail or find a way around it.  He wouldn’t take my word for it—but as soon as he saw it he agreed.  We needed professional help for this one—chainsaw and glove.  It is covered with poison…

Kevin and I had a really nice ride last night.  it was cool, and there are still no bugs—we are enjoying it while we can.  We assumed that the tree that was blocking the trail was still there, so we turned at the river crossing before it and headed back towards home.  to make it a longer ride, we planned to pass home and go the other way for a while. 

That made it a perfect day to work on trotting towards home.  we have regularly trotted towards home when we are far away, but…