MK Horsemanship

09/21/2023

We can yell and scream at someone to ride better, but the hard truth is that it's not that easy.
Being yelled at and told what to feel and to look like in the saddle only creates a tense shell of what you need to ride well.

Unlike a lot of jobs, working harder at riding doesn't make us better.
It's something we have to be set up to FEEL.
The rider needs to feel what tension feels like and then relaxation. It's about bringing a new awareness to the parts of your body that you thought you were already aware of.
It's about feeling the extremes so you know where the middle exists.

I see so many riders that live in one extreme, and when they try harder, they just get more extreme in that same thing.
If you are feeling stuck in an extreme, find the other extreme and work from there.
It can be hard, but you will be amazed by the new awareness you will gain.

09/20/2023

We have ropes, whips, halters, saddles... the list goes on.
It is our responsibility to keep our equipment organized when handling our horses.
How prepared are you to let out rope as your horse needs? Or to bring that rope in? Are you diligent in making sure that your horse won't step on or get caught in your equipment?

It's important that we prepare our horses for accidents and mistakes, but we also want our equipment to bring trust and confidence.
We don't want our horses to have to worry about us carelessly handling our tools and constantly having to be on the lookout.

09/18/2023

09/18/2023

Your Position will make or
break your horse's ability to be in balance and
alignment throughout the body.
It is important that your position is unwavering, much like a post.
Never demanding, never asking for more, never taking away.
If your position is not consistent you can be moved around by your horse. If your horse is busy moving you- you will be busy reacting and trying to move your horse away resulting in a argument between the both of you to see who can move who the quickest.
When this happens there is no way the horse can find comfort and balance around you.

09/16/2023

“Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out.” ~ John Wooden

09/14/2023

I talk a lot about taking the time it takes to help a horse understand what we are asking so that he can feel and move with confidence.
But let's take some time to talk about the human.

It's so easy to disregard ourselves.
We tend to not be very patient or empathetic,
We push ourselves to keep up with our peers, and kick ourselves when we have fear, or frustration.
We think that if we push ourselves we will get over those fears, but we often push ourselves in the wrong way.

We need to push ourselves to slow down, to understand, and to empathize.
That might look like:

-Practicing the small things that seem unimportant.

-Riding in a place that builds confidence and helps you understand and connect with your horse rather than react to your horse.

-Instead of focusing on "living" through a ride, focus on getting confident in the things that will make riding a success. Work on techniques that help your body relax. Work on your horse's stop, forward, and back up.
Understand what it takes from your horse to do those things, and how it can create confidence or demolish it.

-Only work on things that will help build your confidence, don't push yourself to ride with friends if you know you will be tense and anxious throughout the whole ride.

When we work against ourselves we will never be truly confident, their will always be that fear or frustration lurking in the background ready to take over and consume us.

09/12/2023

I think its pretty common to work with our horses like its the last 20 minutes of a Friday work day.
What are we rushing to?
What causes us to unconsciously rush through each thing we do?

The hardest thing is to feel each moment as a brush stroke to a masterpiece. No moment is more important than the last... all are needed to complete the picture.

09/12/2023

Guilty…

09/12/2023

The horse it seems, is a creature that is expected to tolerate the human.
When touching or being around anther human, we are normally thoughtful and careful.
We don't touch another human unless we feel confident they will gladly accept our touch.

When it comes to horses it seems to be the opposite. We are often careless in the way we touch and interact with our horses, and often don't even think that the horse should have space that should be respected.

How often do we walk around the front of a horse and bump his nose, tighten the girth with a big yank, or push and shove on our horses?
Has the term "the horse should respect us" turned into "we don't need to respect the horse?"

The horse needs to know that we have respect for him. He shouldn't have to worry about us carelessly invading his space.
Every time we are around our horses we should work tirelessly to build a space that our horses can feel safe and confident in.

We should have a touch that our horses can trust and confidently accept.

09/10/2023

To give to the horse is to selflessly observe and
alter the habits you have collected throughout
your life.
These habits are the length of your stride, the
tension you hold, your balance- or lack of, and
the way you perceive the world.

Without altering your habits and working from
a place of calculated awareness, everything
revolves around you and nothing is really done
in a way that truly connects with and sets your horse up for success.

Your natural length of stride may be to long or maybe its to short and slow. Causing you to either pull your horse forward or always pulling him back.

The tension you hold may be blocking your horse's movement, or creating to much movement. Causing you to pull and jerk on your horse unnecessarily.

The balance you have may not be very continual and confident. Causing you to be reactive rather than being able to offer your horse soft and confident direction and connection.

How you perceive your world is built from your understanding and experiences. Sometimes causing you to not read situations in a way that would best benefit your horse.

The best gift we can give the horse is to observe with the intention to set things up to build his confidence and success.

09/08/2023

When was the last time you took a minute to look back at how far you have come? How much you have accomplished in the past year?
What was your past self from a year ago trying so hard to achieve that your present self see's as insignificant compared to what you're trying to achieve now?

If your past self from a year ago could see you now how would he or she feel? Chances are they would be absolutely ecstatic!

Next time you are questioning your abilities, feeling aggravated, like you will never get it, and you have so much to learn.... look back at your past self, they will be jumping for joy!

09/07/2023

Some Wednesday words of wisdom 🐎

09/07/2023

It can be frustrating offering your horse a better you and still having a horse that wants nothing more than to hold on to his old habits or have even more behavior that is less than desirable show up.

Whether you just got your horse, or your changing your horsemanship skills for the better, your horse doesn't know what you have to offer him, and if it's worth giving up his old habits that he used all these years to protect and balance himself.

Your horse is going to resist the change at first and feel out what the boundaries are. Don't get upset with him. His goals are to feel safe balanced and comfortable.

The best thing we can do is stay consistent and keep the flow of the exercise going. Your horse won't be able to find what you have to offer if you let yourself get sucked into your horse's behaviors and uncertainty.

The consistency we should offer should be like a softly flowing river. A relaxing flow forward into balance and confidence.

09/06/2023

Sometimes we can want the best for our horse to the point that it becomes detrimental to our horse's well-being.
What we think is best is often misguided by the things we have seen and our personal preferences.

What are our beliefs based off of?
Do we let poor examples push us to the opposite side of the spectrum? Causing our horses to be just as miserable... but maybe in a prettier way?
Or are seeking to truly understand the horse and what he needs to thrive?

09/06/2023

What is your favorite and least favorite horse chore??

09/05/2023

Taking it slow to build confidence in your horse doesn't nessasarily mean doing something slower. It could mean that there are important exercises that need to be completed before the one that you normally would have done.

09/02/2023

WHERE ARE YOUR EMOTIONS
COMING FROM?
Horses bring out a lot of emotions in
ourselves. Sometimes the emotions
are helpful and sometimes not really...
but neither are good or bad. They are
just feedback about your life, your
horse, and how you perceive those
things
When we don't ask ourselves where our
emotions are coming from and why,
we tend to act on them and believe
they are righ... but when we take a
closer look we can actually learn a lot
and see where we are having problems
and then work on them, instead of just
feeling the emotion and letting it take
us.

09/01/2023

Dedication is nessasary to be the best horsewoman/men we can be. But sometimes we confuse dedication with being dedicated to a situation rather than the big picture.
When we become dedicated to a situation it can sometimes slow us down, makes for more frustration, and can be disheartening.

True dedication might mean being brave enough to admit the training style all your friends follow might not be right for you and your horse.

It might mean the horse you have right now isn't what you need at this time in your journey to keep moving forward.

It might mean you need to bite the bullet and make some hard decisions that feel selfish now, but will ultimately help you to be so much more successful and allow you to enjoy and help the horses in your life.

It might mean finding joy in the things you once thought unimportant.

Dedication doesn't necessarily mean toughing out dead end situations... but instead looking at the bigger picture that will ultimately lead to success.

09/01/2023

Lines of fascia that we can see in the neck will often indicate tension. If the horse is struggling to use his neck and thoracic sling correctly, fascia will create adhesions to make movement in an incorrect posture easier. This will reduce muscular effort, but reduce range of motion and make the neck stiffer. In a balanced horse, the neck looks smooth, as though it is made up of one continuous muscle.

08/31/2023

There is an unfortunate vicious cycle being made in the horse world that makes my job exhausting and difficult.
The consumer- whether they are buying a horse, sending a horse to training, or taking lessons, generally have an idea of what horse ownership should look like by watching what it means to other's.
And then we have the professional selling whatever the consumer will buy.

This often means thirty, sixty, and ninety day training programs, sale horses that are dead broke, but also breaking down, and lessons built around getting a student out doing their thing before they feel left behind the whole horse world.

I believe there is a great need for both professionals and consumers to up their game and really look at what's going on here.
Not only do we need a demand for professionals that do better for the the horse, but we also need professionals to set a good example for what a healthy and happy horse looks like.

Happy Wednesday!

08/31/2023

This!

Becks Nairn has a fascinating story and in episode 14 out early September we will dive into how a background of classical dressage and taxidermy has lead her to horse dissection.

08/30/2023

If we are going to help our horses feel better and become relaxed and confident partners we need to believe that the horse is always searching for a way to find peace. If he's not feeling better around us and improving its not because he's not searching..... it's because we are not offering him "what he needs to feel better" in that moment.

It's a very humbling thought to process.

08/29/2023

This new study tested the best way to feed free choice hay to your horse: Loose, slow feed net, or automatic timed feeders. Find out the results!

08/29/2023

When I approach a horse, I always want to keep in mind that I need to prove I'm trustworthy and that I can help him feel good.
But a lot of times when we have goals and exercises on our mind it can be easy to start getting goal hungry and blind ourselves to how our horse is responding, and if we need to change or slow down our approach.

Don't be afraid of being in the moment and journeying your way to your goals, you might find that you were missing out on opportunities that were way cooler than your agenda.

08/28/2023

When I think of horses I think of circles.
Circles of motion. Circles of energy. Circles of breathing.
When we loose these Circles we lose fluidity, healthy movement, and relaxation.

08/25/2023

In the middle of chaos... there is a place of peace to be found.
To find this place, you must set ego, expectations, and emotions aside.

Once inside, you will be able to see the world through eyes cleared of the foggy mist of emotion. What was once adversity is now glowing opportunity.

We will now be able to give to the world, to the people, to the horse.
Instead of spreading turmoil, we can be a refuge...for ourselves for our horses, for the world.

08/24/2023

It is not natural for horses to live in stalls and pastures.
It is not natural to be haltered, bridled, and ridden.

Because it's not natural, we will need to be prepared to go above and beyond to educate ourselves.
We will need to be prepared for visits from the veterinarian, chiropractor, and body worker... not only for the big things, but the minute too.

We have to be prepared for being open minded
And empathetic of the real problems horses go through from being domesticated.
When these issues arise, many will call it bad behavior- the horse is difficult, stupid, trying to make my life miserable!

We owe it to the horse to be prepared.
We took him out of his natural environment and burdened him with our beliefs, cliques, egos, and unrealistic expectations.

The horse is quietly...or not so quietly crying for help.
Let us put down our thoughts and demands and truly listen.

08/23/2023

Can you still your mind?
We are in a world that is fast paced and at our fingertips, making our brains constantly buzz with nonsense chatter. Causing fidgeting, moving, and thoughtless doings.

The buzzing in ourselves shows up in our horses.
With careful guidance from another, we will see the times the buzz was there when we told ourselves it wasn't.

We will see our horses holding their breath in a transition.
Moving about mindlessly when we ask them to stand still with us.
Avoiding the present to move through the world without feeling or careful thought.

We move about this world braced against nothing but our minds and yet it effects everything we do.

08/21/2023

My tack is their tack, too.

Your horse wears a saddle, bridle, halter, saddle pad, etc!
It's just as much his tack as it is yours, and yet the horse often isn't allowed to really observe it and get to know it on his time.
Sure we might let him take a quick sniff before throwing it on him, but that really doesn't give him time to get to know his tack.

I have found that if you take advantage of a horse's curiosity and allow them to explore the things we would normally throw at them to desensitize them it changes everything.
Horses love to explore new things in safe environments, so why would we ignore that and throw scary things at them until they tolerate it?

Think about it this way- if someone tries to hand us something, we start to observe it before we accept it, after we take it we usually go through a quick or even not so quick natural checklist.
What color is it?
What does it feel like?
What does it smell like?
What does it do?
What does it sound like?
Etc.

I see so many horses that brace and hold their breath when tacking up and one of the reasons being they were never allowed to understand it on their own time.

08/20/2023

I have come to accept that every time someone is watching its going to be a humbling experience. 😂

08/19/2023

You don't know what you don't know... until you know.
Are you humble enough to let what you don't know find you?

08/18/2023

You understand a lesson from your teacher in layers.
What you once thought you understood is now only a thin layer that helped lead you to a deeper understanding of that same lesson.

It's an exciting and continually humbling thing
learning that what was once excited understanding is only a mere glimpse into the true meaning of it all.

08/18/2023

The way of the herd, junior herd members, just like human kiddos, still need more co-regulation from those with more experience.

As they gain life experience, they become more self-regulated, and then, in turn, become senior members who can offer co-regulation.

With domestic horses, we often see aged horses with juvenile emotional regulation.

08/17/2023

The most unhappy horses come from the people that work in extremes.
Extreme amounts of discomfort make extremely upset horses.... but so does extreme amounts of avoiding discomfort.
Only in balance can we find harmony.

Here my client pony is working on standing tied with confidence.
As you can see, she is a little nervous, but still in a learning state of mind.
The goal is to find a balance that stresses her enough to learn something new, but not enough to push her out of a learning state of mind.