B.N. Spired Horsemanship

31/03/2025

❤️

08/03/2025

Going to be a great spring with riding time moving back towards lasting until 7 or 8 pm soon!

13/02/2025

Come rain, SNOW, sleet, hail, or Iowa's negative temps (Alaska is warmer this week!) We are always dedicated to our horse's care. Fresh water, mineral and protein blocks, extra hay, blanket and vital checks, snowball removal, and yes- a few snuggles and treats- all in a normal February morning for our trainer Lela Gramling Mullen

24/01/2025

Worth a thoughtful read!

This concept is third hand, in the sense that Jeffie Smith Wesson told it to me as something explained to her by Mr. H L M Van Schaik (photo)

So I may get Van Schaik’s message slightly garbled in translation, but the essence is that when someone goes to a riding teacher to get a lesson, almost invariably the teacher teaches the student where she is right now in her riding, rather than teaching her what she needs to be taught.

His point was that ideally and in theory the explanation of riding should begin at the beginning, and progress a-b-c-d-e-f-g and so on, but if a riding teacher actually took her students back to square one and filled in the holes in their basics, most students wouldn’t come back for many lessons. Too boring. Too basic. Too demeaning. Too lots of reasons.

And I do get that. I was thinking of a clinic, for example. Some clinician has been imported to teach riders she’s never seen, and into the ring comes a rider with an entire array of incorrect basics, wrong tack, wrong posture, wrong use of hands, wrong ideas, wrong attitude. And, yes, this DOES happen in real life.

So, does the clinician treat this rider like a total beginner and have her do nothing but walk while she attempts to explain where to begin? Nope. The rider would be angry because “she didn’t get her money’s worth” from the clinic.

So teachers like clinicians and those who have the once or twice a month haul in students are likely to mend and patch rather than to break down and start at the beginning and rebuild.

But the REGULAR instructor has a better chance of going step by step, if the student will allow it.

But that word “allow” is key, and reminds me of something said by Jack Le Goff, who, like Van Schaik, had been trained in the European military tradition. Jack said, “Americans don’t want you to teach them how to ride. They want you to teach them how to compete.’

22/01/2025

Our trainer Lela had an exciting week in Wellington assisting a client at the CPI (college prep) horse show. A side trip to several tack shops, the Grand Prix at WEF, and more rounded out a nice trip and a welcome break from the Iowa January cold! Many new friends made, college coaches met, and overall wonderful experiences had!

Excited to be home and back to lessons this week as well as 2025 clinic and program planning!

13/01/2025

We have been recovering from holidays and from illness that is floating around, but excited to share 2025 updates to program and teaching schedule soon!

06/01/2025

We wanted to take a moment to congratulate our 2024 Fantasy Series (H/J) riders!
Placings found at: https://maffittlakeequestriancenter.com/horse-shows/schooling-shows
Too many to list, but everyone did amazing 👏
Congrats specifically on our non-ribbon goals:
Addy/Ronan- completing the show season with no major issues at last few shows! Gained confidence over jumps and can't wait for 2025 for him and Little Mare!
Jada/Marty- starting out a wonderful partnership that we hope to continue next year.
Lizzy/Ducky- successfully showing in 1st show together and continuing to make huge strides in their partnership.
Rori/Vino- what a comeback year, after a major set back with hoof issues and sitting out 2023 season, this team worked hard and really did well all year!
Shout out to our own Zeus- who successfully showed with Lela after a 7-year hiatus, scoring a respectable 74.5 in his western dressage test in the hackamore! And also packed around some students with grace and ease in the lower hunter divisions!

06/01/2025

Always forget to take pics at wonderful gatherings.... but moms got a few with Jess, kiddos, and I are end.

Such a wonderful gathering tonight with some of our horse "tribe"- we missed a few key members, but happy for those able to attend from the Veritas family, our clients, and fellow barn besties Rowe + Meadow Equestrian

We enjoyed celebrating 2024 and showing gratitude for those who make this wonderful life possible! Excited for 2025- full of plans for growth, learning, and fellowship!

Special thanks to Suzie for sharing the winery space with this mob! If you haven't checked out Dosagge Winery at Veritas- swing by for a tasting asap!

28/12/2024

We are so grateful for the continued patience and expertise with our farrier Cale Danielson .

Wonderful progress with both Ducky and Vino over last 2 rotations!!! Both boys rideable and well on way back to balance and soundness!

25/12/2024

Wishing all our clients, fellow riders, and 4-legged friends the happiest of holidays!

16/12/2024

Set your 2025 mindset now!

It’s that time of year where I get a little burned out, and take a bit of a social media break…

There are a lot of voices out there who have much to say, and little to show, and it gets discouraging for those of us who are in the arena, quite literally, day in and day out.

I think the most common experience in the horse world is well-meaning owners letting the voice of others become more important than their horses’.

As we approach the new year, I encourage everyone to leave in 2024 anything that isn’t serving their horses.

Specifically, any methodology that just gets louder when horses plateau, rather than listening.

Pull the shoes that are keeping an unbalanced trim locked in.
Shoe the horse that isn’t thriving barefoot.

Try a curb on the horse who hates snaffles.
Try bitless on the horse who hates bits.

Be skeptical of those who get defensive and dismissive when someone suggests a horse’s behavior may be a result of pain.

Be skeptical of those who use boundaries and pressure as domination.

Be skeptical of those who are dismissive of horses becoming less and less emotionally regulated when we remove boundaries, or who don’t empower them with the superpower of navigating mental and emotional and physical pressure.

Take everyone’s advice and opinion with a grain of salt. That includes famous gurus, both old and new.

Don’t put anyone on a pedestal.

Don’t take anyone’s feedback to heart if your gut says otherwise. Whether it’s a vet, a farrier, or a trainer.

Second opinions are good, third and fourth opinions, however many it takes, until you find someone who sees what you’re seeing, as the person who knows your horse best, are even better.

Our horses have no choice but to trust the decisions we make for them, so we should make sure those decisions are based on listening to our gut and our horse, and not just the loudest voice out there.

Seems like everyone’s trying to sell us something, even if they aren’t asking for our money.

The truth for each horse sells itself.

It’s loud out there.

What drew many of us to horses in the first place was the ability to withdraw and get quiet, just us and the horse.

We need to keep learning and evolving, yes, but there’s always going to be the necessity of going to the horse, and letting all that noise fall away, so we can listen.

13/12/2024

Happy National Day of the Horse! To our whole herd we say thank you for all you teach us, in each of your own unique ways!
Herd members:Zeus, Alice, Belle, Marty, Calvin, Phi, Tea, Wally, Enzo, and Petey.
We love you all!

06/12/2024

Interesting read!

Comparative neurobiology of horse and human.

Horses and humans are both mammals.
Our brains may not be the same size, but they are almost identical in their structure and function.

Why can our brains look so similar but our behaviours and sensitivity to the world look so different?

The area in the picture highlighted is the prefrontal cortex or the (PFC). Its job in humans, horses, dogs, dolphins, elephants, cats, mice, rats, all mammals, and even birds is to carry out "higher executive functions" such as:

🧠 problem solving
🧠 decision making
🧠 reasoning
🧠 risk assessment
🧠 forward planning
🧠 impulse control
🧠 intention

Obviously, these executive functions are more advanced in humans than in other species of mammals, but this part of the brain plays a pivotal role in higher levels of learning beyond primal behaviours and learning survival skills.

So why aren't we seeing these higher executive functioning skills and behaviours in horses as much as what we see them in dogs, dolphins, elephants and even birds?

Ultimately it comes down to safety!

The latest neuroscience research suggests that when the brain feels unsafe it causes the body to produce stress response hormones and these stress response hormones cause the PFC to go "offline".
This means that subcortical regions of the brain (deeper parts of the brain) such as the primal brain (AKA limbic system, survival brain, flight/fight brain) completely take over to increase the chances of survival.

Feeling unsafe causes the feeling of fear and it is fear that gets this party started.

So behaviours come from two areas:

1. The PFC, carrying out problem solving skills, reasoning, impulse control, forward planning etc. that may be interpreted as "obedience" and "partnership".

2. The primal brain, carrying out reactive survival behaviours. This brain does NOT carry out impulse control, forward planning, problem solving, etc. It just reacts to the world. This brain heavily relies on patterns and consistency. This brain will cause freeze/flight/fight behaviours such as shutting down, bolting, biting, rearing, bucking, kicking, barging, etc.

Which brain is the domesticated horse spending most of it's time in?
It's primal brain!

This is why we don't get to see their full intellectual and cognitive potential because most of the time, domesticated horses are perceiving their world in a fearful way to some degree.

We can help our horses with this!

Feeling fearful is the OPPOSITE to feeling calm.
If we want to help our horses access their PFC then we MUST do whatever it takes to help them feel calm.

☝️ ONLY when a brain feels calm can it slow down enough to develop TRUE confidence. Only when the brain feels confident will it access TRUE cognition (PFC).

☝️ We first need to understand that when we get "bad behaviour" from our horses, it's not intentional or naughty or rude. What you are seeing is either a horse that is just reacting to the fear they feel or they are carrying out their "coping mechanism" in response to their anticipation of feeling fear.

☝️ Try to remove expectations that your horse should "know better".
"Knowing better" implies that all behaviours are coming from the PFC and there should be some impulse control and reasoning. Unless your horse feels calm, they can't access the PFC to "know better".

THIS STARTS WITH YOU!!!

You need to be consciously aware if YOU feel calm first. If you feel calm, your horse will have a better chance at feeling calm. Expecting them to feel calm when you don't is unfair.

The best way to create calmness is to intentionally be SLOW!!!
SLOW EVERYTHING you do down.
SLOW your movement down.
SLOW your talking down.
SLOW your walking down.
SLOW your breathing down.
SLOW your horse down.
If you feel too slow, then you're going slow enough.

Calmness is slow, not fast.

This will help you and your horse to connect and feel safe together.
When the brain feels stressed, the stress response hormones cause the body to speed up.

Stress = speed

We can reverse engineer this process and create a calm mind through slow intentional movement and a relaxed posture.

The by-product of a calm brain is confidence and cognition (PFC access).

Happy brain training 🧠
Charlotte 😊

Photo: Credit: Adult horse (equine) brain, sagittal section. Michael Frank, Royal Veterinary College. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

04/12/2024

Interesting post! I ride in the Hamley twist on my wade tree personal saddles and love them!

Turn your stirrups. Just turn your stirrups, already.

I can hear what people are saying by reading their words and yes, they’ll talk a good game. If their pictures show their western stock saddles with the stirrups hanging flat against the horse—with the opening going straight into the horse’s side—I know that they’ve not spent much actual time in the saddle. If they have, then they should know better.

A snap judgment, maybe. A person who knows, who rides more than they talk online, will have the stirrups turned perpendicular to the horse. Correctly done, there will be zero effort to keep the stirrups, or to instantly pick them up with your toe.

One never, ever reaches down to hold the off-side stirrup with the hand while mounting! It’s ugly, inconvenient and worse, it's unsafe.

The risk of 'hanging up' is so much greater if our toe is wedged firmly against the horse's side. We can't use our legs independently. We can't pick up the stirrup immediately, should a stirrup be blown in a bad moment. We can't dismount without having our boot trapped. A rider with feet ‘hooked' to hold the stirrups in position—so often seen in the show ring—is putting unnecessary strain on her knees and ankles, two joints that should be soft if they're to be effective shock absorbers in the saddle.

Anytime a person tells me they tried to like riding Western but the saddle was uncomfortable, I know that the stirrups were not turned.

We can turn our stirrups any number of ways, which matters not. Whether it’s rolled by your saddler, a twist put in by simply re-buckling the stirrup leathers front-to-back, or turned with a bucket of hot water and a broomstick in the tack room and then, through sheer mileage (all shown here, left to right)... turn your stirrups, already. I mean it.

People love to argue that one method is better than the other. No. Just turn your stirrups.

There is no hierarchy, though the roll has been the in-style method for some decades, now. I ride very short and prefer the hot water and mileage method, myself. It allows me to have better, freer use of my legs because the fenders stay very flexible. Most everyone else in my family rides them rolled, aka the Hamley (or Texas, or name-your-state) twist.

Any questions? Just ask Mr. Google. Your saddlemaker may be needed if there’s any changes required to allow rolling, or a Blevins buckle to be reversed for a half-twist. There’s a lot of info, including step-by-step how-to videos, on the subject. I want you to be comfortable but more importantly, I want you to be correct and to BE SAFE.

03/12/2024

1st snow of the year. So beautiful and peaceful, but cold the last 2 chore mornings!
Good article for cold weather horse prep as we head into winter!
https://thehorse.com/18943/tips-for-preparing-horses-for-cold-weather/

27/11/2024

Sometime all you need is a little ingenuity and a good truck! Horses at home base are happy with their round bale delivery!