Dreamer & Cupid - My Super Boys!

Last weekend I went to my first Obstacle Challenge at Turkey Run Ranch – what a blast!

We strolled in a bit late at 10:30am which only left us 30 minutes to get saddled up and practice the obstacles. The warm up actually started at 9am but because it was raining and a 3hr drive we were a little sluggish getting there.

Cupid and Dreamer came for the show – Kahleesi is still taking time off hoping she’ll be sound for Kentucky after getting a mysterious hoof bruise while out in the paddock.

I was so incredibly proud of my horses as they approached all of the unique obstacles.

Obstacles included:

• ·         Kiddie pool with water and floating wood
• ·         Raised bridges
• ·         Sand filled tires
• ·         Piles of pine cones
• ·         Straw jumps
• ·         Tarps and sand hills
• ·         A sprinkler car wash
• ·         Water crossing
• ·         Narrow back through

There were really a lot of choices and I loved how they have the are set into 3 different parts. The sand ring was all Halloween/fall themed. One grass field area was set up Indian themed with a teepee and other decorations. The third area was set up as the cowboy field.

The only things my boys were weary of were the rope gate – because there was scary cornstalks on either end, yikes they might bite!

I planned out a good route to try and get as many of the 60 obstacles that I could. I rode first on Cupid and got a lot done. Cupid was so confident and really focused on the task. It was definitely his best show so far and I was such a proud mama.

Next up was Dreamer – I rode a very similar pattern with him and just had to change things a bit because he knocked down 2 of the jumps which makes it a ‘dead’ obstacle meaning you can’t do it again (otherwise you can do them twice). Dreamer did everything with confidence and speed making him a super star.

Results - Way to go Boys! 

At the end of the day we shared an amazing potluck and got to find out our scores. It was great to see the score sheets to see what exactly we did. There were 19 competitors and 10 of them (majority) scored between 67 – 106 points, with only the top 5 placings finishing above 106 points.

I was extremely thrilled when Cupid was announced as 5^th place with 121 points – wow has this boy improved! 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th went to very good rides finishing with 131-127 points which were extremely close scores!

Dreamer and I were flying like the wind and smoked up 148 points for first place. Crikey I knew he was a dreamer, but buddy you’re seriously an over achiever! Not too surprising that Dreamer had an admirer at the show wanting to buy him… but not to worry big guy, you aren’t going anywhere :)

I am super in love with Obstacle challenges and if you want to give it a go I super recommend Turkey Run Ranch – what a lovely set up and amazing people that are so kind and supportive… plus they know how to serve up one delicious potluck!

Tips from this show:

• ·         Put the focus on your foundation. Get your horse to trust you and build his confidence in you. Then when you start to see new obstacles it doesn’t matter that they are new because your horse knows you can keep them safe and they can do what you ask.
• ·         Get out there and try something new, take a chance and leave yourself open to find new passions, dreams, challenges, and fun.
• ·         Really make sure you have a plan heading into the obstacle challenge and know where you are going .
• ·         Ride the little obstacles on your way to the bigger point obstacles.
• ·         Do the obstacles that you can complete quickly – just because you can move the cows from one pen to another (which is a hard obstacle that scores high at 5  points) doesn’t mean it’s the best use of your short 5 minutes in the ring.
• ·         If you aren’t sure how to do something make sure you ask. One of the reasons I scored so high was because I clarified that one combination obstacle could actually be done 3 different ways and each was considered a different obstacle at 3 points– this meant 3 obstacles right beside each other could be done back to back for 18 points. Some other competitors only rode 1 or 2 variations of this obstacle and didn’t get the extra points.
• ·         Put the focus on fun – I project a confident smile to my horses and they know we are there for a  good time. Then they were able to have fun too.

On Sunday we started rehearsing for my freestyle patterns for the Kentucky TB Makeover. Stay tuned for more updates in the coming weeks. Thank you so much for the team that is coming to support me and be ring crew!

Extreme Cowboy at Ancaster Fair tomorrow followed some more TB Makeover practice. See you at the fair!

2 Competitions with an Unexpected Twist

This past weekend I went to two different horse shows. On Saturday September 12th I went to Glenaura Horse Farm for the Obstacle show, and Sunday I went to the Uxbridge Fall Fair Gambler's Choice Horse Show.

Obstacle Show
On Saturday morning it was pouring rain, dark, and cold when we headed out with the horses at 6am so we could arrive on time to Honeywood. By the time we got there the skies had cleared, the rain had stopped, but it was still pretty crisp in temperature.

We unloaded Cupid and Khaleesi and discovered Kahleesi was ouchy on her front right. Not horrible but not perfect. I walked her around a bit, assessed her legs/hooves, and determined it is either an abscess brewing or she stepped on a stone and bruised her foot. There was no heat in her leg, but seemed to be a little heat near her coronet band.

We tried wrapping her and putting hoof boots on and that helped. She was walking nicely and willingly but occasionally would take ouchy steps. I decided to keep Kahleesi walking because walking is good if it's an abscess, as well she seemed comfortable.

The competition started with an online obstacle class. I decided to keep Kahleesi in the class because it was going to be all walk and the exposure to new obstacles would be good for her. I competed in the Intermediate (they had two levels: Beginner & Intermediate).

The obstacles were fun and included:

• Tarp
• Barrels to circle around
• Pool noodle car wash
• Tunnel made out of a tarp
• Pushing a ball off a tire
• Pool noodle standards
• A swivel obstacle where you had to get the horse to push a piece of wood (watch the video because I don't really know how to describe it)
• Narrow bridge
• Pedestal (giant one)
• Caveletti jump (on a low height that you can walk over)
• Kiddie pool with water and an inner tube around it
• Teeter tauter

Cupid and Kahleesi were awesome. They did everything pretty easy except they had a good sniff at the pool. 

Kahleesi finished 1st and Cupid was 3rd out of a lot of people (they placed ribbons to 10th and there were more people than placings). 

After that we competed in Liberty, which was the same course but no rope. The horses were awesome and Kahleesi was 1st with Cupid 4th. There was a lot of impressive liberty work from the competitors. Kahleesi got top marks because I could send her through many obstacles from a distance. 

Next we had riding obstacles. This was walking (trot was optional, but with all the obstacles there wasn't room for a lot of trotting). This time Cupid came 1st and Kahleesi was 3rd. 

After that I decided to scratch Kahleesi from the Trail challenge because that would involve some jumps, trotting, and cantering. I didn't want to push her out of her comfort, and at the trot she was more ouchy. 

Cupid competed in the trail class which was outdoors and in a big back field. 

The obstacles included:

• Logs to cross over
• Flag that you had to move from one round bale to another
• A squeeze to ride through (hay feeders lined up in parallel rows)
• Brush jump with brush on the sides (similar to pool noodle standards but with brush)
• Jump with a car wash over top
• Brush jump with brush facing up towards the horse's belly
• Pick up a water bucket and move it
• A pole drage
• Water crossing
• Ditch
• A tunnel made out of tarp for a floor, round bales for sides, and a tarp for a roof
• A gate
• Bank jump
• Giant tires filled with sand to cross over
• Gate

It was a lot of fun - Cupid wasn't super relaxed so we need to work on finding relaxation at the obstacles so he can stand still better at them. He thought the ditch was scary and took about 5-10 minutes to cross it the first time. I was just patient and insisted he look/try but wasn't forceful. Our gate wasn't super pretty either because he was a bit anxious to stand beside it calmly. 

He placed 4th in the trail class and then when it was all done I spent an hour with Cupid at the gate building his confidence to stand calmly at the gate. Eventually he relaxed and did the gate beautifully so I hopped off and loved on him. It was important to give him so much comfort in the right moment because it was such a big challenge. 

Watch our show:

Gamblers Choice on Sunday

On Sunday I went to the Uxbridge Fall Fair for the Gamblers Choice. It was a bit of a drizzly cold day but Kathy and Larry Bonehill did an awesome job setting such a fun obstacle course. 

Because Kahleesi was still looking ouchy, I made a last minute swap and brought Dreamer (one of our lesson horses) instead. This meant I had Dreamer, Cupid, and Thetis. I brought Thetis because last year I competed with her and didn't place, so I wanted to do better this year. Cupid and Kahleesi were entered because they needed more exposure to obstacles before Kentucky.... so I had 3 horses to show. 

My round one was on Thetis. I carefully planned my route and executed it pretty well except our first obstacle she didn't want to let me get off onto the mounting block, and I dropped the ball on an obstacle soon after that (literally). After that we found our groove and aced all of the obstacles we attempted. 

Cupid was ride two. He entered the ring calmly but then the Merry Go Round started going and he had a bit of a melt down. I had to change my plan and avoid that corner of the ring because it was too big of a distraction that he was actually starting to go catatonic. We continued to other parts of the ring and he did awesome, once we were out of that corner he aced all of the obstacles we attempted. 

Lastly I rode Dreamer, final horse of the day. By now I had a strategy worked out and I rode a pretty efficient pattern. Dreamer was super awesome and aced everything except one water box he jumped over instead of stepped through. 

I was super happy and very thrilled with our progress. 

I was even more delighted when Cupid was announced as 8th place, Thetis as 2nd place and Dreamer as 1st place. Dreamer did pretty awesome as a back up horse and I definitely did better than last year!

Some tips I learnt from the weekend:

• Be ready to have a plan B, and C
• When plan B and C don't work, take a deep breathe and focus on what you can do
• Practice relaxation at the obstacles so your horse can approach with confidence
• The show ring is a place to show what you excel at, not what you are working on. If you don't think you can do an obstacle, don't try it during gamblers choice - do that during warm up, or after the course, or try it at home
• Make a plan and ride your plan
• In gamblers choice think about riding the obstacles that are close together rather than wasting time going all over the ring. For example do the 1 point jump that is just slightly out of the way between two bigger point obstacles. 

Watch the gamblers choice:

I had a super amount of fun and can't wait to do it again!

NHA horse show finale weekend with Tips for success!

Last weekend was all about the Natural Horsemanship Association (NHA)- well except for Friday evening when I spent a couple hours with my centered riding coach Esther Johnson to start work on my freestyle routine for Kentucky. That was a lot of fun getting things figured out – we still have a lot of work to do, but we are putting together a nice routine for Kahleesi – Cupid you are next!

I was lucky to have a couple volunteers to help me set up for the NHA obstacle show – our gamblers choice had over 40 options so it was a lot to set up. We were blessed with good weather for the show and the best turnout for classes yet.

The horse agility classes seemed to be popular with 12 in the novice! The liberty classes still only had 3 entries, so perhaps this will condense to be just one class next year. Our judge, Shelley, gave some tips for scoring well in the class.

Tips for Scoring well in Horse Agility:

• -        Find a way to get your horse motivated, even if that means using a treat as a reward after some obstacles so that your horse looks keen, interested, and has a little spring in their step.
• -        Be careful to set your horse up nicely and straight to the obstacles so that they can complete them accurately.

We moved into the riding classes and there was a lot of fun to be had. We received a lot of great feedback about enjoying the Finesse, Speed, and Gamblers Choice classes because of the variety. 

Having prize money for the gamblers choice seemed to go over really well too - I guess everyone likes money? A lot of people stayed to enter the money class at the end of the day with 100% of the class entries going into prizes. We were happy with 14 people in that class, a good turnout for it's first time.

It was fascinating to watch the different ways everyone completed their gamblers choice, with more than 40 options there was a lot of variation to how you could do it. It was also interesting to see who dared master the big bridge for 15 points, and who was able to do the gamblers choice obstacle of the splash box worth 20 points.

The splash box is a box filled with water, with a floating piece of wood with holes in it. It looks solid to the horse but when they step on the floating wood, it sinks with water gushing up through the holes. You can imagine that a lot of horses find it intimidating at first.

The Unexpected Obstacle

What we didn’t expect, is that as everyone was splashing through the box, there was more and more mud created around the box which actually became more of an obstacle to some horses.

Being Impressed

I was super impressed with the riders and horses at the competition – I was also happy to have competition for the first time in the extreme division… the last two shows it had just been my horses and I, but this time there were 7 entries. It was great to see talented riders and horses competing at that level.

In particular a few things that impressed me –

• -        Andrea and her ability to ride a gate in a few seconds. She made it look so easy and inspired me to practice the gate to master this skill better… I am still not as good as her at it, but now I can ride the gate with Kahleesi!
• -        Dave with his horse that would walk on water if he ask or jump to the moon. He’s raised such a willing partner.
• -        Cody with his young horse that he did just the right amount to progress his young horse without pushing him too hard.

Everyone really did a great job and I was super thrilled with everyone’s horsemanship and sportsmanship at the show.

From watching & riding gambler’s choice, here’s some tips I picked up:

• -        Ride the high point obstacles first to make sure you get the big points
• -        Only attempt the obstacles you are sure you can do pretty easily/quickly because the seconds count down fast
• -        Have fun and smile! The horse can feel your tension, so if you smile and have fun your horse will do better.

All in all it was a great show day! 

We want to know what you like to see in the shows!

We are taking feedback for next year and would really appreciate you take the NHA Horse Show survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BNSS3SJ 

– or email us any feedback (good or bad) you are willing to share to nhassociation@gmail.com because want to do this again next year, and want to make it better for you.

Sunday Wrap Up

The day after the horse show we had a fun trail ride out to the pond – it was a nice day to take a quick dip with horses – thank you for everyone that came out!

Also a big congratulations to the PHH riders that showed at Oak Ridges Equestrian Centre, we had a few riders come home with champion and reserve champion ribbons. Well done girls and thank you Caileigh-Anne for being our show team coach!

What's up Next?

Tomorrow the fun continues with our Partridge Horse Hill Show – we have hunter, jumper, obstacle, and speed event classes. We hope to see you there! More information at http://partridgehorsehill.com/HorseShowClinic.html

Keep in the know at https://www.facebook.com/PartridgeHorseHill 

Flying Lead Changes, Cranial Sacral, and Centered Riding

Last weekend was a bunch of learning at PHH. If you think about soaking up education as if collecting water from a tap, then forget the water bottle because this past weekend you needed a whole trough.

Cantering and Flying Lead Changes

On Friday the 21^st we were fortunate to have Parelli Professional Todd Owens come teach us about cantering and flying lead changes. He brought his Level 4 trained horse, Shania, to show us what the exercises were supposed to look like- what a fantastic idea. It meant the people who learned by listening could have the instructions, the people who learned by seeing could watch Todd with Shania, and we all learnt by doing because we tried the patterns.

It was a fascinating group because we all had very different horses and many of us were riding at different levels – so we got to learn how to problem solve for different horses and riders. It was like a smorgasbord of learning.

I rode Kahleesi in the workshop and had a great time practising maintaining correct bend with correct pace. I also discovered that she is a bit of a grumplepuss in large groups for canter – she made a few marish faces at the other horses just to make sure they knew she wasn’t happy they were standing in her arena.

Some tips and things to remember for cantering and flying lead changes that we learnt from Todd:

• -        Practice using the supple rein to create the correct flexion in the horse
• -        Ride walk, trot, canter with an independent seat (no contact on the reins)
• -        Practice forehand and haunch turns to isolate moving the hind end and front end of your horse
• -        Practice sideways to get your horse responsive to your leg, moving athletically sideways
• -        Practice haunches in so that you will better be able to control your horse’s hind end for a flying change
• -        Set up a pattern like a figure 8 with a pole and ride the pattern being insistent your horse gives you correct flexion and posture
• -        Then try putting the pieces together and batta bing batta boom – flying lead change!

What I like about this approach is that you set up all of the skills so that the flying change is on purpose and in balance – then it makes it easier to progress to multiple flying changes in future.

Margreet & Brian come to visit

During the workshop, Margreet and Brian arrived and were able to watch. Margreet is the master Level IV Centered riding instructor from the Netherlands – she is also certified in Reiki, T Touch, Equine Cranial Sacral, Saddle fit, Equine massage, and Equine Acupuncture - she's a jack of all trades when it comes to horses to say the least. 

Margreet instructed us Saturday and Sunday for a 2 day workshop on Equine Cranial Sacral work and centered riding. Brian is also trained in Equine Cranial Sacral and helped us learn about the horse's movement. 

It was perfect that Margreet watched Todd’s workshop because she would refer to ‘the cowboy’ throughout the clinic and reference some of the exercises he did. She thought Todd was fantastic, the steps he provided worked, and loved how he isolated the movements.

Thank you Cowboy Todd J  Make sure you're at his next workshop at PHH - https://www.facebook.com/events/398694333630496/ 

Equine Cranial Sacral

Saturday’s workshop with Margreet and Brian we practised different ‘holds’ with our horses to help them relax and release tension in their body. It was absolutely amazing – like crazy hocus pocus magic – to see how these simple holds made EVERY single horse in the workshop become so calm, relaxed, licking & chewing, yawning, and releasing tension or stress.

They helped us learn to assess a horse before doing the holds – such as watching a horse’s walk, eating grass, and breathing. During the different holds you could literally see the breathing change in the horses to be deeper and more relaxed. After the holds you could literally see the horse eating grass differently.

Some assessment questions to ask yourself about your horse:

• -        When they eat grass, do they move their legs around a lot to balance for getting grass, or do they move their neck around in a semi circle to reach more grass?
• -        When they eat grass, do they grab with their front teeth and pull up, or do they grab with their teeth and move their head sideways?
• -        When they stand at rest, is their tail to one side?
• -        When they stand at rest, does their breath fill their whole barrel?

There were more things that we looked at, but I found these ones the most interesting and different from what I'm used to.

Centered Riding

That evening I had a private lesson aboard Kahleesi and we worked on picking up contact and having energy in the hind legs.

Margreet is one of the few coaches to instruct me that doesn’t try to get me in a bit. She says “bit or bitless doesn’t matter, whatever is working for the horse.”

She explained to me that one benefit of the bit is that it can make the horse chew, which can help a horse relax at the poll. However, she said you can get the same result bitless, you just have to work a little harder.

She helped me with many things including:

• -        slowing down to focus on quality of movement from my horse’s hind end (we did some exercises over trot poles and on circles to create better impulsion from our hind end)
• -         to follow with my hands better (when Kahleesi’s head came up I still had a tendancy to drop my hands, and Margreet helped me follow Kahleesi better which made a huge improvement)
• -        be more aware of correct flexion (she explained the cowboy’s exercise with the supple rein on the serpentine is so fantastic and pointed out how the jaw, nostril, and eye should align when you have correct flexion… I’d been letting Kahleesi’s nose get out of line)

 The next day we finished up with some holds on our horses and then got into centered riding. We practiced some things without our horses and then all had semi private lessons. Margreet's level of detail to rider is incredible and she really helped to train my eye to see things about the rider.

A couple key things that many riders needed to remember:

• -        Keep your nose in line with your naval (belly button), so when you turn, only turn your head as far as your belly button goes
• -        Remember to take your shoulders with you on the turns (for example when you turn right, allow your left shoulder to come with you)

I rode my lesson on Thetis with Sabrina and her horse Zoey. I rode Thetis bitless in the side pull attachment made by Epic Equestrian (http://www.epic-equestrian.com/). Both Brian and Margreet commented that Thetis was consistently collecting from the correct place in her poll and carrying herself correctly – “there is no reason to swap this horse to a bit – she carries herself beautifully, and is relaxed through her jaw and poll.”

That was an incredibly reassuring statement because it seems everyone wants me in a bit. To be honest, the more everyone tells me I must ride in a bit to achieve the next level of Finesse, the more I become determined to prove them wrong. I’m not even against bits and occasionally I use them… but I really just hate being told I can’t do something when I think its possible. I know, I’m stubborn right? This will be my next journey after I’m finished with Kentucky – my journey to level 4 Finesse.

Anyway, back on track.

In our lesson we practiced flexion, leg yields, and some jumping.

I wanted most to learn from this lesson was strategies to get rid of my wiggle butt. I have this bad habit that when I am cantering and jumping I tend to wiggle my butt. You’ve noticed it right? If you haven’t, just take a look at some of my Youtube videos of me jumping. You’ll see it, that darn wiggle butt. It’s effective though – I feel secure, I can turn when I want to, I compete well, and ride accurate courses… but that wiggle butt!!!

I didn’t know why I was doing it, and several people have tried to help me with it - my centered riding coach, Esther Johnson came pretty close to fixing the wiggle by having me strengthen my core, and Parelli instructor Kathy Baar helped me by having me think about my knees and grounding both my feet.

What did Margreet do when presented with the wiggle challenge? She solved it!

She zoned in on the fact that when I sit my canter I let my hips move in the backwards circle motion, but when I half seat I lock my hips and they ride frozen in the air. She helped me find my backwards circle while in half seat which restored the natural motion to my body and voila, wiggle butt is gone! Okay so now I just have to remember it every time I ride.

Esther and Kathy’s awareness of my position were definitely pieces to the puzzle – and now I have a key ingredient to pull it all together.

Wrap up

I loved this past weekend because Friday was about training strategies and process, Saturday was about helping our horses feel better, and Sunday was about getting our riding in rhythm with our horses.  

I’m sensing a new type of Super camp in the future – natural horsemanship, centered riding, cranial sacral – anyone interested in that for next summer?

So much learning and growth happening at PHH!

What's next?

Remember to check out Todd’s next workshop which is Friday, 6-9pm, September 18^th at  PHH. We are learning about building finesse with collection. https://www.facebook.com/events/398694333630496/

Lots happening this weekend – centered riding lessons tonight, NHA horse agility & obstacle show tomorrow, and the NHA trail ride to the pond on Sunday. See you there! (more details at http://nhassociation.ca/)  

Learnings from my Super Experience at Super Camp

I had the fantastic opportunity to ride at Parelli Super Camp at the beautiful Horseman's Word Ranch from August 12-16... 5 days full of learning. Let me share with you some of the highlights and learnings that I walked away with.

We had some really interesting discussion over the 5 days about natural horsemanship, progress, and the different savvys.

About Natural Horsemanship

• Natural horsemanship is about understanding the human and horse's nature, and not making it right or wrong. 
• Problems are nothing but surprises you don't want
• Think: What's missing in the relationship if you can't do something?
• Trust is when you share mutual interests
• Respect is when somebody brings something new and unique to the relationship. 
• When in Rome do as Romans do, when in horseville do as horses do. 
• We don't hit each other in our society as humans, but horses do kick & bite each other so that means we might need to be firm with them too. 

 About Progress

• Think about having an underlying focus for you ride/play session. For example will you be always rewarding exuberance, the correct bend, stopping with no reins, etc. This way you are more aware when your horse makes the change. 
• Best way to learn something is to teach it. 
• Be open minded to learn. 
• What is the litter ingredient today that will set me up for tomorrow?

About Liberty

• Start with games that get your horse connected to you like 'stick to me'. Don't start with a lot of circles because that is sending your horse away from you. 
• Try playing different games with your horse that you have practiced really well. 
• If you aren't sure if your horse is ready for liberty, try playing the games with your rope in your belt... so you aren't using your rope but you have it ready if you need it. 

We had some chances to play at liberty using the many round pens at the ranch. I tried Cupid & Kahleesi for the first time at liberty and it went really well. I learnt how to send horses in circles of opposite direction and how to get better with two horses at liberty. 

Some fun exercises

• Dressage pattern to give ourselves a purpose and goal
• Driving our horses with 2 long lines to improve our communication from behind our horses
• Riding with a bucket on a line to help build our horse's confidence
• Riding over poles to practice counting our steps between them to see if we were keeping out same pace, and then to see if we can change our pace. 
• Riding with our bodies and using the carrot sticks instead of reins to reinforce our aids 
• Simulations (no horses) so that we can figure out our movements and positions without confusing our horse! Even better is that when you practice the exercises with people, they can speak English and tell you how they are feeling and what is confusing them. 

 There was so much to learn and so many wonderful people to meet.

I had a lot of fun, and a lot of amazing moments where things just seemed to click. One of the key things for me was reminding myself of my vision for the day so that I knew when I was making progress and when to reward my horse. 

"In every moment make clarity of communication the top priority." 

We did so much more than the things I have listed here, but this gives you a taste of the buckets full of learning we explored at Super Camp - what an amazing experience with so many masters of horsemanship in one place! I feel incredibly fortunate to have such an opportunity so close to home. 

Thank you Don & Randee Halladay, Toddy & Maureen Owens, and John & Kathy Baar!

Looking forward to it again next year!

Key Learnings from a day with Linda & Pat Parelli, Then My first Extreme Cowboy Race

A day in London with Linda and Pat Parelli

On Saturday I went to the one day event with Linda and Pat Parelli event to watch and learn. It was a great day of learning. 

My key learnings to share with you from these lessons with the masters were:

• Be the ambassador of yes not the administer of no: instead of always telling your no, stop that, later, think about saying ‘yes’ but with boundaries. For example if the horse is bucking around on the circle (not riding), think about saying yes you can do that – but you need to stay out there until your circles get nice.
• Have your horse do more and you do less: think about keeping your feet still more, and getting your horse to do the moving around. Try to let go of the desire to micro manage and instead let your horse try.
• Ride with your elbows: To get softer with your horse’s mouth, ride from your elbows not your hands. 
• Aim for connection not just obedience: Obedience is a great first step in liberty but really we need a connection – so instead of always saying ‘no’ to the horse when they go to leave, think about saying ‘yes’ but then help them find you again making it their idea.
• Master sideways to master flying changes: flying lead changes is a sideways game. Start on the wall with sideways, then going across the open arena. Start with walk, then trot, and then in canter it leads to flying changes!

My First Extreme Cowboy Race 

On Sunday I went to the Campbellford Fair for my first Extreme Cowboy Race with Cupid (Lion of Wallstreet) and Kahleesi (Kahleesi Soar). It was a ridiculous amount of fun and totally blew my mind for obstacles and ideas!

My first ride was on Kahleesi. I entered the ring and she spooked at the start line which was passing between two umbrellas. I took a deep breath and she cross through. Then she was very unsettled riding around the ring so I let her walk and trot taking her time to build confidence. Every obstacle I took a deep breath and although we had the slowest time (except for Cupid)  she completed everything calmly. 

I wasn’t focused on speed – I was focusing on giving my horse a good opportunity. I was so happy with her. Compared to New York she had gained confidence and was more relaxed on the tarp and took less time to complete the obstacles (because I point her at the obstacle and ask her to try, but don’t rush her through it).

My second ride was Cupid. He had been really calm all morning, but then the horses with carriages started performing in the ring beside the show ring. That scared the heck out of Cupid. I have never seen or felt Cupid so nervous before. He was completely unsettled.

I tried some ground work and lateral movements to settle him before our turn in the ring but it wasn’t enough to completely calm him before our ride. He passed through the umbrellas no problem because he really is a brave horse with obstacles, but he couldn’t get over the carriage horses. We navigated the obstacles extremely tense and nervous. I did a lot of deep breathing and at one point had to do some circles to settle him more.

On the last obstacle we needed to dismount and ground tie. I took longer than one minute to get back on him because I was going slow and being patient with him, but there is a rule you need to mount within a minute so we were disqualified - ouch.

After our first rounds a few people came over to me and said what an amazing display of horsemanship they witnessed by me with Cupid. They were impressed that he was fresh from the track this year and that I didn’t push him, that I focused on relaxing and calming him. They said it was very good to see.

Then I found out the top 8 riders from each division ride again after lunch for the finals. That was exciting because in the Pro division there were only 7 of us so Kahleesi would get another chance in the ring. It’s a good thing there were only 7 of us because it was extremely tough competition with top extreme cowboy racers in the Pro division – including Susan Caldwell, the fantastic clinician that taught me at the Extreme Cowboy Clinic at Pine Forest Stables a few weeks ago. 

I had to show Pro because I am a coach myself…even though I’m new to this discipline.

Our second ride was amazing. Kahleesi was a lot more confident and we rode through the obstacles much better. We did everything very well except the splash box at the end when I got a bit too excited and forgot to take my deep breath of relaxation before asking her to try so she jumped it instead of walking through it. 

We scored first with our obstacle score of 74 points (nobody else got over 70 in our division) but our time wasn’t as fast as other riders so we got bumped down to 4^th place. I was still ecstatic because my goal was to develop confidence over the obstacles in my horse and do the obstacles well… so getting the best score was definitely success!

After the show they let us go back into the ring and ride the obstacles. The carriage horses were gone now so Cupid was a lot more relaxed and calmly completed the whole course. Kahleesi got to walk through the splash box again, which she did perfectly on the first try. It ended up being a good experience for both horses – full of progress and confidence boosters.

Some of the super interesting obstacles:

• A mattress wrapped in a tarp
• A very narrow splash box
• A very narrow long bridge of only 18” wide! I was super surprised both my horses aced this
• A bridge over tires so it wobbled
• Using a broom to push a ball through a zig zag of poles
• Putting clothes up on a clothes line
• Picking up large stuffed animals and having to ride around with them

I loved the competition because it really is an ultimate test of skill and confidence. The only thing I would change is a little less bonus points for speed so that completing the obstacles accurately counts a bit more towards the final score. Easy for more to say, I know, because I scored the best on this…. But I do feel it’s better to encourage accuracy over speed to some degree.

My proudest moment for Kahleesi was completing the narrow back up with raised poles and we didn’t hit a single one! My proudest moment for Cupid was how he walked over the mattress and bridge like it was nothing. 

I can't wait to do it again - the next one for me will be Marmora Fair on September 6th :)

A week of Hell or a week of Happiness?

This past week has definitely had its fair share of ups and downs. Typically I post highlights and the best moments from my week…. Because that is where I choose to put my focus, but there is more behind the scenes.

I’m going to share with you some of my ‘hells’ from this past week, but also some of the ‘happiness’. You decide what you would be feeling at the end of the week... and trust me there is a point to this!

This seemed to be the week that everything decided to break – the tractor tire had something wonky happen and needed a repair man to come up and fix it, our transmission blew in our TDI Jetta (ouch!) so that was another $3500, our pressure tank for our well decided to blow so that was $1500 to the plumber plus fixing up the wet damage in the basement caused by the pipes (at least it was just water- sewage back up would be worse!); My just purchased used Dodge Ram that had been etested/certified the day before had some electrical problem where all the lights wouldn’t work so there goes another $1100.

My deposit from my new trailer ($4000) still hasn’t been returned and I keep getting the run around that it’s in the mail. I had bought a brand new trailer that was supposed to arrive in May, but when the 3rd week of June came around and they told me they still had no idea of when it would arrive they offered to cancel my order which I accepted. I needed to buy a trailer asap – it is summer and prime horse season. The used trailer I bought is bigger than what I originally was looking for… our Silverado shouldn’t really tow it, so I needed a bigger truck. That led me to buy a big 3500 Dodge this past week. Having a bigger truck & trailer now means I need a CVOR to trailer so I had to do that paperwork and pay bigger bucks to register my truck – so not getting my original trailer has had a huge ripple effect. Oh ya, and I’m not used to driving such a big truck & trailer so I’ve already driven it into our driveway gate and dented the step rail – whoops.

Then the excavation site for our indoor arena is a complete mess – the original company basically dug a hole for the arena to sit in and it’s not even close to level with low spots about 1.5 feet off level. They won’t fix it, so we've hired another company for over $30,000 to fix the mess of the first people and I have to take them to court (papers already filed) to try and get money back from the original job.

A bunch of things that were supposed to be done by now – the indoor arena, fencing, and obstacles aren’t done and have been delayed due to weather or other people’s work schedule.

One of my best lesson horses, Shawna, is suffering from an unknown condition the vet thinks might be a toxin she is trying to fight off but currently is unknown with no treatment. I’ve ordered her a herbal anti inflammatory from the states she will start soon – she has a history of seasonal allergies we can never control (itchy all over – especially her belly, sometimes a runny eye) and this year she also has little swelling bumps that look like golf balls on her legs (around her joints).

My horses I bought for Kentucky are absolutely lovely, but they have ridiculously awful feet, so I needed to buy Cavallo boots (another $150 each), and they have horrible teeth… Cupid with the worst the vet has ever seen, and Kahleesi just had her teeth done last week and has 2 cracked teeth – more great news, right?

My new Genesis saddle that I just bought at the Royal Winter Fair last November already needs reflocking (saddle fitter was up Tuesday) so I have sent that away to be redone.

Plus our footing in our sand ring is now 4 years old and really needed replacing so I had that done last night/tonight while working around summer camp and a show tomorrow.

Oh and when the people came to scrape the manure/dirt from the paddock there was miscommunication so they scraped our muck pile and didn’t take much from the paddock… which was already delayed a few weeks because of rain.

Not to mention all of these things I am figuring out on very little sleep because I go to work every morning and leave by 6:40am, get home from work and then I coach/run summer camp, and get into bed by 11pm if I’m lucky and get woken around 5am by the puppies that need to be let out in the morning… so that’s about 6 hours sleep if I’m lucky.

Even if I think I am ahead of the game and getting to bed early, there is usually a problem like last night when someone decided to clog the toilet with a big poop (I understand poop happens), so I spent nearly an hour trying to plunge and scoop poopy water and I failed… I will have to try a better plunger tonight or will be calling a plumber for that too…. So I literally have poop water waiting for me to deal with when I get home – along with loads of sand for the riding ring to be redone tonight, and a show to set up for tomorrow.  

So what do you think when you read all that?  - that’s not even everything ‘negative’ that’s happened in the last week or so… there is always negative gossip, personal things, physical things, etc.

But here’s my point.

I make a decision every day to be happy.

I am in charge of my own happiness.

I don’t let other people take that from me. I don’t let things breaking or massive bills rob me of my happiness. I don’t let anyone or anything have control over my happiness. 

It is mine, I own it, I choose to be happy, I choose to see the upside, and I choose to see solutions.

If you come around the farm long enough, you’ll learn quickly that I don’t like to hear things like “that can’t be done,” “no we can’t”, “that’s impossible,” or “we can’t fix that,” or other negative phrases… I ask for solutions.

My two most powerful keys to happiness are:

1.         Choose to see the good in every situation – the bad stuff just isn’t worth your energy
2.         If something has gone to heck, focus on the things that can be done to make it better

With all the above ‘hell’ that has happened, here is what I choose to see:

I have a wicked awesome trailer that is so spacious with everything we need and want – James & I have actually slept a few nights in it and we are so excited to take it to New York next weekend with the dogs and horses. Even though I drove it into a gate, at least the gate is okay and it’s just a small dent on the step rail, barely noticeable. I also now have a truck I love – man is it comfy! It even has better fuel economy than my Ford Escape. It’s fantastic because James loves his truck and didn’t really like me driving it, so now we each have our own truck and our own commuter vehicle.

Things break on cars, it happens. Now that the Jetta has a new transmission it should be good to run for a very long time because we already did the timing belt too. Same for the tractor, stuff breaks, and I’m so happy to have the Kubota because it is so easy to drive – plus we still have our Massey as back up if we need it, so really no harm done.

For the water pump – I never liked the carpet in the basement anyway, so now I have an even better reason to rip it up this winter to replace it, and now we have an awesome and way bigger pump installed with a better ‘reserve’ so we’ll be saving in hydro. Heck it was 30 years old so we definitely got our value out of the first one.

The indoor arena situation isn’t ideal, but it’s still on plan to be done before winter – I’ve survived 4 years with no indoor ring, so what’s another few months? Now the people we’ve hired to do the arena site are the same ones who did Sweetwater Stables nearby – an indoor ring that I’ve ridden in and know they did an awesome job - so I’m feeling pretty excited about this decision.

The fencing and obstacles are slowly getting done…. I can’t control that, so I just make sure the workers have what they need to get the job done. The obstacle show is August 29^th so we still have time to get the ‘wow’ factor accomplished. On the plus side we do have a lot done - a splash box, a couple new jumps, some nicely redone poles & standards, and a few other new obstacles. I just tell myself ‘patience Lindsey, patience.’  

The paddock scraping is set for Tuesday, so that will be done soon - and James and Justin did a great job scraping in the meantime to make it better for the horses. The arena footing was due for a change and I am excited to have nice new footing for the show on Saturday.

I’ve done what I can for Shawna at this point – she is still happy to come out and play. I can just hope the new herbal anti inflammatory helps. She is her usual self, so that is good.

Cupid and Kahleesi might need a lot of dental work and new hoof boots – but they are becoming two of our best lesson horses and are doing so amazing. They are so honest, kind, and quiet. They are wonderful editions to the PHH crew. Plus the hoof boots should last a long time and in the future another horse may need them so it’s good to have extra sizes of boots on hand.

For the saddle fitting, the reflocking is only costing $100 and that’s a small price to pay for my horse’s comfort. I’m excited to have it back and ride with confidence knowing my horse is happy – plus on the bright side, two of my other horses only needed a gullet change and some shims to make their saddles right and everyone else was fitting well – so that was great news.

Clogged toilet with poopy water… well there isn’t much of an upside to that one, but at least I had just brought in an outhouse a few days earlier so we still have multiple options for where to poop.

Little sleep – sure it’s hard, but puppies are adorable and I’m energized from sharing my passion for horses with students. I wish when I was learning to ride that natural horsemanship/centered riding was more readily available, so I am so thrilled to be giving so many students this experience.

It is truly rewarding to see the progression of students, and these are the faces that bring me happiness – people like...

• Laurie who was so terrified of her horse when she came to our farm and now she is competing in barrel racing and obstacle events this year, 
• Yvonne & Kim who have only been with us a year and are already mastering canter & obstacle challenges, 
• Jill who just bought her first horse and has been riding less than a year, but is successfully retraining her off the track TB, Maya who has been teaching her horse natural collection without using a bit, 
• Pat & John who took up riding as a retired couple that were scared to be on horses at first and now can canter around the ring enjoying it, 
• Franny who has turned her pushy Fjord pony into a summer camp super star, 
• Morgan who has taught her horse how to jump, Wendy who switched lesson farms and went from cross rails to 2’3 jumpers getting champion at most shows in less than a year, 
• Sue who has a very spooky horse and mastered tarps and other obstacles, 
• Raine who is filming her Parelli level 3 this summer, 
• Christina who took a horse that would get into the ring and have a catatonic meltdown and used natural horsemanship to build her confidence to create a 2ft jumper super star in only a few months, 
• Danica who recently bought her first horse and turned her from crazy to crazy awesome, 
• Cailey who knocks our socks off with her jumping skills and mastered flying changes recently, 
• Kayla who bought her first horse and impresses me every day with her love and devotion, 
• Caileigh who has become such a valued PHH coach and went from Hunter Queen to Hunter Queen with a natural horsemanship twist, 
• Nikita & Natalia who bought their first horse and are taking the time to do things right and are creating such a loving horse, Sabrina who turned a rearing horse into a dream ride, 
• Annalise who has turned a sassy chestnut mare into a willing partner she can ride with no bridle, 
• Emma & Ashleigh who are mastering their canter skills, 
• Charleigh who is doing a fantastic job teaching Cupid to jump, 
• Heather who brought her unstarted gelding only a couple months ago and is now riding him on trails & obstacles, 
• Elana who challenges herself every lesson and is mastering ground games & progressing in the saddle, 
• Robyn who is learning to canter, 
• Anastasia who has become the best camp director and mastered riding Thetis!
• Carolyn who has become so integral PHH and has found ways to keep us organized, 
• and to all the other students & campers (I’m sorry I didn’t name everyone!) that are making such amazing progress!

Last but definitely not least, I have an amazing family & husband that support me everyday and work hard to make PHH a thriving reality. Thank you for being such amazing people – you help me find happiness every single day. I am super proud of all of you and very thankful for you.

We are all in charge of our own happiness - and we can all help someone else find happiness.

A positive attitude goes a long way, and a few kind words go even further.

Spread a little happy.

Have a happy weekend, and thank you for being awesome & reading my blog post, you rock! J