Horsemanship for Wellbeing

I'd like to talk about Well-being and how we can approach our horsemanship with both of our Well being as a priority.

As a trainer who does Yoga, I very much bring the Yogic mind to my work, teaching and training. This is not only in the physical sense of a flexible strong posture, but also the mind-body connection.

In pursuit of the best relationship and training program possible with my horse. I must focus first on the Connection and Friendship, Then I must stay mindful of who my horse is, where they are in there physical state, and what is most fun, healthy and beneficial to them.

Combining a Natural Approach to Classical Dressage with Yoga and Physical Therapy Principles allows me to bring my horses along in a way that is supportive to not just their bodies but their minds as well. I see myself as a sort Yoga instructor/Physical therapist for my horses. Part of my daily work is to come up with gentle supportive Liberty-Line-Mounted progressions that are not only beneficial but fun for both of us. In Yoga, you never push the body beyond what it can comfortably do and still stay breathing and relaxed. You listen to the body very carefully and do just enough to have a benefit.

An important mind set to have when working with a horse is that you are a Physical therapist or Yoga instructor. I call it staying in the PTYI (Physical Therapist/Yoga Instructor) mind. When we stay in this mind, we wont push a horse harder then is beneficial for their Well being. When you introduce an exercise, Imagine it is your horses' first Yoga or PT session ever. Then imagine yourself having to go to your first Yoga/Pilates class. You would like an instructor who would not ask you for anything harder then you could do. If you were sore and even injured after the first session, you most certainly wouldn't want to go back for another session.

Classical Dressage is in fact Yoga/Pilates/Physical Therapy for horses. It belongs in every program regardless of discipline as the training foundation. Thoughtfully and conscientiously applied, it can improve your connection further with your horse on the ground and mounted. It can help your horses mind-body connection and can rehabilitate some horses that have extreme Symmetry issues. 

It can become a form of meditation together if you avoid the Left brain, perfection, hamster wheel trap so many people fall into. Each day you can meet together and do your "Yoga" session at Liberty, In Hand and Mounted. It doesn't matter whether you ride Western or English. It's all good.

I will be adding new exercises and patterns to the FDHorsemanship Virtual Clinic so be sure to check it out! In the mean time, Enjoy this video which to me, shows all facets of what I look for in my program with my horses. Joy, Fun, Connection, Technical play, fitness and suppleness play, and horse Yoga and Physical Therapy!

Playing with Bridless Dressage

Here is another video of my exploration of Bridless Dressage, The Natural Outline and Ground Play with my Liberty Rein. Hope you enjoy it!
http://youtu.be/8r15fCoYkXk
http://www.fdhorsemanship.com/
http://fdhvirtualclinic.com/

Labor Day Clinic 2012: The Mercury Show Part 1

The Labor day Clinic at Back Acres farm was really fun and interesting as always! It is a fairly local location for me so I am able to offer some truly special experiences that I can't when I travel abroad and farther afield.

One of the experiences I can offer is a twist on my Liberty class. I usually offer this in my 3 day clinics, but in this one, it is done with a herd. This is a great way to get to work with a group of horses and really see how special this work is. At my UK clinic at the New Horse and this one I have the ability to lease horses to participants for the 3 days. In this particular clinic, I did not assign horses but let people Share Territory (Carolyn Resnick) with the horses in the herd setting and then tell me which horse they resonated with. No Surprise to me, everyone picked the horse I would have given them on their own. Funny how that works! Because of my Liberty-Line-Mounted progression, The people who leased horses get to see how the work allows you to build connection with a completely new horse in a short time and how it flows beautifully into the Line and Mounted work. I saw people and horses they had never met, or ridden in wonderful harmony right up to Mounted FUN!damentals. Amazing to see!

I was also able to offer my local team of Holistic practitioners from Ravenhill Equine Wellness to work on and demonstrate Natural Balance dentisty and Equine Chiropractic on participants horses. Otherwise known as The Whole approach to Horsemanship.

 Last but certainly not least, I can bring Mercury in for his personal appearance so he can share his thoughts on Being Fantastic, Connection, Liberty, Bitless Riding, and Bridless Bareback Dressage. This Clinic will be my Annual Flagship clinic. So don't miss out on the next one! Also keep a watch for Ravenhill Equine Wellness and Farah DeJohnette Horsemanship Horsie Spa days. I'll Keep you posted! Here is the Part one of the Mercury Show. Once again Mercury showed me what Love, Connection, Joy, and fun are all about. Enjoy!
 http://www.fdhorsemanship.com/
http://fdhvirtualclinic.vidmeup.com/

The Natural Outline

The Natural collected outline in Piaffe with my Liberty Rein

There has been much opinion and dispute over the correct "frame" "headset" or Outline a horse should have for various disciplines or activities.

As usual, I decided after studying all these points of view to go to the experts to ask them what they think. The experts are the horses. I ask them a lot about what works and doesn't work for them. Sometimes we (humans) decide that we know better then our horses and I think that's when we get into trouble.

I started exploring the natural outline at Liberty and watching horses with no tack. I then looked at conformations, movement, training, and habitual postures. I have the good fortune to work with many disciplines and breeds. It is easy to work with a nicely put together horse that is suited for a discipline. But, I am always most gratified to take horses on that are needing rehabilitation. With proper dressage exercises and good Fundamentals(and possibly some chiropractic and acupuncture), even the seemingly most challenged horses can have dramatic turnarounds.

This takes time and it is not a fast fix. There is often atrophy, asymetry and muscle memory patterns that will take patient, careful plans to overcome. It is a lot like Physical therapy in some cases. It can change from day to day and require constant adjustment to the needs of the horse.

All horses require time and patience regardless of talent, or conformation. In fact often the most ruined horses are the ones that show promise. They get rushed through the levels of training because of their ability. Their good nature is taken advantage of and or they are injured in the process. They are often mentally depleted as a result.

The exercises I use are centered around Liberty and my Liberty rein because they allow the horse the freedom to show me where they want to carry their posture. They are trained from where they tell me to start. You can do theses exercises with my Bitless bridle, Halter, or Bitted bridle. Another reason to choose the Liberty rein is that is will deter you from being able to pull on the horses head. The Liberty rein allows you to focus on your communication and body language and removes the temptation of controlling the horses head. Watch your horse without tack and let him show you where to start. See Natural Outline Liberty rein exercises at the FDHorsemanship Virtual Clinic
http://www.fdhorsemanship.com/
http://fdhvirtualclinic.vidmeup.com/

Probiotics: Equine Wellness tip

Probiotics are an important part of my Wellness program with my horses and dogs and even myself! Probiotics are, if you don't know, microorganisms that are beneficial for overall health and wellness.

Probiotics have been shown to:
 

• Enhance the immune system's ability to fight infections throughout our tissues
• Provide a source of Vitamin K
• Control bowel toxicity
• Reduce gas production.
• Reduced incidence of Colic
• Improved digestion, nutrition absorption and food utilization.
• Reduced inflammation
• Reduced Candida (thrush) symptoms.
• Reduced allergy response.
• Rebalance the gut when administering Anti-biotics
• Rebalance the gut after de-worming
• Beneficial to prevention and healing of Ulcers

Specific Probiotic strains and strengths are beneficial for certain health issues. It is good to know which ones are in the products you select and how many viable organisms are in each serving. For starters you want about 2 billion minimum. See some general Strains listed here:

Bacillus coagulans 

This strain can be helpful for Irritable Bowel Syndrome or Chronic Intestinal inflammation which is becoming more common in horses. This probiotic strain can also help with immune response against viral challenge.

Bifidobacterium
This strain is beneficial to digestion and vitamin absorption as well as Chronic diarrhea. It can benefit allergies and immune response. Can also help reduce stomach ulcers.

Lactobacillus acidophilus 

Best for Candida albicans (Thrush/Yeast infections) and helps reduce allergic response. Compared to other probiotics, Lactobacillus acidophilus survives the best in the conditions of the gastro intestinal tract when compared to other strains.

Lactobacillus casei

Is another strain that supports digestion, Nutrition absorption, and GI inflammatory issues. 

 I use Probiotics as a regular part of my Immune, Anti-Ulcer, Anti-Colic, Optimum nutrition approach. If you are looking for support for a specific health concern, check which profile may be best for best results. Here is the link to some high quality, different blends of Probiotics from Earthsong ranch:

http://www.earthsongranch.com/Equine-Yeast-+-38p359.htm

http://www.earthsongranch.com/Equine-Zyme-3p225.htm#details

http://www.earthsongranch.com/Equine-Zyme-Plus-3p230.htm

Here is another good site for Probiotics

http://udoerasmus.com/products/probiotics_en.htm

Tail Swishing

Fly Swishing

I thought it would be good to look into this particular body language in horses a bit more closely. I find it discussed quite a bit and thought I'd share my experience with it.

Horses and cats share a common expression with their tails with the exception of horses also obviously use their tails for fly protection as well as communication. I have observed horses tail swishing for a number of reasons.

1. Annoyance
2. Pain
3. Dominance
4. Communication with other horses or animals
5. unique momentary communications
6. Frustration

 In order to understand the source of the swishing and the communication behind it. I usually observe very carefully the exact time the tail swishing occurs.

I am working with a mare right now who swishes her tail in the canter because it hurts her. She also bucks in the canter so she is giving a communication of discomfort and therefore a warning that she may buck thereafter. This is clear communication. I learned this by observing her carefully at Liberty and on a Lunge line and noticing precisely the timing of this communication. It is helping know how she feels about things as I am rehabbing her for her owners. I also observe when I am grooming if a particular area I touch gets a swish. I need to see if this is a painful spot or if the horse is defensive/protective of a spot for some reason.

I have observed horses swishing at each other in their herds when they are communicating over various interactions. A horse may move another horse and swish at him or the horse being moved may swish at the request of being moved.

This leads me to dominance and swishing. Sometimes when we make requests that are new or are learning to be better Leaders, our horses will not be so thrilled at this change in the pattern of things. I often work with new students and their horses are quite content in their postion of "Leading their person. There may be some Swishing around Leadership Exercises and requests that usually diminish over time.

Sometimes in training when work is challenging or difficult, there will be momentary swishes. If this were to carry on with regularity, I would examine the practice and see where it needed to be adjusted.

Horses being very sensitive in general are likely to swish and new things touching them or touches that feel like flies or bugs landing or biting. For that matter they may even kick out or bite at it. Once they understand a touch or feel they will most likely stop unless they are extremely reactive types.

In instances of Annoyance or as I sometimes say a horse is Miffed. They can be expressing toward you emotions that are unique to that horse and it is on us to really tune in and "Know" our horses to interpret that communication. So watch for this body language in your horse and observe and see if you can find the different meanings. More oats for thought.
http://www.fdhorsemanship.com/

Horse Journal: Django's challenge

Sharing Territory with Django

Django has gone back home to his person and I had a lot of fun with him. He did pose an interesting training challenge which Carolyn Resnick's Waterhole Ritual work held the only solution.

His person was not able to work with Django and I together more then a few times while he was with me. She lives out of state and it was difficult for her to come as often as she and I would have liked.

The challenge was/is an interesting one. Django had been with his person from 6 months old and though she did as much foundation work as she could, he had established some difficult behavior patterns with her.

He was dragging her around on the lead, he was very much in your personal space a lot and not easy to move (in fact quite opinionated about it!) He was extremely pushy around food and or feeding time. These are not difficult patterns to work with, but if you don't have the tools, they can be very frustrating if not dangerous.

I set about doing what I do over the time he was with me and we had some conversations over the Waterhole Rituals about how Django could maybe allow me to Lead him (I mean that literally and figuratively) and we got along great and he thought training was fun and showed up at the door each time I came to play with him.

I would text his person about how good he was and how much fun we were having and she saw his video updates as well so she could watch and learn how I was working with him. Then when we did get the chance to work together, she had some ideas about the exercises we were working with.

The challenges arose around the leading and line work. I actually had never had much issue with Django as I laid the foundations down for each stage of the Liberty, Line , Mounted progression. BUT when I would hand him over to his person to try what he had learned he would revert back to square one. He would pull her all over if not yank the line clean out of her hand and go where ever he pleased. When she would get the line back, he would just do it again and again and again. I also observed that he was still pushy with her around food despite how polite he had now become with me.

I knew some of this was because we hadn't been able to work together, but even to me it was excessive and disrespectful. I could see what he was doing to her was a pattern they had that was more deeply ingrained then I had anticipated. It was the way he saw their relationship. So how do I fix this??

I would work with him the day after she came and he would be perfect again! This is how patterns are established with different people with horses. When Django came to me, we had no patterns established. He didn't know me or the barn people so he had to establish a new pattern with us. That pattern was a good one of how to fit in with the way we do things at the farm. Over time he became better and better to work with.

When I watched the way Django treated her it upset me as I would be upset with another horse being unfairly treated in the herd. He was bullying her just because he could. I knew he was playful and young but I also knew that in the time he had been with me, he had learned how to treat people nicely. I decided the only way to help him understand that he should not treat her like that was to show him how I would like this other herd member to be treated.

I did a couple things to show him this. One was I had her hold treats or food and if he went to push into her rudely to get it, I would be the one to back him up or send him away. If I didn't like the way he came toward her, I requested that he not come any closer. When I liked how he approached, I let her feed him. Now in his mind, he had to respect our fellow herd mate the same way he respected me. I then asked her to protect me from how he approached when I had food so he would see that she had leadership control over how he treated me. I could see he understood that the leadership I had with him also carried over to his person not just me. This was the first step toward changing their pattern. I had to show him how to treat her. I feel it is my job as a good leader to maintain harmony and balance in my "herds" My herd includes many animals and people.

This proved to be a much bigger challenge then training him which was quite easy and fun! I am used to horses being different with different people, but this was a very tough case! I will continue to work with them at his own place to help them continue to promote their new relationship patterns. I'll keep updates on progress.
FDH
http://www.fdhorsemanship.com/