I was listening to a podcast recently where Stacey Westfall discussed the differences between testing and training (she uses the word teaching interchangably for training). Stacey was talking about the process of learning vs the process of showing what has been learned. Anyone who rides a horse has to do some amount of at leastContinue reading “Training or Testing?”
Category Archives: Horsemanship
Leadership Conversation
Summer has been pretty good to us here in Virginia. I have been on a slightly different routine with Khaleesi where I have been aiming for more polarized training. This includes regular low intensity training like hiking up and down the mountain that doesn’t break down her body but builds the engine contrasted with fewerContinue reading “Leadership Conversation”
No Man’s Land
June brought some down time after the OD ride and some fun cross training. Khaleesi enjoys jumping and I love trying different things so we went to visit Caroline for a fabulous day of lessons and lunch with a bonus of relaxing in the river in the afternoon. Iva came along and rode Stella theContinue reading “No Man’s Land”
The truth will set you free.
For being a relatively confident person who doesn’t deal with many fears and anxieties, endurance events this year have been a unusual source of great unknowing and nerves. I think the main reason for this is I have some hypothesis in play that are a bit untested and trying out some things that could goContinue reading “The truth will set you free.”
Everything is grace.
I really need to be on the road early. It would be so much easier to close her in the smaller paddock than take the chance I’ll have to follow her around the many acre field in the near dawn hoping she will be on board with leaving with me for the weekend. She isn’tContinue reading “Everything is grace.”
Equine Shabbat?
This season I am committed to offering Khaleesi as much choice as she can possibly have, as is my habit: to the very edge and sometimes probably over the edge depending on where you’re looking at it from. I am also committed to approaching this season differently than I have in the past such as:Continue reading “Equine Shabbat?”
Efficiency & Energy Leaks
March 30, 2022 Where is the energy leaking? This question asked by Emily Kemp last summer has been key for me in pinpointing what is going on in my horse as I’m riding her. I want to bring K around not only with cardio fitness and muscling but the muscles in the right places toContinue reading “Efficiency & Energy Leaks”
Begin again… again… again…
March 11, 2022 I haven’t had much to write since the end of January when I mused about the predatory nature of humans and how it can affect our horse herds. We have had winter, and it’s busy season for me in the music world. The November-January rabbit hole of liberty experimentation fell away toContinue reading “Begin again… again… again…”
Predator?
There is a saying that goes something like students who beginners are always trying to work on advanced things, but the truly advanced are always circling back to the beginning, the fundamentals. If this is true I feel like I might be light years ahead because I feel like I’m constantly going back, and thenContinue reading “Predator?”
Rest Reset
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heavens. Ecclesiastes 3 Spring and Summer of 2021 turned out to be pretty intense for Khaleesi. I am really pleased with how she carried herself in balance and strength mentally-emotionally and physically. But regardless, the kind of stress of returnContinue reading “Rest Reset”
green to 100 