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January 2010 Archive

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 2010

Horses Make Me Happy

Horses make me happy.

For the last few months, our horses have been enjoying a well-deserved break while we catch up on office work. So I was pretty excited yesterday when I managed to escape from the paperwork and bolt up to the barn for a ride.

The first thing that I did was go into our pasture and rub all the horses. Our horses are pretty positive guys, and they were all competing for attention. Just scratching them and smelling that perfect horse smell was enough to put me in the running for the happiest person in the world.

And then I took out my big black gelding, Zephyr, threw on a saddle and rope hackamore and off we went! The ground was pretty hard and he’s been on holiday so we didn’t do too much, but even just a good trot down the road was enough to have me grinning from ear to ear.

What is it about horses that affects us this way? I don’t really know, but I love it - and I love them.

POSTED BY CELENA AT 4:52 PM      0 COMMENTS     POST A COMMENT
CATEGORIES: HAPPINESS, WINTER RIDING

SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2010

What Do YOU Think???

Owing Heartwood, where we have a lot of fun with our horses, lay a solid foundation and find them great new homes, is an amazing opportunity. Not only do we get to do what we love and meet great, like-minded horsepeople, but we get to experience many different horses. And what a gift that is for developing our horsemanship!

Because we are not currently blessed with an indoor arena or good weather, we are spending a lot of time this winter researching different horsemanship methods. Yes, that means that we get to read horsemanship books and watch horsemanship DVDs while on the clock. What could be better?!

Our goal is not just to further our own horsemanship, but also to outline a horse development strategy. In the spring, we plan to hire a student to come in and work with us. So far, since Anna and my philosophies are pretty parallel, we haven't laid out our exact program - that is, what we do, step by step, with our horses. But since we are bringing a student into the mix, in order to reduce the number of gaps and ensure that our horses have that real foundation, an written game plan seems like a good idea.

Anna and I have both always been very open-minded and explored many different avenues of horsemanship. We like to sort through information, take what we feel is relevant and in line with our philosophy and leave the rest. We love seeing the different methods out there and incorporating different techniques into our training as we find them.

Sometimes I wonder if it would be better to just stick with one program, but most of the time I'm pretty happy to take note of the similarities and differences in the approaches out there and use what makes sense to me.

So what do I want your input on? I want to know the one thing you have found most beneficial to you and your horse. Is there an exercise that you find indispensable? A technique? A game? Why?

As a 'collector' of horsemanship information, I'm hoping for some really neat ideas to try out!

POSTED BY CELENA AT 8:17 PM      2 COMMENTS     POST A COMMENT
CATEGORIES: ANNA, APPLYING NH, ASPIRING HORSEMAN, DEVELOPING HORSES, LAYING THE FOUNDATION, NATURAL HORSEMANSHIP EXERCISES, NATURAL HORSEMANSHIP PHILOSOPHIES, NATURAL HORSEMANSHIP TECHNIQUES