First, a farewell salute to a wonderful woman. Kathy Tegarden - your courage and grace thru the fight will forever amaze me and influence my way. I'm glad Gryffindor was able to give you those times of joy and I will always remember us singing in a round driving to Flagstaff. To you: Swingin' along the open road, under a sky that's clear. Swingin' along the open road, in the fall of the year. Swingin' along, swingin' along, swingin' along the open road, all in the fall of the year.

There are tons of DVD's out there offering great skills training of horse and person (although the rider training is lacking in my opinion, most are training horse to do something) and I highly recommend watching them. Learn all you can and use what you learn. My part is to offer what's behind the curtain. The 'why's, when's and how's' of the DVD's that only give the 'what's'. The reading between the lines of 'regular' horsemanship. Just came upon this quote and simply can't resist plugging it in:

"Learning is not compulsory, but neither is survival."

-- W. Edwards Deming

Just so ya know, I'm hard at work on my book, 'Balky Balky, I Ain't Goin''. It will most likely come out as an e-book first. And speaking of e-books, I wrote a chapter for a book from a publisher in the UK that came out on the 14th of March. It's called 'Insiders Know-how: Owning and Caring for Your Horse', and here's the link.

                        

Concept Thinking:
Does counting to ten in Spanish mean someone speaks Spanish? I'll even include "Una cerveza mas, por favor" and "Donde esta el ban~o". This does not mean they speak Spanish, it just means they can say three things in Spanish. Spanish, the language is not three sentences. It's a huge thing. This isn't semantics. It's different thinking.
Saying/doing something doesn't even necessarily mean it's understood. Many times I ask a student to say the word "palabra".    Say it again.    Say it again.    So, I guess you know what it means. After all, you said it three times and many horse people say if you make a horse do something three times, it means they know it...       (I'm wondering how many people will take the time to find out what the word means)

"I've felt that dissatisfaction is the basis of progress. When we become satisfied in business, we become obsolete."  -- J. Willard Marriott Sr

Did you look up the word? Are you satisfied with your horsemanship? Are you satisfied with your horse's training? Notice I didn't say your horse, because he's fine without you 'training' him. What you want out of your horse is YOUR need, not his. Horses need food, water and occasionally shelter. Your training of them? - not so much.

"What holds so many employees back is an unwillingness to pay the price, to make the effort to sacrifice their ease and comfort."

-- Orison Marden, writer

OOOO... sacrifice ease and comfort? rrrrr..... Pay a price? Uhmmmmm... I don't think...

 

This I think: Changing the way you think about your horse is at the same time the hardest thing you'll do and the simplest. It's certainly the quickest way to a better result. But as we all know - easy and simple are NOT the same thing. And it's NOT easy to change the way you think. Plus, you need a guide :-D (me) for the uncharted territory.

Another example would be to say that because you can add 2+2 you're a rocket scientist. And I would hate to leave out my favorite snarky line - Having a brain doesn't make you a brain surgeon. Many years ago, I wrote an article for a horse publication with this title. So, I suppose if I'm mellowing with age, I'm not aging much ;D

Take getting on a horse, walking along, staying on??? Means they did those three things, that time, period. Does not a rider make.
This horsemanship thing is a life long deal. And I couldn't be happier having such a noble subject to explore for my entire life. Join me?

 

For exceptional results, think "how and how can I".

Upcoming stuff:
Markers - you don't really know unless you measure.
What does it take? What are you missing? If you're missing it, how do you know it? AWARENESS!

Sincerely,
ME