Our favorite Anytime Fitness instructor, coach, and all around great guy, Kenny Hall, will be leading a special fitness class at Freedom Farm!! This is gonna be fun and feel great!!

We've been getting calls from folks whose horses have had too much of the good stuff - that fabulous spring grass so high in sugar.  

If you are having trouble, we have pens available that are grass-free and staff that can help you with your horse's recovery. 

 

 

 

Over the last three months we've practiced sending your horse to a specific point, backing with precise focus, and squeezing between narrow openings. Now we'll address  moving sideways.  What does yielding sideways have to do with going into a horse trailer? When you close the slant divider on a trailer, your horse has to yield left from you (or the swinging divider) INTO the pressure of the trailer wall or partition.  

 

Exercises:  

1) Ask your horse to stand over a pole and then move sideways off of it, one step at a time.  

 

2) With your horse facing perpendicular to a solid wall, ask him to step his hindquarters until he is now parallel and quite close to the wall.

 

GOAL: Your horse can confidently step his hindquarters one way or the other without feeling the need to push forward. He is not worried about being asked to step towards a solid wall.

 

Begin by checking your basic hindquarter and forequarter yields. Can you isolate which part of your horse you ask to move? Can he move softly without rushing?  Once that is in place, ask him to straddle the end of a pole. Play with asking him to move first his forehand, then his hindquarter so he steps sideways off the last few inches of the pole. Progress to having him move across over a few feet of the pole, stopping calmly at any point. The idea is to develop very clear communication about moving laterally in what could be a claustrophobic situation.

 

 

Once your horse feels fine about a little lateral work over a pole, take it to a nice solid fence or a wall. (Note - keep safety in mind - I wouldn't ask a horse to sidestep towards a wire fence.) Face your horse perpendicular to the wall. Then, one step at a time, ask him to swing his hip towards the wall.  Some horses are truly troubled by this - take it slow and build his confidence.  Even though you will mostly need the left to right sidestep in a trailering situation, it is always good to  practice on sides equally. This same maneuver is important in opening gates, having your horse sidestep to a mounting block, etc.  

 

With the past few months' exercises, you and your horse have developed the basic communication you need when  you first ask him to load into a trailer.  There are many more simulations we can play with to advance your skills, but next month I'd like to talk about some basic safety tips with trailer loading.

 by Michelle Grimmer

 

Earlier this spring, I wrote about setting goals and working toward them as the year progresses. So far things are going well, and the horses I am working with are right on track...but what about me? Am I on track? My focus on my client horses' progress and my busy life has taken my attention away from my own growth as a rider. If I had to pick a goal, what would it be?

 

Recently I watched the 2014 George H. Morris Excellence In Equitation Exhibition, a horse show where young riders compete against each other without their coaches' help. No coach in the warm up ring, no coach giving pointers on how to ride around their jumping course - they even take their cell phones away. The big test was for these riders to go out and think for themselves, putting their skills to the test. (I note that these riders spend most of their show ring time under the constant tutelage of their coaches, so it is no accident that they were able to perform well.)  As I watched rider after rider put in near-flawless rounds, I honed in on their position in the saddle. Lovely balance, great rhythm, heels down, eyes up. Position in the saddle matters so much, and it is often the biggest challenge that we riders face. Watching them brought to mind something that George Morris once said at a clinic I attended: "When you see something good, copy it!"

 

For my entire riding life, I have struggled with my posture. I do quite a bit of unsupervised riding, and without someone reminding me to sit up, my position becomes less than ideal. In addition to riding without a coach, I am a full time college student, and spend quite a bit of time slouching on the couch doing homework - not very good for my posture! Well, this afternoon I saw something that made me realize that enough is enough. I saw a picture of myself from my ride this afternoon ON FACEBOOK! Oh dear. It seems I was slouching.

 

Tomorrow morning I shall get in my car at 6:15 a.m. and drive to Sequim to see Kenny-the-Ride-Fit-Guru to begin the process of solving my problem. My personal goal is to become a stronger rider with impeccable posture. This will make me a much more effective rider, and my vanity will appreciate that there will be no more me-being-slouchy pictures posted on the internet for all to see. 

 

Having shared my thoughts here about goal-setting, I am taking my own advice: to articulate a specific goal is a step in itself on the path toward attaining it. There is always a next step to take. It may be a tough, and some of us may take longer to get there, but in my book, any progress is good progress. It has taken me 30 years to decide that I need to address my postural issues once and for all. Let's hope that it doesn't take 30 more to fix them!

Facebook tells all! Slouchy me.