Tag: Carson

Testing……..

Posted on by Stefanie in Uncategorized

Testing…………………

Testing…………………..

Anyone still out there??????????????

eeeesh! Its been a 3 month dry spell for no writing and I am missing it and looking forward to getting to blab on and on again…!

BUT! hahahahaha Not tonight! But, I would like to share and invite everyone (all 2 of you….:) to come and visit me at the Mane Event this year!

YES! I will have a booth, #606 or alternatively, just look for the dogs. I am very excited/nervous, and look forward to trying something new and different again….because you can’t hardly do too much of that growing and learning stuff!

So swing by and have a coffee/tea and we will get the chance to catch up face to face….Happily, this event is also causing me to set some Camp Dates for 2011 (2011!!!!!!!!!) very early (especially for me!:) and just as a sneak hint, the 71/2 Diamond ones will include COWS!!!!!!!!

Thanks for your support, patience and love, see you soon!

PS the pics are of Carson in the water jump, me holding the camera and lead rope out of the water, and Indy, Cita and Ivy teaching him how to splash, play and do the Can Can……… Why I am the one who gets paid, I’ll never know…………….


Why is it ?

Posted on by Stefanie in Uncategorized

Why is it that the smallest things are so often the biggest things?

Like the other day with Carson. He spends his day in a (albeit large) paddock or with me, and never really gets to do his crazy leap, buck, fart and gallop madly aboutthat he is famous for. So after we had tacked and gone to the ring, I changed my mind (generally accepted behavior for a girl, after all) and stripped his work clothes off and let him have a good play. Our ring up here is surrounded on all sides by the fields with horses in them, and I was expecting him to go bonkers. Well. He DID run and Piaffe, and prance and visit with everyone quite quickly and then……….he trotted over and put his head on my chest, ignoring all his horsey buddies to be with…..me.
I was wonder struck for a couple reasons. Firstly there was NO bucking, no spirally, twisting, cavorting, just straight running and prancing. And secondly, his desire to be with me was deeply touching. This is a guy who tends towards ‘explosive’ behavior and it just wasn’t there. Very, very interesting….My sense is maybe he is like a kid after school who no longer acts out by spray painting the neighborhood, but just plays hockey with his buddies, and then heads home for dinner on time. Small little thing, but the underlying change in attitude feels huge.

Like when you realize that your horse may not be swishing his tail because he’s being rude, but because maybe YOU are being rude………

Like when regularly worked horses come to be haltered from in the field……

Like when horses sidle on over to you on their own when you get on the mounting block?

Why is it that our horses are such a direct reflexion of us?

Like when we are strugging so hard to figure them out, and why, oh why are they doing something, and how oh how can we change it? Stop, feel and look at what we are doing. Like me and Indy, say are like an old married couple ( sorry to those that are….:) that have spent all that time together and for various reasons are real easy to trigger into less then shall we say optimal behavior. And now that I am trying a different approach in our relationship, and he STILL HAS THE NERVE TO ACT THE SAME WAY!!!!!!!! and I get all triggered back, and and and….oh….geez! What am I feeling…. resentment? ( he should know this by now) what is he feeling ….resentment!(I so DO know this, can we move on now?)hmmmm
What am I feeling?……confusion? ( oh what am I going to do if this doesn’t work, rats I forgot to get dinner out of the freezer, I thought the farrier would be here by now, I wonder if I should go back to the snaffle, oh, there goes Lynne…oh! she’s coming in here…oh dang) What is he feeling? Confusion!( Oh this move again, Hey! there’s Mango!, I think I heard Cita calling, I wonder if she remembered to pick up more hay, hey, who put that pole on the ground under that tree three fields over…)
What are you feeling? Bliss… what is he feeling? Bliss…you are both in the same place at the same time…which is now. hmmmmmm

Like when we can’t get them top pick up that darn right lead for anything and we have a sore back and go to the Chiropractor and he tells us ” Boy, are your hips ever locked up right now!’ ahhhhh

Why is it that whatever we believe to be true is?

Like when we think we are on a true path for ourselves, and feel inner guidance and strength and everything flows smoothly that day, from horses to banking to even smiling through a flat tire…?

Like when we are assailed by self doubt, evil internal tapes full of trapdoor thoughts and we allow others opinions about ourselves matter more then our own do we have terrible timing, rotten feel and inevitably the cheque bounces?( like we are having a terrible time, feel rotten and are emotionally bankrupt)? hmmmm

Why IS it that the littlest things mean the most???????

Like frogs in spring?, Like eating four pounds of hair a day as they drop the winter woolies? Like knowing dear friends feel what you are going through and are just there, having faith, trying to just allow? Like the gentle nuzzle from a horse that has never reached out before? Like just riding like my horse and I are one and allowing it to happen instead of trying to make that shoulder lift up? Like seeing a dog lick a scared, new horse’s nose? Like finding five bucks in the truck and spending it on a super yummy White Spot Milk shake….and sharing with the dogs? Like sitting down for a few minutes with the horses as they chomp away on dinner, the sounds of the gentle mastication of all that hay, slowly turning into tomorrows poo….and they gaze at you out of the sides of their eyes, wondering about you, too?

For those of you that may be wondering about the dull lack of photos….there is apparently a ‘Glitch’ in the system somewhere, but……that would be a small thing as well:)

Emotional Yoga

Posted on by Stefanie in Blog

Today started out weird. You know, one of thooooooosse days! Days when you wonder what you are, what you really know, why the dream means so much, how to make it all make sense and just feeling sorta overwhelmed by it all. You know….one of those days. And so with far to many thoughts spiraling around and around in my noodle, I spend a good chunk of my morning with my new friend, the spade. Now, never underestimate the handiness of a spade when you need to chip half frozen horse poop out of the ice it has become one with and then Mr. Poo Fork is happy to do the scooping once it has become dislodged. Oh! When will it snow again! Winter’s not over by a long shot here, and I muse pensively on the fact that I will soon be going through this icy time again.
Happily, this meditative therapy slows the incessant chatter down in my head somewhat as I grab my friends Carson and Gumby out, and prepare them for what I envision to be an interesting, yet promising ride. I think about what I am planning for this ride as I wait for Gumby to soften and lower his head and accept the bit, deciding on who to ride out, and how best to set it up for all of us to win and gain confidence. Hmmmmmmm Ride Gumby out, pony Carson, switch for the return home. Yep, that’s the ticket.
There are a few things that could be fairly big tests on this sort of an excursion, so allow me a moment to expand. Both of these horses have had prior tendencies to over-react to higher stress intensity situations, one by bolting, the other by bucking. Ponying someone is a trigger still for Gumby, having to deal with another horse’s energy and their pressure that close to him are tough. Also we will be going past a long time fear spot (Land of Horrifying Irrigation Systems). Carson is very, very aware of other horse energy, and this is something for him to be with Gumby’s BIG energy and tension, and they do not really know one another real well. So, I feel they are both ready for this test, and I want them to succeed, gain confidence in themselves and what they can handle, and to know, they have to be exposed.
Out they drive we go, Gum walking out at his crazy fast walk, and Carson has to trot to keep up, immediately setting a tone for the ride, and kicking up the tension. We get past the calves, and I keep feeling for Gum, and he keeps feeling back to me for a moment and two, and then he gets gone again. I am trying to keep Carson in position, jockeying the two two horses around, checking back Gumby, pushing Carson out and back again, and feeling myself get wrapped tighter as well as I try to do too much.

I call a halt, exhale and sit.

Gumby, bless his heart, sighs and waits for me to get my head straight, and I realize, that my first obligation is to him. We are connected, I am riding him, and he needs to be my focus and I need to be with him so he can be with me.

Right. Off we go. Now I am feeling him, moving with him instead of trying to control him, just matching him and gently re-guiding his energy, softly being with just him. And that’s all it took. Yes, he still got a bit rattled by Carson jogging beside him, but he would settle as I asked, and this is simply an ENORMOUS change. previously He would get tighter and tighter wound, more removed from the human, very disconnected and worried. At the Hwy. I stopped again and ended with a lovely series of blows from Gumby, before I hopped off and switched horses around…on to Carson.
Now Carson up to this point has been fairly tense, jogging along and feeling somewhat removed from what the two of us were doing, so I took my time to connect a bit on the ground, asking him to back a step, and soften his head for me, making sure he stood solidly for mounting. As we set off towards home, I knew he had alot to deal with, Gumby’s excess energy fed into him, facing home, 6 horses in the field he has never seen before, and the three dogs crashing down the banks. I can feel his tension; in his skin, through his muscles under me, and in the air around us. So I make sure I am grounded and relaxed, confident in him, and being with him, give a rub and ‘line out my friend, lets go home’……………..and he does. As we near the field of horses, and his attention goes that way, I softly ask him back, and repeat about five times, he sighs and ignores them. Just being aware and gently redirecting before it goes too far is all it took to have him stay with me and avoid a potential situation. The rest of the way in, he is blowing and carrying his head and neck low, and swinging the reins in a great long walk.
My heart swells with pride in my two boys and the absolutely terrific changes they are making, their strength of confidence and trust in one another we have, and their ability to have their emotional elastics stretched and relax again. This was a big emotional test for all of us today, and I realize now that that is what makes us all stronger and more fit. If we did not have these things that come along and test our wills, our inner resources, our faith and trust in self and what is guiding us, we would never grow, never change, never improve……….

I leave you with one of my favorite quotes……..

“We acquire the strength of that which we overcome.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Expectation and the Slippery Slope

Posted on by Stefanie in Blog

‘How this week will unfold, who you will become tomorrow – it all boils down to one thing…Expectation. Expectation that’s not followed by action is not expectation… it’s just hoping; and hoping has never achieved very much.’
Yesterday, Carson and I had a great chance to explore Expectation. We had tacked up and headed down the road, thinking we would climb the canyon, and sneak back up on the sunshine. It had been one of those glorious, bluebird sunny days in Merritt, but down along the river valley, the sun gets shy early, but has the nerve to tease us by hanging out on the bluffs and high sage hills. So, not to be out maneuvered by some silly old sneaky winter sun and steep climbs, away we went. Now the ‘Canyon Trail’ as it is affectionately called by me is really a misnomer. There is no trail. But with only sage as undergrowth, and wide spaced pines, who needs a trail? Of course, when I tell you that the canyon is caused by the clay eroding away by our infrequent rains, and is one of my all time favorite features of this place I call home, it should tell you that we were climbing clay. And we have had (clay) unseasonably warm weather for a week now, and all the (clay) snow has been melting, freezing, melting and everything (clay) is generally becoming very un-Merritty mucky (clay). So. happily, we begin our ascent, switchbacking to and(clay) fro, pausing to catch let Carson catch his breathe (clay) and we watch Griffin go by, noticing with a vague curiosity that he is oddly sinking (clay) and having a bit of a tough time gaining altitude (clay). Huh. So up we go….and I bail off the topside as Carson begins his slippery decent, and scrambles to keep the proper side upright…..hmmmmmmmm this is interesting. He had halted his downward ooze and was planted, a leg at each corner facing up and staring at me as if to say….’Well…way to go Hot-Shot! Now what?’ What indeed! So slide down to him, with really no chance of falling as my feet have somehow managed to accumulate 12 lbs of clay(clay) on each boot, so I am firmly anchored, not to mention barely mobile. I snag up his mecate, give him a rub and assess the situation. Now this is where things start to get cool. He is thinking down, I am thinking up, I mean, we are half way up as well as half way down, and there’s sun up there….and better footing in a another 50 ft or so. So. I now have a goal, a planned route and am willing to ask him to trust my judgment again, knowing that if we both do our bit, all will be fine. This is my expectation and I am fully aware that I am asking him to believe in me and vice versa, because if he panics, or chooses his own judgment over mine, it will not turn out as happy. So, I turn, offer a feel a couple times on the line, just getting his nose tipped the right direction and his mind with me and thinking up(she’s nuts, but ok….) and then we leap, slip, grunt, slid and make it to somewhat firmer ground and catch our breathe while I plot out the next portion. And so it goes human leading, using all my best judgment and best ground seeking skills, finding a safe way out of the mess I got us into, and horse following, trusting waiting, following every feel infinitesimally carefully, never crowding me, pausing and resting together. with one last big effort, we top out on the ridge, both of us puffing like steam engines, steam rolling off our backs. I give him a big hug and tell he is AMAZING and definitely a good partner. Whew! What a deal! And what a simply beautiful test of a horse. He was brave, trusting, thinking, feeling for me, calm and patient. All those things that we try so hard to achieve in a safe scenario, often never getting a chance to really test our work. Things like this are what can really give a horse confidence in the human, themselves and they learn they can think through difficult situations, and not panic. HA! And we are basking in the late afternoon sun, on top of the world, both of us soaking up the incredible view.( well, ok, I was actually trying to scrape of half a mountainside of clay (clay) of my boots before climbing back on him while enjoying the view.) Of course the dogs made the top in no time and have come back after chasing whatever it is that Great Danes chase on clay banks, and give us a ‘what took you so long’ and are off again.
And so are we. Carson has a long series of blows, and lines out into a traveling walk, and we explore the top side of the property and on down to the creek which has opened up in the middle, with cracking, thin ice on the edges. Here, my job is to just sit and let him take his time. Have a drink, check it out, test it, and then just casually walk through, ice and all. The rest of the ride is all small ups and downs, through the sage and trees, and the one stony ravine, and back to the road, where I drop down the rope again and woo hoo! I caught Sage! Ok, she managed to get out of the loop before I could dally up, but something tells me that was just as well…….!
Carson today proved to me that he is becoming a Good Using Horse. One that can think in tight situations, stay calm, stay focused, defer to the human and show trust. We had a job to do, a tight spot to get out of, and he came through with flying colors. I am very proud of him, and I think he is proud of himself as well. He certainly gained confidence today, and we both have even higher expectations of we are capable of together……..
Funny thing is, I never doubted that we could sort through the sticky situation, that we had all the skills and abilities necessary and it would all turn out just fine. But I guess that’s the difference between hope and expectation.