HOLIDAYS and HORSES and Living The Dream....
The days are getting shorter, the rain and snow are here in
the Sierra Foothills (as well for many of us) which can really crimp our
training schedule as our pasture and riding area gets pretty muddy. The joyful
chaos of the Holiday Season is also here filled with house guests, socials and
other demands on the schedule. Making time to work on our horsemanship and
maintaining our horses is tough this time of year! Still, if we as students and
custodians of the horse want to continue our journey with minimal setbacks we
need to find time. For us, it is all about making EVERY moment with our horses
a training moment. Making every interaction from feeding to turn-out a training
moment will help us all to maintain the connection between ourselves and our
horses.
We are big fans of groundwork during this time of year.
15-20 minutes in the round pen or working on the lead line can do wonders to
help keep communication clear and the partnership strong. A “leadership walk”
around the property or facility where you ask the horse to perform maneuvers
like passing between you and an object, stepping over something or even walking
through a water puddle….get creative! A proactive investment of a small amount
of time is all that is needed to maintain your partnership. Even grooming can
be a training moment if you get creative!
This has been Cearra’s training regiment of late. When it is
not raining, snowing or generally unpleasant outside there as been round pen
and lead line work. When the footing is good or we can get to someplace that
has good footing we ride. We make time as consistently has possible. It is not
always easy for us to do but we are committed to Cearra and her development.
She is really fun to work with and gets into the program really quickly. New
blankets happened as a n early Christmas gift so every horse is sporting a nice
cozy winter jacket over their fuzzy bodies. They seem to like it. Weight is
looking good on everyone, even though the horses are eating more. It is the
price for living up here during the winter. Ah well.
We have a Horsemanship Workshop scheduled for 12/10/2016 and
a G.S.H.C. Practice on 12/17/2016 so we are gearing up for these great learning
opportunities. There will be a two week break for everyone (horses and humans)
between Christmas and New Year. We will dive right back into training after the
first of the year and are really looking forward to seeing how much Cearra will
grow and progress in her skill set.We will post more PICTURES when we get them!
We have had some folks come out to meet her (see previous
Journal entries) but we have not felt that these folks were the best fit. We
know our screening questions put off some potential families and the fact that
we want them to actually READ this Journal seems “too much to ask” for others…and
we are really okay with that. Our goal is to find the BEST FIT for the horse
and if answering a few simple questions or reading a Journal is “too much to
ask” then THEY (the humans) are not the right fit. We “fire” them. The right
family IS out there…or it may be that she stays with us a while. That is just
fine too. We really do like this mare so it is not a hardship (grin).
Happy Holidays!
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