From Indy

Florida is the BEST! I just love all the water! Finding pools and ponds to swim in is the most fun part of being a dog. Jane doesn’t like all the bugs in Florida, but it’s a small price to pay for the warm weather and all the fun things to do!

Rhett likes the green grass and not having to shovel snow every day. Jane likes that she can ride almost every day, and that it never freezes. Moshi likes that his coat can be clipped, and he doesn’t get cold like he would in Vermont. Jane and Rhett have a lot of friends in Florida, and they’re excited to be with them for the winter season.

What do you like best about where you live? Is it the weather, or the people, or the activities you like best? If you get a lot of snow where you live, do you get out and play in it? I hope so. No matter what the weather, there are always fun things to do. Since you can’t change the weather, it’s a good idea to find a way to enjoy what you’ve got. That may take a little effort, but it’s worth it.

I’m going to go swimming with my friend Chance today. That’s my fun thing to do! Come on along and throw the ball for me! Will you?

Love, Indy

From Moshi

Honesty is an interesting concept. Most of us horses are truly honest. We don’t know how to be any other way. But people, well, not so much.

Most people believe they are honest. But often humans are simply justifying their behavior and calling it honesty. If they really looked at what was going on, they’d probably realize they were either manipulating a situation to their advantage, or ignoring the truth of their behavior.

Are you honest? I’ll bet you are, at least most of the time. Sometimes not being honest is the kindest thing… like when your grandmother asks if you like her mince pie, but you really don’t. You don’t want to hurt feelings. So, when is honesty the best policy and when is it a matter of violating values and honor? That’s a tough question that I don’t have an answer to. But perhaps just asking the question will stir the kind of thought that’s helpful.

Do you appreciate honesty? Are you a good example for your children, friends, co-workers? A reputation is an easy thing to damage, so use your good sense of honesty well.

I’m honestly hungry! Will you bring me a carrot or two? Jane’s out of town and I want my treat!

Love, Moshi

From Indy

Oooo my tooth got tugged on today, and I’m really in pain! I accidentally hooked my big left canine tooth on Geoffrey’s collar while we were playing, and it almost got pulled out. I think it’s going to be okay, but it sure did hurt!

Jane says I have to go to the doggie dentist. I hate the dentist. Do you? I hear most people really fear the dentist. Do you have fear?

Jane told me that fear is future thinking. Anger is past thinking. Being a dog, I’m usually in the present, which is why I’m so happy all the time. I think people are unhappy a lot because they are either upset about the past, or worried about the future. Most people are not NOW.

Are you a past or future thinker? Can you bring your attention to NOW? If that’s hard for you, you can at least think about good things from your past or happy hopes for your future. That makes for a nicer NOW. And aren’t we all just looking for a nice NOW?

I’d sure love a nice soft chewie cookie, right NOW. How about you?

Love, Indy

Jane Savoie’s Tips For Having A Great Ride Every Day

Do you want to know how to have a great ride everyday? Stop expecting perfection. Rather than looking at training and competing in black or white terms, learn to see things in “shades of gray”.

The key to seeing shades of gray is to recognize when things are just
“a little bit better”. For example, when you think of your ride, ask
yourself if:
• Were your hands a little quieter?
• Did you sit a bit more centered today?
• Did you keep your eyes up for more of your ride than you did
yesterday?
• Were you able to use your legs, hands or seat a bit more
independently? That is, when you used your legs, did your
hands stay somewhat quieter than last week?
• Did you remember to use your legs before your hands more
often?
• Did you control your emotions a bit better so that you were
more relaxed, patient, brave, or calm?
• Did you stay slightly more focused throughout your ride?
• Did you remember to breathe more often?
• Did you reward your horse for every effort he made that was a
bit closer to what you want as a finished product?
As long as things keep getting “a little bit better”, pretty soon you’ll
be riding “a whole lot better”.

www.janesavoie.com/hhinvite/happyhorse

From Moshi

I had trouble sleeping last night. I’m about to start the new show season, and I started fretting about being ready. Now that I’m showing at Grand Prix, I’m worried that I won’t be able to keep up with the up and coming younger horses. Then I realized that I had put my negative musings into a future that’s not here yet. I always pride myself at being in the present, and realized I was not doing that. I was projecting negative thoughts into my own future. I had to stop!

Awareness is the first step to changing something. Once I became aware that I was projecting negative thinking, I could stop and change where I put my intention. I decided to visualize a better future. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and created a movie in my mind of the perfect Grand Prix test with Jane. I went through the whole thing, with perfect pirouettes and perfect one-tempis, and with a satisfying pat on the neck from Jane at the end. I saw the judge write down lots of sevens and eights, and even a few nines on the test sheet. In my mind I saw the final score being written by the judge, and felt the excitement of receiving the best scores of my life!

Changing your mental focus is not hard, but you have to decide to do it. You have to put the mental energy into changing what you’re thinking about. You have to create the images you WANT, not ponder on what you don’t want. That takes some focus and discipline.

What would be your best outcome for today? What could you focus on to give energy to that? Give it a try, and see what happens! You may be in for a surprise!

Once I gave a little bit of mental time to what I do want, I went right to sleep. Now I’m rested and ready to go! When is the first show? I want to earn that terrific score!

Love, Moshi

From Indy

I love to wrestle. It’s so much fun. I love to play with my dog friends, but I especially love to wrestle with Jane. I’m very careful with my teeth, because I know they can hurt her.

Friends don’t hurt friends. At least, not on purpose.

Have you ever been hurt by a friend? It’s so much more painful than being hurt by a stranger. That’s because we invest our expectations in our friends. hey become our friends because we like them, so when a friend does something we don’t like, it’s hard to bear. We get mad or we get hurt with much more intensity.

Friends are important. Friends are not perfect. Neither are we. Sometimes we have to forgive our friends, or ourselves for that matter. We’re all doing the best we can with what we have in the moment. Sometimes our best comes up short. But if your friendship is worth saving, it’s worth taking the time to heal the wounds.

Healed wounds leave scars. That’s as true for mental wounds as it is physical. But you CAN heal wounds in a relationship. Scars may remain, but they do fade with time. The key to healing is forgiving and letting go. Like Moshi says, focus on the good stuff about the person or relationship, and let the bad stuff wither away from lack of attention.

Once, when we were playing, Jane’s favorite sweater got caught on one of my teeth. My tooth pulled a big snag in her sleeve, and hurt my mouth in the process. Both of us were upset. But the event, while upsetting, had nothing to do with our relationship. We didn’t take it personally. I forgave Jane for her sweater pulling on my tooth, and Jane forgave me for hooking my tooth on her sweater. We moved on, in love and in friendship.

Is there a situation where you could move on? Can you forgive? Can you let it go? The gift of forgiveness is more for forgiver than the forgivee.

Love, Indy

Jane Savoie’s Happy Horse tip #7

Happy Horse Tip #7

It’s important not to use your reins to control the things that you should use your seat to control. If you pull on the reins to steady rhythm, slow speed, decrease the length of stride or do downward transitions, you BLOCK the hind legs from coming forward.

So, make it your goal to develop a knee jerk reaction to use your seat instead of your hands for each of those four things.

Your seat can be used in four different ways:
1. Passive Following Seat
• Your passive, following seat tells your horse that everything (his rhythm, speed, and the gait) stays the same.
• Simply open and close your hips to follow the current movement of your horse.

2. Driving Seat
• Your driving seat tells your horse to increase his speed or length of stride.
• Think of pushing the back of saddle toward the front of the saddle, polishing the saddle from back to front, or pretending you’re pushing a swing higher in the air.

3. Retarding or Stilled Seat
• The stilled seat steadies the rhythm, slows the speed, decreases the length of stride, or asks for a downward transition.
• Sit in a “ready” position by stretching up tall so you have a gentle curve in the small of your back.
• Then, contract or tighten your tummy muscles like you’re doing a sit-up. This action braces your lower back and stops your hips from following your horse’s movement.

4. To Control the Position of Your Horse’s Body
• Your shoulders should be parallel to your horse’s shoulders, and your hips should be parallel to his hips.

From Moshi

Responsibility. It’s a big part of life. Jane tells her students that their horses should be responsible for their own gaits. They shouldn’t repeatedly ask or nag at their horses, or they’ll just get tuned out and ignored. She says your horse should respond to the first request, and should maintain his or her gait until asked to do something else.

It’s pretty easy for me to get lazy about being responsible for my job. How about you? Have you ever avoided doing those things you know you should be doing? Perhaps it was because you became lazy, or because no one seemed to care one way or another if you got it done? This tendency is why we have leaders or bosses. We often need someone to keep us on track.

A good leader or boss is someone who inspires you to do your best without nagging or shaming. A good leader finds ways to help their subordinates feel important and valued. A poor leader uses punishment or embarrassment to force compliance. A good leader creates a desire to do well. A poor leader makes people unhappy, and is often looking for replacements when their subordinates leave or quit.

Which kind of leader are you for your horse? Do you intentionally create desire to be good, or do you inspire fear of doing poorly? What kind of leader are you with other people? Are you an uplifter or a tear downer?

I’m so glad my person is an uplifter! Jane makes me want to be the best I can be. She makes me feel good about myself. There’s nothing more important than that. I’d do anything for Jane, because it feels so good to please her. She makes me feel good about ME.

How about you? Do people feel good when they’re around you? Remember, molasses horse cookies catch more flies than vinegar!

Love, Moshi

From Indy

I got in trouble today. I was home alone when I smelled the most wondrous smell! I know I shouldn’t, but I put my paws up on the kitchen counter and there it was! An entire chicken! It was frozen, but it smelled so good! Before I could stop and think about what I was doing, I grabbed it and pulled it onto the floor. I shredded the plastic and was chewing that luscious cold meat apart when I heard Jane’s car pull up. I panicked! I realized I was going to be in big trouble!

I left the mangled bird on the kitchen floor and ran for the bedroom. I hid under the bed, hoping Jane would think the cat was the one who ruined dinner. She didn’t fall for it. She called for me in a really LOUD voice. Then she found me with my head under the bed. She ordered me into the kitchen and scolded me severely. I kept telling her that the cat did it, not me, but she didn’t believe me. In fact, she told me she was very disappointed in me, that I was trying to get the cat in trouble for my mistake. She told me it was very childish of me to point my paw at the cat. She was right, of course. I apologized and promised not to do it again.

Jane thought about it, and told me she realized she was responsible for keeping such tempting things out of my reach. She took responsibility for her mistake, and vowed to do better. She forgave me, but also told me not to do any more “counter-surfing”.

I was very impressed with her willingness to take ownership of her part in the situation. I decided right then that I want to always be as mature and honorable as Jane. After all, most people aren’t fooled when we try to blame someone else anyway. It just makes us look silly. I realized I’ll never lose as much respect by being responsible for my own actions, as I will by trying to point my paw at someone else.

Say, do you have any frozen chicken you could bring over? I’ve developed a craving for fowl popsicles! YUM!

Love, Indy

From Moshi

There’s a whole lot that goes on in this world that we never hear about. Some of it is bad, but a lot of it is good. If you could measure the bad against the good, you’d find that the good stuff far outweighs the bad stuff. How do I know? As a horse, I’m very connected to the energy of the planet. I can feel what’s going on because I am totally present. I spend little or no time in the past or future, I’m just NOW. And I can feel the positive pulse of the earth. Well-being abounds!

What if well-being isn’t showing up in YOUR life as much as you like? Then I’d ask, what are you thinking about? Where are you putting your mental energy? Are you looking for the things that are WRONG in your world, or are you looking for the things that are RIGHT? Which is it? You get MORE of whatever you put your energy into. So if things are bad, well… Think about that!
Just for today, look for something that is great about you or your most pressing situation. Then spend some time feeling the wonderful feelings that thought brings to you.

I’m basking in the Florida sunshine today. It feels so good on my sleek black coat. It warms my muscles and makes me want to nap. I love the sun and the soft breeze caressing my skin. I’m looking forward to Jane showing up for our ride. It’s a great day.
Are you going riding today? If it’s too cold and snowy where you are, at least take your friend a carrot. Your horse misses your voice and your soft, loving touch! It will make you both feel good to spend some time together.

Love, Moshi

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