I’m excited to tell you that you can actually see some dressage on In Country TV this Monday and Saturday.
My segments will be aired May 24th at 8p & 11p eastern and Sat May 29th at 7:30pm. There will be 2 segments–cantering & straightness.
Here’s a link to In Country TV. http://www.incountrytelevision.com/show.cfm?id=70
Don’t miss the chance to see some dressage on TV this week!
From Moshi
When I was a baby, I used to love to run around the pasture as fast as I could go, then launch myself in the air, kick out behind, land with a thud, then do a sliding stop into my mom’s side. It was great fun. I would play fight with my friends, rearing up and striking at each other with our little hooves as we shook our heads in mock anger. We were preparing for the day we’d have to fight for our own band of mares, but we were also just having fun.
Of course, being a domesticated fellow, I never had to fight for a band of my own. My “family” became Jane, Rhett, and Indy. I have horse friends too, but I’ve never had to compete for company or food. That’s the nice thing about being cared for by human friends.
But that playful colt is still in there. Sometimes, when I’m turned out, I run as fast as I can and launch myself in the air. It’s not as easy as it was when I was a baby, but it’s still fun. It’s exhilarating.
What fun things have you stopped doing? What could you do, today, that would put a smile on your face or rekindle the enthusiasm you had as a youngster?
I heard Jane say once, “we don’t stop playing because we get old, we get old because we stop playing…”
I hope you’re going to go to the barn today! Your horse wants to PLAY with you!
Love, Moshi
In dog years, I’m a teenager. I’m at the prime of my life. I can run as fast as a car (well, at least a car going down the driveway), I can jump as high as a deer, I can wrestle my friend Geoffrey to the ground in three seconds or less, and I can catch a fast moving ball in mid-air.
I don’t intend to grow up. You know what? I don’t have to! I’ve heard Rhett tell Jane how much he enjoys my child-like enthusiasm in everything we do together. He says I remind him to “play full-out.”
Play isn’t just something for kids. The sense of play is what keeps you going when things get tough. It is the inspiration to keep you from stopping when you’re tired. It’s the difference between quitting and giving everything you’ve got.
It’s easy to change your mental focus from serious to playful… just remind yourself of a time when you had a whole lot of fun doing something you love to do. Remind yourself what that feels like. Own it. Feel it. Let your imagination rekindle that sense of fun and excitement! Then apply it to the thing you’re doing now.
My body may look all grown up, but my enthusiasm for life is very puppy-ish. I don’t intend to ever lose that. And I intend to remind both Rhett and Jane how to maintain that sense of play, no matter how serious the task may be. That’s a very serious job, but I do it with joy and playfulness.
Come on! Grab the ball and let’s go outside! Let’s go PLAY!
Love, Indy
Here I am with some of the members of “team Savoie” during my recent exhilarating, exhausting week in NY brainstorming and whiteboarding the SSNP (Super Secret Ninja Project) which I’ll launch at the Alltech World Equestrian Games 2010 in September.
Peter and Billy are technical and product development geniuses and James is brilliant like a Good Will Hunting/Matt Damon kind of guy.
So look me up in the program under Jane Savoie at the Alltech World Equestrian Games 2010 this September. I’m in the Pavilion in Booth #610. You’re gonna be blown away by what we’ve created!!!!
I was really hungry this morning. I mean REALLY hungry. I was so hungry I could have eaten a riding boot! But I remembered that I’m not supposed to do that anymore.
I wandered around the house and found Rhett in his office. I asked him for a biscuit, but he didn’t hear me. He was so intent on editing video he didn’t notice that I was at his side asking for something to eat.
Then I went to Jane and asked her for something to eat. She was focused on her computer, working on her next book, and didn’t even notice that I had come into the room. I sat at her feet feeling totally ignored. My feelings got hurt, and I felt very sad. I sighed and whimpered and felt like no one loved me anymore.
Before long, Jane stopped what she was doing, noticed that I was lying there, stood up, and asked me to follow her into the kitchen. She went to the cupboard and got a doggie biscuit and handed it to me with a smile. For a second, I considered refusing to take it, to punish her for being too busy for me. For a moment I thought I wanted her to feel bad, because I was feeling bad. But then I realized how silly that was.
Jane and Rhett both love me, and would never intentionally hurt my feelings. For me not to forgive them would only hurt me. So I decided to accept the gift of the biscuit and the love that came with it.
Forgiving someone helps the “forgive-er” even more than the “forgive-ee”. Forgiveness doesn’t mean you have to accept negative behavior. It’s simply acknowledging that we’re all doing the best we can at that moment. It is the mature act of letting go of the need to make the other guy wrong.
Who could use a dose of forgiveness in your life? Can you give them that gift? Give forgiveness a try and notice how good you feel.
Love, Indy
It’s hard for me to imagine Jane with another horse. She’s MY person, and I’m pretty possessive of her. I know she’s partnered with lots of horses before I came to her life, but I can’t imagine her with anyone but me.
I noticed Jane was a bit melancholy the other day, and then heard her
say that her former mount, Woody, had passed away. Woody was very old
and ready for his transition, but it was still sad for Jane to realize
he was no longer on this planet.
Jane said she was so grateful that Woody had been cared for by a
wonderful lady during his senior years. She talked about how much Woody
had taught her, and how much fun they had together at shows and clinics
over the years. Jane intentionally focused on the brightness he brought
to her’s and other’s lives, not on the loss of his passing.
When someone dies or moves away there is a natural period of time when we need to grieve. Horses grieve too. It is easy to stay in that place of sadness and let grief become a habit. Sometimes it takes some conscious effort to focus on the happy memories and the joy your friend brought to your life. But doing so will not only help you feel much better, it will help you train your brain to look for the positive in everything.
Allow yourself to feel your feelings. There is nothing wrong with being sad or upset. Just remember that the negative feelings will subside. Just take it one day at a time, and make the decision to put some effort into your happier thoughts.
All will be well….
Love, Moshi
A Happy Horse course is available now for the next 4 days ONLY until May 3 (or sooner if we run out of inventory first). You can check it out here:
http://www.janesavoie.com/a_happy_horse.htm
By the way, I know it’s a pretty long page. I tried to keep it short, but describing everything in the course took a lot of space.
If you’ve already made up your mind that you want one, just skip to the bottom where you can claim your copy right away.
Here are some sample clips from the Happy Horse course:
From Moshi
Spring is here! I love this time of year. The grass is so tasty and green. It’s hard to imagine that my friends in the southern hemisphere are just now starting their fall season. The earth sure is an interesting place to live!
I’ve heard it said that all things have a season. Jane told a friend that there was a period or “season” in her young life when all she wanted to do was jump. She thought dressage was boring. She loved the sensation of the wind in her face and the challenge of higher and higher jumps. At the time she had a horse who was entering the “fall season” of his own life, and had to slow down and not jump anymore. That is why Jane started getting serious about dressage. It was for her horse’s sake at first, but then she found new inspiration, and dressage became her passion.
Sometimes, when we are moving through the autumn of our lives, we slow down a bit. We find that we don’t take the same kind of risks, or want the same kind of challenges. This is natural for all living being. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just the perfect cycle of our physical existence.
If you’ve slowed down a little, don’t be mad or sad about it. Just know that these changes are natural. With age truly does come wisdom, so allow yourself to recognize the payoff you’ve received in those years you’ve seen go by. Finding a new passion in the new season of your life is key to remaining happy.
What do you feel passionate about? Do just a little of that, today!
Love, Moshi
I had a dream last night. Jane and Rhett talked about how interesting it was, watching my sleeping body try to run. My physical legs twitched and paddled as I chased rabbits in my dream.
Dreams can be scary, or they can be fun. Mine are usually very enjoyable, and almost always include chasing something. In my dream I’m always faster than the rabbit, but I usually wake up just when I’m about to catch it.
There is another kind of dream. It’s the wish or desire that has not yet been fulfilled. That dream may require some attention to bring to physical reality.
Do you have a dream you’ve not yet realized? What would it take for you to put some effort into that dream?
Today, write down your dream and put it somewhere you will see it often. Then take another piece of paper and write down five things you could do right now to get you closer to that dream.
Do at least one of those things TODAY. You’ll be on your way!
Love, Indy
The world sure is an interesting place. There is so much to see and to do. And there can be a lot of things to be afraid of.
I’m afraid of fire, skunks, and anything that pops out of the bushes and startles me. It’s not that I really think I’m about to be hurt, it’s just that I’m hard wired to jump when things move fast. All horses have that instinct, we just can’t help it.
Jane knows that I would never intentionally hurt her. But she also knows that I weigh about ten times more than she does, and when she’s on my back the ground is a long way away. She knows that accidents happen and there is always the possibility that she might come off. For that reason she ALWAYS wears a helmet during our training and hacking sessions, and has even started showing in her helmet instead of her top hat.
Life has it hazards. It’s just part of living. But we can take some of the risk out of those hazards by doing thoughtful little things, like wearing a helmet every time we ride.
Do you wear your helmet every time you get on a horse? Start a trend at YOUR barn!
Love, Moshi
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Watch and Listen
