I’m so excited to get to visit my friends back in Florida! It’s been a long summer without them. The cat isn’t nearly as much fun as my Florida barn friends! Besides, in Florida, we have a POOL!
Do you like to swim? I love it. It’s terrific exercise. Some of my friends were afraid of the water, but we helped them get over it. Dogs are natural swimmers, so all they needed was some gentle, friendly support.
Is there something you’d like to do, but you’re afraid to try? Sometimes all you need is a friend’s helping hand. Knowing someone is there to help keep you safe can make all the difference in the world.
Would you do that thing you’re afraid of if someone was there to support you? Can you be that support to someone else?
We’re all in this life together. No one is truly alone. If you need help, or can offer help, look around you and see how you can participate.You get back out of life whatever you put into it. Maybe now is the time to take that big jump into the pool!
Come on! Let’s go swimming! Bring along a tennis ball to throw. PLEASE!!!!
Love, Indy
Happy Horse Tip #6-Improve Your Seat in the Canter
Think about how your seat moves when you’re cantering. Notice how your hip angles open and close. Start with your upper body on the vertical, and then open your hip angles and let your upper body rock a bit BEHIND the vertical. Then come back up to the vertical with shoulder over hip over heel.
Visualize arrows extending down from your seatbones. Whichever way those arrows are pointed, is the direction you’re sending the hind legs. If you lean forward and close your hip angles, you push the hind legs out the back door.
If your upper body is on the vertical and you rock behind the vertical, you open your hip angles. As a result the imaginary arrows extended down from your seatbones point forward. You’re saying to your horse’s hind legs, “Come along, come along, go with, go with.”
A Horse That Goes Forward To Light Leg Aids is a Happy HorseHappy Horse Tip #5
Make sure your horse reacts to light leg aids. Your goal is to “whisper” with your aids and have your horse “shout” his response—Not the other way around!
To check that your horse reacts to light leg aids:
• Close both legs and see if he immediately responds with a surge from behind as if he’s going to do a lengthening.
• If he doesn’t, correct him by tapping with the whip or bumping with your legs to send him forward. (The intensity of the correction depends on the sensitivity of your horse.)
• Then slow down, and RETEST. Ask for the lengthening again with an aid as light as a mosquito bite. (Remember, your horse can feel a fly on his side so he can feel very light aids IF you train him to react to them.)
The key here is to RETEST. Otherwise you’re just teaching your horse to go forward to the “correction” not from the light leg aid.
For more tips for training a Happy Horse, go to: www.janesavoie.com/happyhorse
Having Fun With John and Jody Lyons at VA Equine ExtravaganzaI had a blast with two of my most favorite people in the world, John Lyons and Jody Lyons, at The VA Equine Extravaganza this weekend!
Fall is so beautiful in Vermont, USA. We have lots of trees, and they turn the most incredible colors. I only see yellow, green, and blue, but the many shades of yellows are amazing. I hear red and orange are really striking, but I have no way of relating to that. Like all horses, my eye structure doesn’t let me see red.
I heard a fellow at the barn say an interesting thing… “if you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” That reminded me of how everyone sees the world through their own filters. What’s good in one person’s eyes, may be evil in another’s. It’s why we have wars. It’s why we have prejudice. It’s the cause of most of man’s (and woman’s) suffering.
Is there a solution to this? It’s not possible for us to all see things the same way, but knowing that fact is a big help in releasing the judgement of others. When we can acknowledge that we’re all doing the best we can with what we’ve got, it’s a lot easier to let go of any anger or frustration we feel. Just let people be who they are, protect yourself if you have to, but let the rest of it go. If you really look at it, there’s very little in this world that’s worth fighting about.
Is there something going on in your life right now that you could heal by simply letting it go? Give it a try!
Love, Moshi
I came in the house with my long tawny coat full of nasty burrs. Jane spent an hour pulling the prickly things out of my hair. It hurt sometimes, when she’d pull on just a few hairs, but I knew she was trying to help me so I gritted my teeth and tolerated it.
Sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to do. Like go to the doctor or the dentist. Maybe, for you, it’s going to a job that’s not exactly fulfilling your dreams.
So what can you do to make an icky situation more tolerable?
I do my best to make dealing with discomfort a game. I find the top three best things about the situation, and then occupy my mind with finding a way to make those elements even better. Such as, when I have to go to the vet, I look for the most beautiful girl dog in the place, and make funny faces at her until she smiles. It’s a great game that takes my mind off the fact that I might be there to get a shot or some other unpleasantness.
While Jane was pulling burrs out of my coat, I stared out the window and imagined flying over the houses and the trees. I saw a big hawk flying around, and pretended I was on his back, searching for bunnies from the air with sharp, hawk eyes. It was a fun vision that took my mind of the sting of my hair getting pulled.
What do you do to help you tolerate uncomfortable situations? Do you have tools you know you can use, or do you make up solutions on the spot?
Love, Indy
Happy Horse Tip #4:
If your horse gets nervous in the walk, here’s a tip that might help him.
Think about how relaxed you sit when you’re finished with your work. So, if you’re walking, and you feel like your horse is going to get tense or jig, sit in the same relaxed way. Say to yourself, “We’re done. We’re finished. Work is over.”
Inhale. Exhale. And dissolve into your horse’s back. If you sit with less positive tension or tone in your body, your horse can feel you relax and will mirror that.
Elastic Contact with Your Horse’s Mouth in the CanterHappy Horse Tip #3 In the canter, your horse telescopes his neck forward and back in the same way he does in the walk. You need to follow with your arms in the canter. If you don’t, your horse can’t use his neck as balancing rod. So, he struggles, gives up, and falls into the trot. He’s not being bad. You’re just putting him in a position where it’s very difficult for him to continue to canter.
Imagine that when you pick up the reins, your arms don’t belong to you anymore. They’re an extension of the rein, and they belong to your horse.
Here’s an exercise to help give you the feeling of an elastic contact in the canter. You can even practice this exercise in the halt first to get some muscle memory.
• Get up into a two-point position.
• Pretend you’re a jockey galloping down a track with your hands pushing your horse’s neck forward every stride.
• While doing that, notice how your elbows open and close with every stride.
• Then sit back down, and keep your elbows opening and closing in the same way.
For more info on the Happy Horse Course, go to: www.janesavoie.com/happyhorse/
Happy Horse Tip #2-The Lateral WalkIf your horse’s walk tends to be lateral, try one of these two things:
1. Slow the tempo down. Just be sure your horse stays reactive to light driving aids in the slower walk. He shouldn’t get lazy or fall behind your leg.
2. Step slightly sideways. That will break up the legs on the same side so he can step more deliberately with each leg. With a young horse, do a bit of leg yielding. If your horse has more education, do shoulder-fore or shoulder-in.
This tip is excerpted from The Happy Horse Course. For more info on how to train a happy horse, go to: www.janesavoie.com/happyhorse/
From Moshi
Who are you? Who are you, REALLY?
Being who you really is not an easy task. I’m a Friesian, born in Holland, and imported to the USA. I’m different from most horses in that I have feathered legs. Some of the horses at the barn tease me about it, calling me an old work horse. It used to bother me, but then I heard Jane say something really important…
Those who matter don’t mind, and those who mind don’t matter.
When I was a youngster, I hoped that Jane would shave off my feathers so I would fit in with all the warmbloods at my barn. I’d hide my legs behind the low bushes or stand behind the water trough when new horses came in. I didn’t want them to see that I was “different.”
As I matured, I realized that being different was actually the norm. Everyone has something that’s a little out of the ordinary. It was silly for me to be shy about other horses seeing my feathers. So, I made a conscious decision to accept myself for who and what I am. I decided to show off my hairy legs instead of hide them. And you know what? It didn’t change how my friends thought of me one bit. And they’re the ones that matter to me.
Is there something about you that’s a little different from most people? Does it bother you? I know it can be really hard, but if you have it in you change how you think, spend a little time examining and embracing the very thing that you don’t like about yourself. You may find that it’s the resistance to what IS that makes you unhappy. If you can let go of the resistance, you let go of the struggle. And then you’re free.
Once I decided to enjoy my feathers and really show them off, I found that many of the horses in the barn really didn’t care one way or another that I was a little bit different. Some even liked my flashy legs. I learned that regardless of what I look like, my friends love me for what’s in my heart, not on my legs.
So, if you’d like to be happier, just remember to be good in your heart. Let go of any judgement of how you look or how you might be different. Embracing who you ARE, right NOW, is the fastest way to a satisfying and happy life.
Love, Moshi
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Watch and Listen
