Off The Rez Horsemanship

08/20/2024

Both their energy so different; yet they balance each other out. Feeling wholeness tonight.

Rio has has Ghosts calmness. I have yet to introduce Valerian to the world; he is my best kept secret. Not everyone deserves to be part of all our Journey.

Valerians ( Ryan) journey for the most part will be shared with a very few; he is the last bit of Chance I have with me.
After a 13 hour day I didn't have the energy to saddle up; but I spent some greatly needed time with the Boyz.

06/19/2024

Digging deep to get a better sense of who I am. For the first 18 years of my life I was curious of where I came from? Who was my bio family? I struggled to fit in trying to find a place where I belonged. Not speaking English until I was 7 years old made me a foriener in my own country.

In my teens I focused on my music and my horsemanship; I was 13 when I was introduced to Catalina. Cat was different than all the other coaches I previously had, she introduced me to Natural Horsemanship. once again I became an easy target; the horse community mocked NH back then. Cat was the first person who actually saw me, she challenged me to be the best I could be in all aspects of my life; she was so much more than just a riding coach, she was my life coach the lessons she taught me I was able to apply pretty much in everything I did including raising my kids.

Cat had this incredible energy about her, an energy I see in very few people. I see it even if they don't see it themselves.

To be continued....

02/20/2024

02/09/2024

In a world where we aim for perfection from our horses. Yet we have absolutely no right to ask because we haven't mastered it ourselves. We will expierience moments of perfection and we build on those moments. You ride one good Stride then two then 3 maybe on the 4th things go south so we go back to square one;
ask yourself what am I doing wrong? Did I get in his way, was my balance off, was I light enough with my hands, was I focused, Did I set him up correctly? We do a little too much a little too late. When we have the walk trot, lope perfected we work on transitions is my horse carrying himself self properly through the transitions We may throw in circles is he dropping his shoulder is he blowing out on the outside shoulder?. Maybe we can string A,B,C D together but we fall apart on E,F,G so we go back to to work on C,D to get E.
Is he happy Relaxed, or is He stressed? I like happy floppy relaxed ears. Sometimes he may offer something I didn't ask him use that moment to make his idea yours learn to go with it and just like that we learned to back up.

Rio is the 3rd mature stallion I've started and I have learned alot from them. RIO has taught me how to treat a Man. Stallions are super sensitive and take a lot to heart no different then men.

Be a little less critical of your horse and ask yourself what you are doing wrong.

Riding is like having a dance partner, at the beginning they lead, then you lead and then you learn to move together.

11/12/2023

Seeing a shooting star last night made me remember; Once a little girl looked up at the night sky and wished she would work with horses; after a whole lot of work that wish has been granted.
Now looking at the same night sky in complete awe of its beauty I made another wish; This one will require just as much hard work; because Wishing doesn't make it so.

My horsemanship journey hasn't been only about the horse. It's taken me on a Journey of self growth; Understanding my core values trust,respect, growth, empathy, kindness, honesty, thoughtfulness, authenticity I am working on openness that's a hard one for me, being seen and being heard terrifies me; There are a very few people I turn loose with; and even less people I feel safe to do so; but in order to grow one must feel uncomfortable.
Learning to understanding myself has taken my horsemanship to another level.

Over the past few years
With 1000's of hours listening to podcasts and reading books on psychology and horsemanship and understanding that it is my the self limiting beliefs that have held me back from coaching.
Teaching someone how to ride is easy but teaching someone horsemanship is giving a part of myself to someone; not everyone is willing to work on themselves in order to achieve that connection/partnership with their horse.

Jordan peterson, Gabor matte, Jay shetty,
Brene' Brown, Esther Perel,Robin Sharma,
Jon Kabat-Zinn Mark Rashid, Buck Brannaman. Warwick schiller
Are all people I've been listening/reading

11/09/2023

https://fb.watch/ocNfeKYJU3/?mibextid=NnVzG8

11/02/2023

A man's ego is the horses greatest enemy,

When we look at horses in their natural state there is no such thing as " bomb Proof horse"

A better way is saying can I have a emotionally shut down horse that will never set a foot wrong 🙄
A horse will never be bomb proof and that word gives one false security!!!

My mum bought her first horse at 50
A 12 year old apply mare who was advertised as a kids horse,
We seen small kids ride her, seemed quiet enough. I've had this so called "Bomb proof" horse explode!!! Looking back I believe that she was coming out of her shut down state. She no longer knew how to communicate in A subtle manner
because no one had listened to her for a long time; I ate dust on a regular basis, having the knowledge I have now I could have helped her.
Being shut down is a coping mechanism to a trauma response.
Instead of looking for a "bomb Proof Horse" look for an honest one.
Ghost was as honest as they come, he taught me to listen to a whisper an in exchange he trusted me fully. Not because I desensitized him.

Coming back to Ego...
Why is it so easy for people to blame the horse for Everything instead of admitting that they are doing something wrong.
Childeren like horses act out on how they are feeling it is our job to listen.

09/26/2023

The most dangerous phrases in the business world and in the horse industry are" I know that" and
"I've always done it this way"

We tend to stop looking around and learning more when we believe we already know something.
I would much rather hire the less expierienced person who shows the willingness to learn than one set in his ways.
We tend to let our egos get in the way of things which potentially sets us up to get in a wreck; Sadly I've seen this a time or two and theses are the people who tend to blame the horse for every thing and don't learn from past expieriences.

05/08/2023

Coaching and watching these two progress has been an absolute pleasure. Sassy
Is very much like Chance, she is the perfect gauge on where Journey is at emotionally, she doesn't want to Carry anyone's emotional baggage she gets that I ain't listening until you work through your s**t. These are the best therapy horses because they make us look at ourselves.

Sass is a brilliant little mare quick to learn and gets annoyed when timing isn't spot on.
She hasn't made things easy for Journey has had to work hard;
Hard work pays off this is how relaxed a horse should be mounting the first time. Great job and so proud of you both!!!

Journeyy Buchholz Off The Rez Horsemanship

02/21/2023

OTR Trustfall Aka (Chance)

Sometimes it takes a little while for the horses to choose their name.

I am so glad I didn't give up on this mare even though there were times I was close to throwing in the towel.

She sent me down a different Rabbit hole, a Journey of self discovery.

" What if we just fall?
I'm not goin' without you
(And you're not goin' alone)
I fell so far 'til I found you
(But you know what you know, when you know)"
!NK
these lyrics so fitting for her for us... she isn't going to let me fail; she isn't going to let us fall; just like I set her up for sucess and won't let her fail; Sometimes I pick her up and other times she takes the reins and asks me to trust her.

TRUST IS A TWO WAY STREET.

10/18/2022

Having a Graphic artist design our Logo. They will never want to work with horse people again.