Back In The Saddle

07/12/2024

How much weight can a horse carry?

In my experience, a horse can carry an infinite amount.

They can carry the weight of broken hearts, broken homes, and broken bodies. Countless tears sometimes comb their tangled manes. Moments when parents and friends cannot be there to help and hold a person, horses embrace and empower. They carry physical, mental, and emotional handicaps. They carry hopes and dreams; and they will carry the stress from your day when you can’t carry it anymore.

They carry graduations, they carry new careers, they carry moves away from everything familiar, they carry marriages, they carry divorces, they carry funerals, they carry babies before they are born, and sometimes they carry the mothers who cannot carry their own baby. They carry mistakes, they carry joy, they carry the good and they carry the bad. They carry drugs and addictions, but they also carry the celebrations.

They will carry you to success when all you have felt is failure. They will carry you, never knowing the weight of your burdens and triumphs.

If you let them, they will carry you through life, and life is hard, life is heavy. But a horse will make you feel weightless under it all.

07/12/2024

"...we must never forget, every time we sit on a horse, what an extraordinary privilege it is: to be able to unite one's body with that of another sentient being, one that is stronger, faster and more agile by far than we are, and at the same time, brave, generous, and uncommonly forgiving." --William Steinkraus, Olympic Equestrian

07/02/2024

03/29/2024

No hands, no legs but still able to accomplish so much!
https://fb.watch/r6EcCDJUUY/?mibextid=Nif5oz

03/16/2024

03/08/2024

https://www.facebook.com/reel/693421116036203?s=yWDuG2&fs=e&mibextid=Nif5oz

02/27/2024

“Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.” ~John Muir

01/31/2024

Lately we've seen quite a few Backyard horse lessons given by people with no Instructor training/certification or liability insurance!

We have Instructor certification from both PATH & CHA and maintain liability insurance. I have years of professional Instruction experience beginning in 1989 where I taught horsebackriding for SDSU. My goal is to provide a safe, enjoyable horse experience for everyone!

Coaches and riding instructors need insurance because accidents do happen.

12/23/2023

Rockin around the Christmas🎄tree!

12/21/2023

Oh what fun it is to ride!

10/26/2023

Great info!
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=819701903482435&id=100063278986867&mibextid=Nif5oz

I highly suspect that this post will cause some activity that leads to clicking the "unfollow" button, but...
that is 100% ok because horses mean FAR more to me than ego and pride 😊

I write this post with the intention to educate, not to offend.

Horses may not use verbal communication but it doesn't exclude them from having a voice.

Pay attention to your horse's microexpressions. Microexpressions are the non verbal communications of a whispering horse. They will be used when a horse needs to express discomfort. If you were to add verbal communication in the place of microexpressions it would sound like:
"I'm worried about that and need time to process how safe I feel".

Microexpressions are seen in the face mainly.
Eyes
Ears
Nose
Mouth
Jaw

Macroexpressions are the non verbal communications of a SHOUTING HORSE!!!

Macroexpressions are expressed when the horse feels FEAR/DISTRESS.

Macroexpressions are so common in domesticated horses nowadays that they are considered normal. Conventional trainers and training systems will even "encourage" macroexpression.

Macroexpression is when a horse feels the need to move their feet. This is a limbic motor response to fear. It is known as a flight reaction. It is designed to help the horse survive in a threatening situation and is accompanied with a whole pile of adrenaline and stress response hormones.

Macroexpressions include:
Feet moving
Elevated and locked poll
Tail swishing
Bolting
Bucking
Biting
Kicking
Barging
Rearing
Etc.

Did you know the difference between microexpressions (the whispers) and the macroexpressions (the shouts) before now?

Has this been something that a coach or trainer has educated you on?

How many trainers/coaches are educating people to "move the horse's feet"?

These outdated training ideologies are destroying the emotional, mental and physical state of these beautiful animals.

Horses are NOT machines.
Horses are NOT slaves to the human ego.
Horses are NOT just for riding.

Horses are highly sensitive, receptive, loving animals that all to often have to "cope", "tolerate" and "put up" with the demands of the human's ego and overwhelming, fearful environments and situations.

It's time to change this industry!
It's time to advocate for the emotional and mental welfare of horses as well as their physical.

It's time that us humans notice and appreciate that horses deserve as much voice, respect, love and happiness as any human.

It's time to stop seeing horses as riding machines and objects that we demand satisfy our dopamine cravings.

It's time to stop and notice their emotional perspective and perception of the world. To help them feel physically AND psychologically SAFE at all times, just like we would an innocent child.

A child doesn't need to earn food or to feel physically and psychologically safe. These are things that they are entitled to the minute they take their first breath!
YOU don't need to earn food, to feel loved, understood, acknowledged, valued, appreciated or physically safe.
Your horse doesn't have to earn these things either.

Horses want and NEED to feel exactly what YOU NEED to feel deep down...
Understanding
Love
Acceptance
Safety
Belonging
Calmness
Valued
Appreciated
Acknowledged

And be offered communication that reinforces and nurtures:
Support
Boundaries
Kindness
Fairness
Emotional pocessing time

Happy brain training 🧠
Charlotte 😊

10/22/2023

We had a great day at the Armed Services YMCA annual Harvest Festival sharing our animals with all these loving children & families!