Shady Grove Stable

07/11/2024

Rolling into my third trimester of pregnancy in the middle of July means getting up at 5:30 am to ride so we can beat the heat by 9 am😅🫠🥵 💕

06/28/2024

06/26/2024

Too hot for any riding this past weekend🥵, but prime opportunity for some spa days!🛁 the students had a lot of fun getting to bathe and pamper some of the lesson horses in place of their ride time! I know the horses certainly appreciated it!

06/25/2024

Always thankful for our tribe💗

They are never just RIDING SCHOOL PONIES❤️🐴

One day you may move onto bigger, fancier horses, but never forget the school horse who made you, as without them, you wouldn’t be able to ride anything at all.

The patient soul that tolerated your bouncing while you figured out how to sit the trot.

The kind mare that didn’t walk off when you stumbled up the mounting block, trying to get your foot in the stirrup.

The sweet gelding that picked up the trot even though your body was telling him to do the exact opposite.

The saintly angel that never spooked, which was a dam good thing because your balance was precarious at best.

Too often we forget where we came from. We move on to the next chapter in our lives and say, “Oh my gosh, I’m learning so much! I’m going so far! I could never do this kind of thing on that old school horse!”

But infact you could, you were just not ready to do all these things back then.

But that school horse gave you the confidence to move forward. That school horse took care of you in all respects and allowed you to take the time you needed to find your way. You couldn’t have become the rider you are today without that riding school horse, always remember to love them unconditionally for our riding school horses are what help start your dream, make dreams come true and get you ready for those bigger dreams 🐴

06/21/2024

Addy and her girl Annie in their lesson the other week!

06/07/2024

A rare sight to see😂🤪Big Annie played hunter girl today in her English lesson with Remi! This mare is such a saint, and has the biggest heart of gold under saddle. She’s our go to, ever patient, veteran for all the littles and the green riders, but at the same time is a wonderful horse to help the more advanced kids work on their “working” equitation skills in an english saddle as well as a western saddle. This redhead is an important staple to our lesson program, and we are so thankful that her owners share her, and allow us to use her to teach others!

06/06/2024

Thissss!

Inconvenienced
Kathleen Beckham

Years ago, I had a baby horse, and when he was about 18 months old, I had the opportunity to have an equine chiropractor work on him. He was wiggly and squirrelly, and I apologized to the chiropractor for that. “That’s okay,” she said, “Little babies haven’t learned how to be inconvenienced yet.”

That was big for me. So big. “Inconvenienced.” I hadn’t thought of that before, but it was the perfect word for it. We don’t want our horse to tolerate being hurt, or being treated unfairly, but he dang sure needs to be able to be inconvenienced.

From that day forward, “being inconvenienced” became a more thoughtful part of my horse work. I started to see some of the “issues” students were having with their horses as having to do with the horse’s inability to be “inconvenienced” without becoming very anxious. I also saw the stress that some of my students experienced when they knew they were going to inconvenience their horses. It turned out it was, indeed, a “thing.”

The ability to be inconvenienced and be resilient about it, it’s a skill. It’s a skill for people, it’s a skill in dogs, and it’s a skill in horses. It’s a skill that needs to be purposefully taught, and then carefully developed and expanded over time. It should be part of any training process for horses, because it’s something that they don’t necessarily come “from the factory” with, and it’s something they really need to succeed in the human world we insist they live in.

For a horse, “being inconvenienced” can be things like being asked to work while other horses are eating, standing tied, not being fed first, being turned out or brought in a “non-preferred” order, standing next to strange horses and not being allowed to socialize, having their feet picked up, going down the trail while other horses speed by, having veterinary work done, getting in a trailer or other small space, not being allowed to graze while working… I think you get the picture. Once I started thinking about my horse being “inconvenienced,” I saw it everywhere. Gosh, a LOT of a horse’s life in the human world is inconvenience. I also started to see how much stress a horse who had not learned to be resilient about being inconvenienced could experience.

It’s not always possible to remove the inconveniences in our horses’ lives, and I’m not sure that’s the way to go anyway. A horse who is resilient about being inconvenienced develops many other positive qualities because of his ability to be inconvenienced. He learns to self-soothe, he learns to think before he reacts. He learns patience and he learns to be flexible. He learns not to get stuck in patterns and expectations. He learns to be softer and more thoughtful. He learns to be calmer and quieter.

A horse who develops the ability to be inconvenienced as a principle of his training/life is less likely to be herdbound, gate sour or barn sour. They’re more likely to trailer load easily, to tie quietly and to learn whatever we are trying to teach them. It’s kind of the “secret sauce” of horse training, if you know about it.

Being inconvenienced might start very small. The first time one of our youngsters is inconvenienced might be the first time we have him on a lead rope and he wants to go left and I want to go right. Or he wants to eat grass and I want to take him for a walk or take him over to get his feet trimmed. So it might start very small at first. But I’m aware of it. I’m aware of when he’s inconvenienced, and I’m aware of how much inconvenience he’s able to take, for his stage of development. I am carefully and thoughtfully, methodically building his “fitness” to be inconvenienced.

Those little, fleeting inconveniences will turn into bigger ones eventually, like being left outside or in the barn by himself, or standing tied to the trailer all day, or working in the rain, or working while the farm is being fed. Those are much bigger inconveniences than being asked to turn left when you want to turn right. A working horse, or a horse we want to be able to take places and do things with, he’s really got to be able to be inconvenienced. That makes him much safer and more fun to be with.

Being inconvenienced is also about a horse being practiced at changing his mind. So he can practice thinking about one thing (“I want to go sniff that horse over there”) and change what he’s thinking about (“Hey horse, let’s go over here, away from that horse, and do a stop/back/bring our front end around.”). To do that, we have to be able to decipher what our horse is thinking about, and then become proficient at causing him to change his thoughts. Horses who can’t change their thoughts do not deal with inconvenience very well, while horses who are good at changing their thoughts will be much better at being inconvenienced.

This is different from “desensitization,” and it’s not about getting the horse “shut down. It’s not about hurting him, or flooding him, or setting him up to fail. It is literally about building the horse’s mental flexibility, by degrees. It’s methodical and progressive. It’s sometimes a delicate balance, and it can be something that takes some awareness and skill on the human’s part. It’s no different than building a horse’s physical fitness and abilities, it’s about choosing the right size steps for that horse’s fitness level.

A horse whose ability to be inconvenienced has been well-developed will be quieter, less anxious, less ulcery, and more physically and mentally balanced. They will have more brain-space available for things of our choosing.

This ability to be inconvenienced, it’s a gift to the horse. It’s a gift to him, so he doesn’t have to suffer the unnecessary stress and anxiety caused by his lack of mental flexibility. Done mindfully, it doesn’t have to be scary or dangerous. And done earlier, it’s easier. And older horse who has never been inconvenienced, that’s going to be more difficult than a younger horse with no preconceived ideas about things.

At the end of the day, this is a practical thing. We choose to have our horses live in our human world, so if they can be inconvenienced, that makes living in our world a lot easier for them. It’s a gift, not a burden to them.

Coming soon... The Attention Course: an online learning opportunity that will help you get, keep and direct your horse’s attention (thought), and in the process, become worthy of it. This is part of being inconvenienced, because it is not always convenient for our horse to pay attention to us (or for us to have to ask for his attention). If you’d like to be eligible for a discount on The Attention Course when it goes live soon, sign up for your discount here: https://www.ethosequine.com/courses

05/31/2024

Finch boy after one of his last schooling rides with me yesterday 😍 I think this dude has a little bit more growing to do throughout the rest of his five-year-old year, but boy has he slicked out into his summer coat, shinier than a brand new penny😍

05/31/2024

05/22/2024

A fun lesson with Chloeye and goose yesterday evening!

05/20/2024

I’m super pleased with Finch’s progress over the past two weeks! He has gotten leaps and bounds more consistent in his rhythm at the trot, he doesn’t need to be baby sat for every trot step like he used to🤪, he’s gaining strength and using his hind end more, which is allowing him to consistently move in a frame😍, he’s gained a ton of flexibility and independence in his shoulders and core, and his left lead canter is getting more quiet and balanced! He’s also learning how to move his haunches, and he’s picked up backing up quite nicely just off of the weight shift from my body/seat! This was not even an option when he first came😅he’d just stick his head straight up and brace with his mouth open and not move an inch. We’re still working on trying to get that right lead at the canter, but over all I’m highly impressed with him thus far!

05/20/2024

Had a great ride on Faith this afternoon, getting her weekly exercise in! Nessie also had a productive lesson on Moose Friday morning before the rain came!

05/09/2024

The problem with horse training is that society is set up to believe that you can buy a service and have things the way you want in a certain time frame. People look at horse training as if they're spending their money on a product. And yet even the best horse trainers will tell you the horse takes its own time, and no one can guarantee a horse will be doing what you want from it when you want from it.

The other problem is that even if your trainer can get it done with your horse, it doesn't necessarily mean that you will be able to. Getting a horse right takes an amount of commitment on the owners part to develop the same type of relationship that the trainer has, otherwise how can you expect from your horse for yourself what your trainer gets, when it's they who have put in the hours, the and sweat, the patience and the desire to get along with that horse? You aren't spending money on a tune up for your car that you can take home and drive.

The fact that money is involved leads people to believe they deserve something for what they paid, and they do, but, it happens in the animals time, not the humans. I think any good trainer would say they would do this for free if they could, just to help horses and people. And yet, we all have to eat...

Edited to add Author… Amy Skinner Horsemanship

05/07/2024

THIS!!!

05/06/2024

With all the rain we’ve gotten this weekend, I wasn’t expecting to be able to get any work done with Finch today, but the sun ☀️ came out and dried things up just enough to go out and do some groundwork with him for his first day here at boot camp! We kept things simple and mainly just did some work on the lunge line to figure out what all he knows, as well as refreshed on some ground manners. We also spent a good bit of time working on desensitizing him to a fly mask. He’s very unsure of them, so that will definitely be something that we continue to build on over the next few weeks while he’s here!

05/04/2024

Yesterday we said goodbye to Finn as he headed home from his 30 day stay with us! I’m super excited to see him and his owner continue on in their journey together from here on out🤩 This afternoon we welcomed our next 30 day trainee who is in for a tuneup! We’d like to send out a warm welcome to Finch, who is a five year old quarter horse gelding😍 I look forward to seeing his progress over the next several weeks!!

04/25/2024

😍😍😍

04/22/2024

Girly took care of her rusty and outta shape momma in our hunt seat saddle this afternoon 😅felt like a limp spaghetti noodle over those 18” verticals ☠️ gotta keep this core in action some how until baby C arrives🫡 💕