Humble Horsemanship

06/06/2024

Luxe is fairly certain "learning to stand tied" was not supposed to be part of her training curriculum. However, the toggle switch between being a 3yr old, throwing a tantrum about it and also being a mellow minded draft cross was pretty evident during the process 🙃

04/10/2024

So well written, I couldn't help but share!
Original author ~ Becky Hanson

“There are horse trainers, horse traders and horse whisperers. There are show men, show boaters and show offs. There are fast talkers and would be magicians.

But then there are true Horsemen and Horsewomen, and these are harder to find and sometimes even harder to recognize because they are often tucked away in quiet hidden places, working slowly and silently without national recognition or appreciation.

Often times, the true horseman or woman does not have the most horses in training or those horses that are exceptionally bred or high priced. Often times, the true Horsemen and Women do not have access to big money owners or run through dozens and dozens of prospects in order to find the few that can take the pressure of aged event prize money or high profile exhibition. Many times, the true horsemen and women are slow and steady, methodical and patient, training on an individual horse's timeline and not to a rigid show schedule set by the seasons or show management.

These people recognize a horse's physical and mental capabilities and showcase their assets without sacrificing their bodies or minds. Horsemen and women take their time developing their horses' skills and confidence through a traditional steps, one before the next, placing just as much credence in their teaching relationship and equine partnership as they do in show pen results. Horsemen and women are humble because their reward comes from within; from knowing that they have taught through kindness, patience, fortitude, and logic. Their rewards coming from creating a confident horse that works with them and not for them, horses that are not scared or intimidated, horses with solid foundations that last season after season and that carry a gamut of riders from the experienced non pro to the Amateur to the Green Reiner. Always Dedicated. Always Patient. Always Consistent. Whether it be riding young horses, resurrecting older horses, or maintaining the Steady Eddy, a True Horseman is one of the first ones to throw a leg over in the morning and one of the last ones to pull their boots off in the evening.
Horsemen and women are a pleasure to watch in the arena or on the ranch as they diligently and patiently impart their knowledge and logic to both horses and students.

In an era where the horse industry is so economically driven and success is measured primarily in prize money and accolades, the tradition of the true horseman and the process of training horses seems to be changing; giving way to an assembly line mentality where immediate success and financial compensation take precedence over handcrafted quality and longevity. Dedicated to their craft, loyal to their students, ambitious, hardworking and a role model for anyone interested in making their way in an industry dominated by pressure to build great animals in less and less time, old fashioned horsemen and women are now Artisans, assets to our heritage and traditions and harder and harder to find.

A thoughtful teacher, a thorough instructor, a gentle hand, a firm guide, a rational yet fearless showman, the greatest compliment that I think could ever be given to someone who works with horses, is to be thought of as a Horseman.”

(Original post by Becky Hanson)

👇 My little family of "Artisans" ❤️

01/09/2024

Buckskins and Duns all around! It seems my 2024 is starting out with a specific color palate :)

12/24/2023

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from my two & four legged family to yours! I wish you all health and prosperity going into the new year! ✨️

P.s. for those already planning for the upcoming summer and interested in sending a horse in, I have a few limited training spots available. I would encourage you reach out sooner rather than later as the summer does fill fast 🙃

12/14/2023

Happy national day of the horse to all the four legged friends that make the world a better place ❤️

09/25/2023

💕

Hello Vermont and East Coast friends!

Another one of our brilliant Assistant Instructors is headed your way. Kayla Goelz is from Wisconsin and has been working with Mark since she was seven years old. She graduated to an Assistant Instructor when she was eighteen, after having trained and started many horses on her own. She is a wealth of knowledge on the Principles of Softness that Mark himself has spent his life practicing.

Her clinic is in Charlotte, Vermont on October 13-15, 2023 at Heart and Heritage Stables.

Interested in riding or attending? There's more information on this site, along with an email to contact the host.
http://hearttohearthorsemanship.com/

09/21/2023

Horsemanship Clinic with Kayla Rae Goelz, Assistant Instructor to Mark Rashid. Oct 13 - 15

Looking for a deeper, softer connection with your horse?
October 13 – 15, 2023

Fri Oct 13: Off-site Whiting and Salisbury

Sat Oct 14 & Sun Oct 15:

Heart and Heritage Stables

154 Baldwin Rd

Charlotte, VT

Auditors are welcome!

Kayla has been riding since childhood with internationally known horseman Mark Rashid and is currently one of his assistants. She is returning to Vermont to share the following:

- understanding the horse’s point of view

- developing a gentle approach to problem solving

- helping horse and rider develop a deeper connection

For questions and registration call or text Carol at (802) 989-1841 or email [email protected]

Check our website for additional information:

If we could show you a way to positively influence your horse's relationship with you, would you want to know about it?

08/01/2023

08/01/2023

Argo - 5 yr old "greenbroke" gelding, sired by "Bueno Dacotah Chex"
Is completely sound barefoot and stands at about 15hh. He came to me to be re-started and his owner has decided she doesn't have time for him and would like to find him a good home, where he will get the attention he deserves.
Hes got a good start on him and is pretty quiet for a young horse. He's been trailered a bunch, has show experience and participated in and completed a police training clinic. Does fine in a stall or 24/7 turnout. In the right hands he could have potential in any direction his rider is interested in going. But he is still young, so an experienced and kind rider, would be best. Hes a very sweet dude, but can internalize a little, so someone emotionally intuitive, but not emotional, would be good for him 🙃

built like a little tank and gives everything his best effort!

Up to date on everything, owner has clean hock, navicular, front feet and back X-rays.
He loads, ties and stands well for the vet and farrier. Currently located in South Eastern WI
Owner is asking 7️⃣,5️⃣🥕🥕
Price is negotiable to the perfect home!

Pm me with questions or for more information and pictures/videos.

05/09/2023

While traveling with or working along side Mark Rashid, I have heard him say several times "Working with the horse that shows up today, will always get us much farther along then trying to work with the horse that showed up yesterday, or that might show up tomorrow"

And I honestly believe that to be true for us humans as well... A fellow colleague and dear friend of mine had a tragic and unexpected loss last fall, I had reached out to her shortly after, to check in on her and as her and I were talking she asked me "how do you deal with it?" & "how do you heal?" Knowing the trauma and significant loss my family has unfortunately experienced in the past.
In that moment my only answer was "you let the waves of grief pass through and eventually just learn to carry on" but I felt like there was a deeper answer to such a heart breaking question, I just didn't have it for her then.

Recently I had to unexpectedly make the heart shattering decision to put down my gelding Brody. I won't go into details, because it's a long story and I might not be able finish it without breaking down. I'll just say it was way too soon and in no way, shape or form were either of us ready to say goodbye, but he was in immense pain and had spent multiple days at UW Madison and the vets there tried EVERY treatment out there that was available with no sign of it getting better for him. He had endured enough pain... more then enough, honestly...

It's been 2 months now, since I had to make that decision. That day, when I lost him, I also lost a sense of self. Brody had been my primary horse since I was 15, a bond of ten years, a relationship of love and trust that I lost when I had to say goodbye. It has been one of the most painful, and truly awful experiences. 2 months ago I was forced to begin grieving a massive piece of my whole world, and once again I found myself talking to the same dear friend of mine and again she asked "how do you deal with it?" How do you heal?" How do you live without them?" And in that moment, with my heart completely broken, my body aching in grief, my mind hardwired into survival mode. I once again, gave her the same response, but again, in a moment where I was broken and lost, I still felt like there was a deeper answer.

Years ago I pinned up a few of my favorite quotes to the door of my tack locker in the barn and if I am being honest, I dont look at them often and usually forget they are even pinned to the door at all. That is until recently... a few days ago I was grabbing a bridle off it's hook and there right along side the bridle I was reaching for, was Brodys bridle, just sitting there like I could grab it, toss it on him and ride off at any moment. It stopped me dead in my tracks, needing a moment to take a deep breath and wipe my tears, I puased in front of my locker and took a quick glance at the door full of quotes and there in the far left corner were Mark's words "Working with the horse that shows up today, will always get us much farther along then trying to work with the horse that showed up yesterday, or that might show up tomorrow" And that got me thinking, what if we looked at grieving from a similar point of view?

Similar to horses that find themselves living in a state of high stress (a sympathetic state) all they may require is time and direction to develop the tools needed to help down regulate themselves and decide if they are in a place where they are safe or not.
If we are in a place of pain because of loss and grief, I thought maybe if we give ourselves the time and space to come to understand and develop the tools we need to cope in a healthy manner, grieving could be us in a place of growth if we let it be. Yes, it hurts... actually no, let me be blunt, it F'ing sucks.

But, if we are patient and work with whatever version of ourselves that shows up each day, maybe we can get a little farther along then if we try to be the same version of ourselves that we were when our loved one was still around. Truth is, that version of ourselves might never look the same.

I will always cherish my "Brody memories" and I am grateful to have so many memories that Brody was a big part of. He was a main character in my story of life for almost a decade. What a beautifully heart breaking gift that is.

So no, with him gone, I am not the same person I was a few months ago, but I will work with what is left of me and hold on to everything he taught me and all of our memories and try to find growth through my grief

So with Mark's permission I adapted his quote to

"Working with the You that shows up today will always get you farther along then trying to work with the You that showed up yesterday or might show up tomorrow"

Now with that being said, I have taken a very large step back from social media. So you probably won't be seeing a lot of posts from me on this page or my personal page. I have a full schedule for the summer and a wedding to plan. I feel my free time is better spent in the world going on around me and healing my heart, then scolling through the apps. But I am still around, so if you have any questions or need to reach me, I will answer all messages, emails, texts and phone calls to the best of my abilities and will try to post an update every once in a while.

Best wishes and love to you all.

👇 one of my favorite photos my beloved princess Brody from our first trip to CO together.

02/06/2023

Little Black Mare...

If I had to guess, I would say this lovely mare has spent a lot of her life in a state of "mental shut down" to survive. She was a PRO at disassociation and it worked for her... until it didn't...

When she first came in, I gave her a few days to settle in and then brought her into the barn and started to learn her...
She had a lot of behavior I recognized as what I would call disassociation or "shut down" type of behavior, which is something I feel is pretty common in the horse world and at times can be difficult to recognize, but with this mare, I was fortunate enough to catch on to her patterns and after some observation and time, I was able to tap into her emotions and start peeling away all the layers that she had built to protect herself... week 1 & 2 we spent un-attached, "emotionally turned off" I would repeatedly ask in all the ways I could think to ask "are you with me?" And very rarely I would get any response at all. But eventually, layer by layer, I discovered a very kind soul. Slowly we started to fill in some of the holes in her foundation and help develop some tools that will hopefully help her not "leave" or "shut down" but to instead ask "am I okay" and then learn to down regulate on her own, in her own time. After a while she started to hear me when I asked a question and even responding in a soft and willing manner, as time went on we had some very beautiful rides and moments where she felt so very "with me" and I am hoping these tools will continue to be developed in a positive way for her and she continues to thrive in all sorts of new environments!

When this video was taken, she had been off for a few days and came into the barn a wide eyed fire breathing dragon, which I thought was great, because she was tapping into to her emotions and man did she have a whole lot of feelings about being in the barn that day. BUT! I gave her a safe space to feel all those feelings and "go through it" and all on her own, she felt those feelings, sorted through them and brought herself down from a sympathetic state into a parasympathetic (peaceful) state of mind and used almost ALL of the self soothing tools she had been developing over the past few weeks!

Can you pin point any of the self soothing and Processing that is happening for this mare in the video?

What a win for the little Black Mare! ❤️

P.s. if you have your sound on, I apologize for my absent minded singing 😬

01/01/2023

Wishing a safe and happy new year to all my dear friends! See you in 2023!

12/29/2022

I am sure this will be something truly wonderful!

Glorious humans, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas ❤️ I'll have more to fill you in on shortly about the adventures of the last few weeks, but first... this!

I just got off a call with Mark and Crissi chatting about our upcoming series together, which kicks off in just a few days time 💃 I'm so excited to do this together!

For those of you interested in joining us, Come As You Are is a 3 Part online series with Mark Rashid, Crissi McDonald and myself where we will be exploring various aspects of mind, movement and the nervous system in both horses and humans.

Our first session is called "The Learning Container", where we'll be looking at:

👉 How to create a productive learning environment for horses & humans

👉 Understanding the need for failure & how the brain learns

👉 How to create new learning patterns and experiences (and how to undo old ones!)

We would love to have you join us! All sessions are recorded and will be uploaded to a private, attendees only podcast once we have wrapped up.

We will also be looking at:

💫 Acceptance as the start point; learning to meet reality without judgement

💫 Finding a place to begin

💫 How the mind shows up in the body
.. and so much more!

You can read all the info and sign up via this link:

https://confidentrider.online/come-as-you-are-sessions/

Any questions, feel free to fire away!

❤️ Jane

Considering the Horse, Mark Rashid

12/24/2022

Wishing all my clients, barn family, & page followers a very Merry Christmas and a blessed new year💕 thank you so much, I appreciate each and every one of you more than I could ever express!

12/15/2022

Preparing for next week's temps 🥶

12/09/2022

Hey Facebook friends! After enjoying a couple weeks of no training horses and spending some quality time with my own horses, I am back to work! Welcome to softness school miss Bella!

10/25/2022

My last training horse for the summer has gone home and I am greatly enjoying a few moments to just "be" before I go back to work in November. Going to check out of Facebook world until then... ✌️

10/13/2022

Another successful clinic in Vermont is in the books! We had pretty decent weather and a full clinic of really great people!

I am so grateful to Jes and Carol for all of their hard work to make this clinic happen and to Sarah for tagging along and thank you to all the participants! I feel like we witnessed a lot of very positive changes in a wide variety of horses and people.

❤️

What a gift it is to be surrounded by such wonderful, supportive and kind people!

10/04/2022

Neko carried the saddle for the first time today!

Carrying a saddle? Pssshh no problem!
Much less invasive than those damn
snake/ropes were the first time those were brought out.

This little lady will go home at the end of the month, to have some time to grow up a little more and then she will most likely come back next summer to be started under saddle.

I truly love watching the wheels turn in these young horses, especially when there is no rush and they can process what we are asking of them in their own time. Priceless!

09/29/2022

It's not always about the technique or the skill (though both are helpful and necessary) sometimes its simply about the heart and the feel...

After a few weeks of learning ropes and jingley horsey belts will not be the end of her time on earth. Neko spent her first session in the long lines today and she was as cool as a cucumber on a crisp morning 🙃

Gold star for this sweet young lady today 🌟

09/08/2022

Neko! This cute little thing is hanging out with me for a month or two, to hopefully learn all about foundation ground work and get started down the path to being a grown up pony. So far we've learned that ropes are not snakes and that they won't hurt us, but we still don't like it much when they touch our butt, Neko thinks ropes on or around her butt is pretty unnecessary and a invasion of her privacy and the human is kinda rude for asking her to be okay with such a thing, but she's beginning to understand its just another part of her new daily life. We've also learned that humans like to put stuff around horse tummies and today the horsey belt made jingle sounds, that was only scary for a little bit until we figured out the jingle sounds were not chasing us and they were in fact attached to us and were jingling because we were moving around, we once again accepted our fate. Poor Neko must think we humans are some seriously wacky creatures for asking horses to do such crazy things.

08/18/2022

Miss Tilly.
What a sweet and emotional mare.
In her own way and on her own schedule she is learning to trust and I absolutely refuse to rush her through such an essential process... but slowly we've managed to work through a little trauma and lot of uncertainty and one day (maybe very soon) we'll swing that leg over and take a deep breath 🙃

08/04/2022

Sarah and Josie had a fantastic lesson this morning!
One of my absolute favorite duos ❤️

07/19/2022

EARLY mornings in the arena! Managed to get a small handful of horses worked and a lesson taught before 10am. Leaving my comfy bed that early is no easy task, but there is something very peaceful about working with horses as the sun rises ❤️ I am not enjoying the heat, but the peaceful morning rides make me feel a little better.

06/28/2022

It's this little lady's 8th birthday today!
And what journey it's been...
She got herself in trouble with a herd mate last summer and ended up pretty beat up and got some fractured ribs.

By late fall/early winter, we had the all clear from the vet to saddle up, but Elsa made it pretty clear she still had some emotional healing to do and was definitely not ready to go back to work, so I decided more time was needed for both of us to figure things out, we took the entire winter and spring to work and rest.

From time to time I would saddle her and either lunge her or long line her and see if she would let me know how she felt (she's usually pretty clear) and she would have days when I questioned everything and days everything was perfectly fine. But slowly she seemed to get a little more comfortable in her own skin again.

I pulled her out today, after she had been sitting for a month, to once again check in with her... I got her out, saddled her up and took her to the round pen. She acted like we hadn't missed a day of work in months. So I stood up in the stirrups and layed on her back and she dosed off while I did all the "Making sure she's okay" stuff.

Being fairly confident that she was very much ready to be ridden again, I grabbed a willing volunteer (thanks Brianna) so I could stay on the ground and pay attention to Elsa. I tossed a bridle on her and we made our way back to the round pen. We once again did some double checking to "make sure she's okay" and Bri swung a leg over and just like that Elsa walked off like I rode her yesterday. Not one ounce of worry or doubt, just calm and quiet as can be. A perfect lady!

I know it's Elsa birthday, but I am definitely the one that was given a great gift today. Now together, we go back to work!

Happy birthday Gold Crown Blackburn! I am so proud of the horse you were today ❤️

06/27/2022

Thank you Tilly, for letting me learn with you ❤️

This is a troubled but very sweet mare. She definitely had ALL of her walls up when she first arrived and was pretty certain she had been sent here to be tortured... it has been so cool to watch her slowly feel a little better about things every time I bring her out. She has done her best to adapt to some very drastic changes in her life. I am excited to see how things play out with this girl!

06/07/2022

Welcomed a new training horse this afternoon! Miss Tilly is in to be restarted under saddle and hopefully learn a few other good things along the way. Summer is going to be busy here in WI ☀️

05/28/2022

Left a another little piece of my heart in Colorado this week ❤️