White Dog Farm

05/27/2024

We’re thankful to be in the land of the free because of the brave🔔 Happy Memorial Day from the White Dog Family to yours🇺🇸

03/22/2024

It’s a great day to come out and see us! No weekend plans? We’ve got you covered! We think horses and time in nature is the best therapy😉
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12/25/2023

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM OUR HERD TO YOURS🐎 ❤️

12/04/2023

Morning Mantra: “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.”

Once you believe that you are worthy of a deep, profound love, you will open yourself up to receive it. Being open and vulnerable is scary but without it, true intimacy is not possible.
And when you learn about this love try to nurture it, which is difficult in our modern world. Look into more eyes than into screens. Read more books about relationships than status updates about someone's drama. Hold more hands than devices. Spend more time with actual people you love than with strangers on TV.

11/28/2023

Many of the animal guardians who come to trainings are seeking help with “more control”. It could be that their dog pulls on the leash. Perhaps their horse is rushing or tense under saddle. Maybe they have a dog who reacts to other dogs.

As humans, it is often our nature to “micro-manage” every moment we are handling an animal, in an effort to feel safer. Restriction and tension is often a reflexive reaction to feeling unsafe or nervous but unfortunately it often has the opposite effect on our animals – making them feel less safe and more “trapped” which continue the cycle we were trying to interrupt in the first place! The cycle of bracing between handler and animal is not always an easy one to override, especially if the handler has underlying fear of “what if”.

So what is the solution? Perhaps counter-intuitively, many Tellington Method exercises allow animals more space, freedom and choice (in a safe context) to address behaviors their guardians would like to change. When we allow animals the chance to improve their physical balance through mindful, non-habitual exercises WHILE allowing freedom of movement and the potential of choice, we help them feel safer. As an animal feels safer and more in control of their body, they are better able to respond rather than simply react. This confidence to override basic, primitive brain instincts means that an animal can make more appropriate choices, in situations beyond ones they have just be trained for.

Exercises such as the Bee-line, where a dog or horse is on a long sliding line between two handlers at a distance requires people to clearly use their body language to guide the animals and reduces the reliance on a signal on the line.

Under saddle, it is the norm for tense, rushy horses to be more relaxed and in self-carriage when ridden with the Liberty Lariat neck ring and no rein restriction through their neck.

Both of these exercises will clearly teach the handlers that the most important concept when attached to an animal is to trust the give.

Allowing animals the space to explore their potential and find varying, more functional ways of moving can be transformative. Trusting that we can have more influence over what an animal is doing if we are willing to give up a little “control” can be scary at first, but once you allow yourself to “Let it go” the results speak for themselves.

11/27/2023

Morning Mantra: “It won’t happen overnight. But if you quit, it won’t happen at all.”

Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of you doing it. The time will pass anyway. So you might as well put that passing time to the best possible use.
To me time is not measured in years, it’s measured by what you do, how you feel and how you spend it. Setting a goal, working towards it, and achieving it can feel like it will take forever, but what would you do with that time instead?

11/12/2023

10/18/2023

Hey! We’re just hopping on your feed to remind you about our Equine Adventures! It’s fun for all ages and a chance to connect with the horses and everybody knows that’s just good for the soul😊 This can be booked on its own, or added on to your stay with us! Either way, come horse around with us!🐎

10/11/2023

Hay hay hay from our attention hog of the barn🧲🥰

09/23/2023

Swipe to see Ella’s ears perk up when she hears it’s now fall, the temps are cooler, and it’s a perfect time for people to come visit her!!🥰

08/31/2023

Hurry mixing that feed, We are waiting for our Camlina oil 😃

07/25/2023

The "Pause" or "P.A.W.S" is so important but easily forgotten. Remembering to slow it down, listen, breath, and connect will make every interaction with your animal, and others, more meaningful, effective and mindful.

Follow the link to read about one of the most powerful details you can add to your daily life.

https://www.ttouch.ca/2021/07/15/the-power-of-pause/

07/18/2023

Caspian’s rushing us a little on the feeding this morning😁

07/12/2023

The cool temps this morning felt like good camping weather! Come stay with us and take time to connect with our sweet horses! Link in the bio to book🐎

06/06/2023

Morning Mantra: "Failure is not the opposite of success, it is part of the process."
If you think you've failed, never give up because
F.A.I.L. stands for First Attempt In Learning.
The end is not the end unless you give up, in fact E.N.D. stands for Effort Never Dies.
And, if you get "no" for an answer, just remember, N.O. stands for Next Opportunity.
It's all in the way you look at things.

06/06/2023

Photo taken at Hee-Haw Halfway House Donkey Rescue and Education. Go check them out!

06/03/2023

When I was at WEC Ocala last year, the first thing I walked into was Sergeant Reckless.

She has been a childhood hero of mine, and unexpectedly seeing a real life memorial to her was one of the coolest experiences. I had seen her multiple times at the Kentucky Horse Park, but I had no clue WEC had included her until I was staring up at her.

Originally named Ah Chim Hai or Flame in the Morning, Reckless was born just two years before the Korean War started in 1950.

When Reckless was 4, Lieutenant Eric Pedersen visited her racecourse looking for a pack animal. He paid $250 for Reckless. Her former owner used the money to buy a prosthetic leg for his sister.

Reckless settled into her new life quickly. She loved coffee, pancakes, chocolate, and coke!

As interesting as her snack choices were, Reckless is best known for her role in the 1953 Battle of Outpost Vegas.

In one day alone, Reckless made 51 trips from the Supply Point to being badly needed ammunition to the men up the mountain. She crossed No man’s Land and climbed a 45 degree trail.

Even more impressive: Reckless made most of the trips alone.

She carried almost five tons of ammunition up the mountain. She would wait to be unloaded, then take on a wounded soldier, bring him down, wait to be loaded, and start again.

The marines loved Reckless. They dressed her in their flak jackets to protect her, and gave cover fire as she approached.

Reckless earned several military decorations including two Purple Hearts, the Good Conduct Metal, the Presidential Unit Citation with star, and many more.

Reckless passed away peacefully on May 13, 1968. She was buried with full honors.

So now next time you’re at WEC or the Kentucky Horse Park, take a second to honor the bravest horse around.

- Sculpted by Jocelyn Russell - Secretariat Monuments.

If you’d like to learn more about Reckless, I highly recommend Robin Hutton’s well researched book https://a.co/d/dIDOSRg

04/29/2023

Meteor calendar
https://www.amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/

Come star watch at

https://www.hipcamp.com/en-US/land/georgia-white-dog-farm-camping-nelhwpyq

The American Meteor Society, Ltd. is established to inform, encourage, and support the research activities of people who are interested in the field of Meteor Astronomy

02/24/2023

A friend said recently that horses really like a ’Long Hello’. That many horses feel immediately rushed by us, and this can really set us onto a path of misunderstandings and conflicts with the horse. 



Out on a trail ride the other day, my horse carrying me calmly, carefully, steadily, he waded into the river, and splashed his nose in the water, lifted into a Flehman’s Response, then pawed at the water. It made me laugh. The sun was shining. It was perfect weather, cool enough for a jacket, sunny enough to not get cold. I reached down and rubbed his shoulder. My body flooded with all the feel good things I almost always feel around horses.
"Thanks buddy”, I said.

Gratitude. 

I wake up. I go to my horses. I am grateful. Already won. Why?



There are plenty of voices out there telling us, and our horses, that they are not good enough. Not correct enough, fit enough, collected enough, shiny enough, natural enough, healthy enough, calm enough, cooperative enough.



It is enough.



I am grateful before the horse because that is my long goodbye to the horse. We never know when we will have our last moment with our horses. And under normal set of circumstances, we will all outlive our horses, and if we are REALLY lucky, we will be there with them, in gratitude and dignity, at the very end. 



So I stay grateful, so that I do not have to GET grateful. Because that is my long goodbye to my horses. No matter if it was to be today, or in 30 years from now.

There is a training principal that permeates equestrian culture at almost every level and wears many disguises. It is the principal of trying to win. It sets the human against the horse and see's the working relationship with them as something competitive. Who wins, who loses, who gets their way. Who gets what they want.

The reason why I try to steer away from that, and you should to, is that it sets you up on a pathway of diminishing gratitude. That diminishing gratitude will eventually leave you utterly burnt out with horses.

So what to do about it? How to express your gratitude to a horse in a way they understand?



1. When the horse doesn’t give you what you want, try smiling about it. Breathe-in. Wait. You can always repeat the question in a moment. And maybe they didn’t understand you, or can’t do that thing today. Or maybe their lesson for you today is not about you getting what you want, but something else



2. When the horse does give you what you want in two seconds or less, permit yourself to feel joy about that. Smile like a maniac. Don’t be entitled or demanding (Unless in an emergency of safety). Tell that horse, in your language, that it was wonderful what they did. And feel what you say, so that the horse feels you too. 



3. The 1-Minute Ride. Once in a blue moon (For established, hard working saddle horses). Catch, groom, tack, warm up, mount. Sit for one minute quietly. Get off. Finish. Say THANK YOU to the horse and give them some extra hay that day. 



4. When correcting a horse whom has problematic posture, movement issues, or behavioural issues. Remember that it is their body not yours. Maladaptive responses exist for a really good reason and taking those away from a horse too quickly and absolutely could deprive the horse from an important coping strategy that is holding them together. Go slower in your reformation of what you deem incorrect, so that the horse has a chance to contribute to it too. They may not adhere to the rules of the system you are using, so give them a chance to SHOW you, what they need. 



5. Give your horse the absolute best quality of life you can. Try to relocate if your barn doesn’t have good living conditions for your horse. Stop giving money to people who know better, but can’t/won’t do better. It doesn’t have to be perfect. But never give up trying to give your horse a life that they enjoy living, outside of their time with you. Even in the most compromised of conditions, you would be amazed what some creative thinking can do to totally change the environment, improving your horses life outside of training.

https://www.emotionalhorsemanship.com

07/01/2022

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