MK Horsemanship

01/02/2025

So much truth to this!

12/31/2024

With the new year apon us, I find myself thinking about goals for the new year, what they mean to me, and where they come from.
With everyone posting their goals, from professionals to friends, it can be easy to feel like we need to keep up, or that our own personal goals are not good enough.

If there is anything that I have learned over the past year it is that all of our needs to thrive are unique. We all have different pasts, experiences, needs, loves, strengths, and weaknesses.

To truly thrive, our hearts must be in it. Our goals need to align with who we are, where we are, and where we want to go.

As I plan for 2025 I am focusing on my own unique needs that will not only help me be my best, but also allow me to help others meet their needs and goals with love, excitement and acceptance. As you plan your new year goals I encourage you to appreciate where you are, and be brave and patient enough to pick the goals that will make you shine. ✨️

12/29/2024

Happy Sunday ✨️

12/26/2024

The learning process can be uncomfortable on many levels- from emotions, missed timelines, and finances. Because discomfort is difficult, we might find ourselves trying to hurry the learning process and beat ourselves up for not learning faster.

However learning is not linear and it can be both scary and freeing to accept that. While this acceptance gives you freedom to make mistakes, take time, and enjoy the process, it can also mean that there is more commitment to this journey than we might have anticipated and we may need to assess what this means to us.

To get the results we want, we must understand and accept that there is a certain level of dedication and training that needs to be accomplished. For each one of us, the time that takes may vary from days, weeks, or years, depending on our personal experiences, horses, education, and how much time we can commit to.

The journey of horsemanship is unique and personal for each one of us. It isn't about comparing ourselves to others journeys, timelines, or goals. It's about being the best for our horses, ourselves, and the world around us.

It is important to add that there is discomfort that we should accept and use to grow, and there is also discomfort that tells us we need to leave a situation. It's crucial that we find a teacher who we can trust, get results from, and who can help us navigate the discomforts of learning.

12/24/2024

Merry Christmas Eve!

" It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more."

~Dr. Seuss

12/21/2024

12/20/2024

Some good winter advice!

If your horse is currently shod (and sometimes even not), this type of snow/ice can lead to a hardpack in the hoof. Left unattended these can cause "stone bruises", ligament and tendon damage, or slips and falls.

Sometimes applying the solid type crisco on the inside of the hoof can help keep these from sticking. We have heard that vaseline or Pam works for this also. Please only apply it to the sole and Not the horseshoes or the hoof wall.

**Caution: do Not walk your horse into a non dirt barn aisle if you know it has ice balls. They can slick up and fracture their pelvis or some other catastrophe.**

If your horse has an ice ball, the easiest way to remove it is with a hair dryer. In some cases you get lucky and they pry out with a hoof pick fairly easily.

12/17/2024

It's so natural to resist what we don't want. We push, pull, grab, and kick when we feel the horse go against our perfect mental picture.
We say things like, "I just want my horse to speed up, slow down, or stop when I ask."
We need to meet the horse where he is both mentally and physically, in energy and time.

When we resist, we use force and our timing
will be forever off.
When we can accept what is, and allow
ourselves to get within the same flow we can
then sculpt something beautiful.

12/16/2024

A piece of Feel-
To let judgment and fear go so that we can feel and respond to what is and not what was or may be.

When we are filled with judgment and fear we can feel and offer nothing more than resistance. Everything becomes a threat and something to react to. We can not dance because we can not absorb.

12/16/2024

❤️

It’s that time of year where I get a little burned out, and take a bit of a social media break…

There are a lot of voices out there who have much to say, and little to show, and it gets discouraging for those of us who are in the arena, quite literally, day in and day out.

I think the most common experience in the horse world is well-meaning owners letting the voice of others become more important than their horses’.

As we approach the new year, I encourage everyone to leave in 2024 anything that isn’t serving their horses.

Specifically, any methodology that just gets louder when horses plateau, rather than listening.

Pull the shoes that are keeping an unbalanced trim locked in.
Shoe the horse that isn’t thriving barefoot.

Try a curb on the horse who hates snaffles.
Try bitless on the horse who hates bits.

Be skeptical of those who get defensive and dismissive when someone suggests a horse’s behavior may be a result of pain.

Be skeptical of those who use boundaries and pressure as domination.

Be skeptical of those who are dismissive of horses becoming less and less emotionally regulated when we remove boundaries, or who don’t empower them with the superpower of navigating mental and emotional and physical pressure.

Take everyone’s advice and opinion with a grain of salt. That includes famous gurus, both old and new.

Don’t put anyone on a pedestal.

Don’t take anyone’s feedback to heart if your gut says otherwise. Whether it’s a vet, a farrier, or a trainer.

Second opinions are good, third and fourth opinions, however many it takes, until you find someone who sees what you’re seeing, as the person who knows your horse best, are even better.

Our horses have no choice but to trust the decisions we make for them, so we should make sure those decisions are based on listening to our gut and our horse, and not just the loudest voice out there.

Seems like everyone’s trying to sell us something, even if they aren’t asking for our money.

The truth for each horse sells itself.

It’s loud out there.

What drew many of us to horses in the first place was the ability to withdraw and get quiet, just us and the horse.

We need to keep learning and evolving, yes, but there’s always going to be the necessity of going to the horse, and letting all that noise fall away, so we can listen.

12/12/2024

Can you learn through an experience?

Experience is our greatest teacher, but sometimes, rather than learn from an experience, we tend to focus on surviving it.

When things get mentally or physically tough, it can send us into reacting and hoping our way through the situation. Leaving our horses to fend for themselves and often having to defend themselves from us.

What if instead of surviving an experience, we took a step back and tried to learn from it?
Yes, we will be put in situations throughout our life that will require us to respond without thinking and just survive... but what about all the situations that have great experiences to learn from that we just shut out and survive because it's easier?

Sometimes, we need to show up for the hard experience we are in and own the knowledge that will come with it. Not only will this teach us a lot... but it will also build our confidence in ourselves.

12/10/2024

Utilizing your seasons to be your very best!

All of the seasons throughout the year bring both ease and difficulty to our horsemanship journeys. We probably have seasons where we feel productive and others not so much.

But what does being productive really mean?

Being productive isn't about being laser focused on just one thing, it's more about being flexible so we can continue to build on to what we have and get closer to meeting our goals.
When we are not flexible with ourselves and our horses we quickly lose our ability to grow.

Now that winter is fast approaching it can be easy to be sucked into feeling unproductive.
What we enjoyed with our horses in the summer just isn't easy or even appealing in the winter.

But what does sound appealing?

If we think that working on our horsemanship journeys have to look the same in the winter as it does in the summer, we might find ourselves giving up on our journeys over the winter.
But what if we let go of what we think it should look like and instead focus on utilizing the opportunity of the season?

Utilizing the winter season might look like focusing on all the important things you didn't have time for in the summer.
This might look like:

Reading educational or inspiring books

Assessing your growth without hurried judgment

Making plans and goals

Working on short but important exercises with your horse that you might find yourself hurrying past in the summer

Learn more about equine management

Spending time on non horsey hobbies that will leave you feeling refreshed and more clear minded for your horsemanship journey

And many more things!

If we utilize the opportunities of the seasons we will find our best selves, which will bring out the best in our horses!

12/07/2024

Do you ever catch yourself telling your horse that they are fine, while at the other end of the lead rope the horse is obviously not feeling fine and is bolting, rearing, nipping, pawing or doing some other annoying behavior?
When we tell our horses that they are "fine," we are essentially saying that we are not responsible for helping them feel better and that it is up to them to figure it out.

As long as we are telling our horses that they are fine, they will always be troubled.
We put them in so many unnatural situations, and often without any plan on how to truly help them through and set them up for success.

Next time you catch yourself reassuring your horse that they are fine, ask yourself if there is an action that you can take to help them feel better and thrive.

12/05/2024

We have some exciting announcements and plans for 2025!

One of them is that we are expecting a baby girl the end of March 2025 ❤️

12/05/2024

What does staying out of your horse's way mean?

There are many layers to what staying out of the horse's way means both mentally and physically. It's not something that we will learn all at once, but something we will continue to learn over the course of our lifetimes.

Simply put, getting in our horses way and creating a brace comes from a lack of physical and mental awareness and knowledge of the consequences that follow.

At the beginning, staying out of the horse's way may simply mean knowing how to put yourself in a position to get the desired response from your horse from the ground or in the saddle and then knowing how to reward the try so the horse knows that they have done the correct thing.

As we progress further, staying out of the horse's way starts to take on a deeper meaning and in multiple ways-

Position and response.
Position is important so that we can direct the horse, get a response and reward the try. However, if a horse has to brace through his body and deliberately throw himself off balance to give me my desired response, I am not in a good position, and getting in the horse's way.

When a horse is braced and unbalanced he no longer has access to a body that can easily do what I am asking and repercussions follow such as, resistance, frustration, tight and painful body, and a braced mind.
It is important that when we position ourselves to ask our horses for a response, we are setting them up so they can respond with a balanced freely moving body, and soft thinking mind.

Our bodies and tension.
If we are holding tension on the ground or in the saddle, we will get in the way of the horse's ability to do what we are asking.
Our stride, seat, and movements become tight and irregular, continuously pushing and pulling the horse into tension and out of balance.

Mindset
Our mindset can have a huge impact on how we interact with our horses. When we start making up stories about our horses that are simply untrue, we start to get in the way by responding to those stories instead of the horse in front of us.

Putting a brace in the horse's mind.
When we are constantly getting in the horse's way, we start to put a brace in the horse's mind, pushing them to focus on self preservation and ways to get out of the situation or simply deal, instead of being willing and receptive.

It is important that we constantly evaluate if we are getting in the way of the horse's mind and body… However, if we look deeper we might realize that staying completely out of a horse's way is a lifelong journey and so we are really only evaluating if we can be in the horse's way just a little bit less.

Below is a photo of us practicing balance, awareness, and staying out of the horse's way at a clinic of mine last spring.
Teaming up with another person before trying it with a horse often leads to some pretty bizarre feedback from your partner.

Picture by Calysta Mundt

12/05/2024

I'm dying 🤣