We are so lucky that at Everlasting Stables to have a heated grain room and bathroom with hot water. All of our horses get wet food, so I'm able to have everything prepped for the next meal. We also have not had to worry about frozen water whatsoever!
Here's a snippet of my sessions with Anne last weekend, helping me loosen up Noir's right shoulder with some shoulder in.
I am excited to continue working with Anne and further my own training so I have more to offer my students 💪.
I have a few more openings for students, especially during the week! Message me if you're interested in finding out more about scheduling with me 😍
What an amazing lesson we had. Noir needs my help loosening his right shoulder particularly, so new have good homework until next time 😍
We did it, I rode Fabiann bareback!
My first step in his training process was teaching him to side pass his hindquarters toward the mounting block. Once he got the movement, I associated it with the words come get me. We got him to master that from both sides.
We took a step back and decided to do the desensitization without a saddle. Once he would come get me at the mounting block, I would jump up and down to desensitize him to the noise and sensation of someone being above him and having to do the small leap onto his back.
After a few sessions of that, to the point where I would not get a reaction from him, I would lay part of my weight on him. Again, I kept doing this until we got little to no reaction from him.
From there, I put all of my weight on him by doing the jumping in the mounting block, stopping, counting 123, and gently jumping up and laying on my belly. I asked him to walk a few steps and stop. He did this successfully so we called it a day.
This progression of adding in more pieces slowly truly prepared him for what we did yesterday. I stayed consistent with the jumping a few steps on the mounting block, stopping, counting 123, gently jumping up and putting my belly on him, and then I turned my body so I was laying on him nose to tail. I rubbed my arms on both sides of his barrel to simulate the feeling of my legs being there. With no reaction from him, having a leg rested almost the entire time, licking and chewing, and having his head nice and low, I slowly tilted my legs down on both sides of his barrel. Again, no big reaction from him so he walked on the lunge line like he has been used to for years.
His owner Olga Spanhoff also Incorporated some amazing sessions using pool noodles attached to both sides of him to simulate the feeling of a rider being above his head. That added piece I think was key to me being able to sit up on him yesterday.
Now to add in the saddle today 😍
A tiny clip of me riding Noir yesterday. He has become so light in the bridle and aware of his body over the last 2 months. He is really thriving since we moved to Fall Wind Farm between being a part of a herd, having on average 12 hours of turnout a day, some dietary changes to lower starch and sugar feeds made in Europe, working 4 days a week, and we just started a treatment for hind gut ulcers.
More videos to come in the near future 😁
Here is a quick overview of stretches I do with Noir before I even put the saddle on his back to ride!
This concept was introduced to me by the USDF gold medalist trainer, Kelly Pullen, when I was her working student. She had me stretch every horse she had in training before the saddle went on.
I've kept this going with my horse Noir. I kid you not, after I stopped the video, Noir stretched his front legs forward and shifted his weight back to further stretch himself 😆 he loves it!
Message me or comment here with questions!!
Special thank you to Olga Spanhoff for offering me this opportunity to start my lesson and training program.
And thank you to my husband Cris for pushing me to do what I love 🥹.
And to my FIRST clients, putting your trust in me has been everything I needed and more.
I will have more videos soon of my riding and training journey so stay tuned!
