Cool Breeze Equine, LLC

11/03/2024

Some of our students really demonstrated this this weekend & I'm so proud of their resilience. An important life lesson for any age.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/NE6cKE3kCwVLdDno/

11/02/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/CF6Lx9k25h6N2HU9/

Thought for the day...

Your trainer breathes with you through every movement whether at home or at a show. Your trainer stands at the in gate and physically rides the test with you - mentally moving your horse forward, or giving a whoa or riding your rhythm through every turn. She gives you words of wisdom and encouragement as you go by. Your trainer shares your nerves as you walk in the ring, feels your disappointment when things don’t go right and rejoices when you smack down that amazing test. They celebrate your tiny achievements and are filled with pride when you achieve a huge goal. They love your horse as if it were their own, making sure they are happy and healthy. Your trainer beats themselves up when things don’t go as planned. Your trainer takes on the responsibility of caring for your emotional needs ... both through the good and bad. Your trainer respects your budget and tries with all their might to make a very expensive sport as affordable as possible. Your trainer takes the job of matching you with the horse of your dreams very seriously and are filled with happiness when that partnership produces success. Trainers are therapists, sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, doctors, care givers, equine linguists, supporters, cheer leaders, and optimists. We love what we do, love the sport and are forever grateful to the clients and horses that come into our lives!!

Please remember this the next time you see your trainer. They are, like you, human, trying their best to make you successful. They are your biggest fan!! • Jodi Bondar

📸 Photos by Furey

10/31/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/d4PGaSvPt3aQCZ2S/

10/29/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/ub2yCoevW4vM3vT8/

10/27/2024

It's a beautiful fall morning for a horse show! 🍂🍁🐎
Come on out & cheer on students as they showcase their skills in a Combined Test! Visit the horses & see what our program is all about!

.haymarket

10/27/2024

THE ROLE OF EMOTIONAL DISCOMFORT IN TRAINING

I will make an assertion that might surprise or upset a few people. That is, horses do not need to bond with people. As long as a horse’s basic needs of food, water, and companionship are met, they couldn’t give a farthing if they never saw a human in their entire life.

But people are different. Most people want to bond with their horse. They get upset if they feel their horse doesn’t want to be with them. To fulfill this need people repeat the mistake over and over again of avoiding doing enough to help a horse change its thought because they don’t want to upset their horse or induce anxiety in the horse. They don’t want to do anything they think might cause their horse not to like them. But this is making horse training more about people's concerns than the horses. It is both an ignorant and selfish approach to training.

Some people who read my essays about training principles and watch my videos come away with the mistaken view that my training and my clinics are all rainbows and cuddles. But I am not that sort of trainer. I am the sort of trainer who will do as little as I can to get a change of thought, but as much as necessary too. That means that sometimes I am applying so little pressure that people can’t see what I am doing and other times it means the pressure gets to earthquake proportions, with most of the time it is somewhere in between. I try very hard not to apply more pressure than necessary to change a horse’s thoughts and provide them with clarity. To do more than that verges on punishment. But to apply less pressure than necessary to change a horse’s thoughts and provide clarity verges on emotional abuse.

In the past, a small number of people have expressed confusion and even concern about how much pressure I applied to some horses. They felt what they saw me doing was inconsistent with the ideas I espoused in my essays. So I want to say a few things about this.

Firstly, as I have written in my book, The Essence Of Good Horsemanship there is no such thing as kind or gentle training. All training requires a certain threshold level of anxiety in a horse to stop one behaviour and replace it with another. This is equally true for training that applies the principles of negative reinforcement (R-) and positive reinforcement (R+) The amount of anxiety required to make a horse think what it is doing is no longer a good idea is the same for every horse. However, the amount of pressure a human has to apply to reach that threshold level of anxiety can vary hugely. So just because one horse will change its thought with a wiggle of a finger and another horse will require a whirlwind of energy from a swinging rope, does not mean one method was more aggressive or violent than the other from a horse’s point of view. They both added the same amount of worry in the respective horses to create a change of thought.

Secondly, when it comes to horses the end mostly does justify the means. By that I mean, if a horse finishes a session in a better emotional place and with a clearer understanding of its role than it had in the beginning, then it is hard to judge what happened as inappropriate or wrong. Remember this is about how the horse feels, not how the human feels. If I can get a good change in a short time by using a strong feel or achieve the same result over a much longer time using much less pressure, I get it done sooner rather than later. I don’t feel it is fair to leave a horse feeling crappy any longer than necessary just because I don’t like using more pressure. I’m not saying it is wrong to do less and take longer if that is where your skill level is, but I am not letting my horse flounder any longer than I have to simply because I want to avoid being firmer and clearer.

The reason most people come to a clinic is because the things they have been doing with their horse are not getting the results they have been seeking. An owner puts trouble in their horse and leaves it there until it becomes habitual, then gets upset if a trainer has to apply more pressure than they would like to get the horse to think of changing their idea and behaviour. They look at the trainers as being cruel and aggressive but don’t see fault in themselves for creating the situation in the first place and leaving their horses troubled for days, weeks, and years.

Horses don’t care about how much pressure we use provided there is clarity and quieter/calmer emotions at the end. Horses don’t care how they got there, just that they feel better because of it. So a horse does not carry the worry that pressure might induce any longer than it takes for the change of thought to come through. Once the change of thought occurs the emotions are quelled and clarity is obtained. A horse does not fixate on the applied pressure any longer than that – whether it is barely perceptible or highly charged. The amount of pressure required to get a change is not what is important to a horse. The pressure only becomes a problem if we don’t use it with enough clarity to change a thought or if we use more than necessary to change a thought. You only have to watch horses interacting in the paddock to realize that it is not pressure that matters, but the clarity at the end.

It is very human to want to make sure our horses are calm and relaxed all the time. We want them to like us, so we don’t want to be the source of their trouble. I applaud this notion and try hard to work in that way. However, I don’t believe we do our horses any favours by allowing our desire to be their friend and not upset them with their need for clarity and confidence in following our idea. It never is and never should be about us.

Photo: I was in Germany earlier in the year, I worked with Simone Carlson. She using pressure with feel to help this horse overcome its fear of crossing a tarpaulin.

10/27/2024

This!

How to be a great lesson parent!
1.) WATCH YOUR KID RIDE! I can’t believe how many dads (sorry, but in my experience it’s always the dads) sit in the car and don’t watch EVER. Your kid absolutely wants to know that you are watching. Please make your child feel important and come sit ring side.
2.) Do NOT coach! Are you an accomplished equestrian? No? Shush. Yes? Then you give the lesson.
3.) Take video. It’s helpful. A few barns have rules against video but most love when you not only video, but send us instructors good clips!
4.) If you see something, say something TO THE INSTRUCTOR. Is your kid’s outside foot the whole way deep into the stirrup and the instructor is on the inside of their circle and can’t see it? It’s okay to tattle. 🤣 But if you talk to your child directly it’s distracting. (if nothing else, it’s hard to take instructions from two people at the same time.) occasionally a parent will point something out to me, and I’ll say, “Yep, good eye. But I’m not worried about that right now.”  sometimes we have to let something slide while we work on something else. But we’re also not perfect and we do miss things occasionally.
5.) Understand that giving the same instruction over and over is normal. It happens with adults too.  If I tell them to step into their right stirrup a little more, I’m usually happy if they maintain it for 30 seconds on their own… seriously. Unless the entire exercise is about fixing one body part, it’s very common for riders to make a fix, just for it to slide back out of place almost immediately.
I bring this up because I see parents sometimes get embarrassed or frustrated when I have to tell their kids to put their hands down on repeat. The parent looks ready to jump up and down screaming, “Just Keep your Freaking Hands Down Already!!!!!” I promise you it’s not that easy!
6.) Politely discourage your child from talking to you. If twice during a lesson, your child looks over and asks you to video or if they ask you to hand them a water bottle during a break, that stuff is totally fine. But if your child’s interaction with you is constant or if they clearly have more attention on you than the instructor, just say, “Pease pay attention to Miss Danee and not me.”
7.) If your child is anxiously attached to you, use this opportunity to wean them off of you slowly, and not traumatically. Don’t just dump them off at the lesson and hop in your car and leave, but maybe tell them you are going to walk outside and make a phone call while they tack up/ warm up, but that you’ll be back in time to watch the majority of the lesson. Or if the lesson is in an outdoor arena, just pull your chair a little further away instead of sitting right next to the arena. 

Basically it all comes down to middle ground- show interest in your kid’s progress, but also encourage independence.
The barn is a great place to develop secure attachment styles, independence, and a love for learning!
Allow us riding instructors to work our magic, but also be around to witness it, and praise your child for their progress.

Wanna make it even better? On the drive home ask your kid what their favorite part was, or what they thought they did well, and which parts were hard or easy. Don’t grill them about it, but show interest and get them thinking about their progress.


10/26/2024

Jump course for CBE CT Sun 10/27

10/25/2024

📣 Final ride times for Sunday's horse show 📣

Please double check your times & horses for any errors. Please notify the CBE office immediately if there are any issues.

👉 All students using School horses must be present Saturday at 4:00 p.m. for mandatory horse and tack show prep!

We are still in need of some volunteers!! Please text the office at 571-248-1780 if you can assist in any way!

We can't wait to see everyone at the show this Sunday!!

10/24/2024

Surefoot pads are just one of the tools we have available in our toolbox as we rehab & train the various horses in our program at CBE.

Bizzy, JC name "I Can Do Anything ", a 10yo OTTB, is warming up for his training session this morning on the pads & is loving them!

At CBE it's so important that we address the whole horse mentally, physically, emotionally, & nutritionally to improve all aspects of their fitness & well-being so that they can happily participate with us as partners.

10/24/2024

👇This is also why it ESSENTIAL that EVERY rider knows at least some basic groundwork.
And if you're going to need to rely on groundwork when things are falling apart, it stands to reason that you should be routinely practicing it when stuff ISN'T hitting the fan so you have a toolbox full of "tools" to draw on when you really need it. AND so that your relationship with your horse can get you through the challenges you will inevitably face.

https://www.facebook.com/share/pGDYrjyH1vt1heVz/

10/21/2024

https://eventingnation.com/townend-takes-lead/

We knew we’d be looking at a true 5* test after hearing the riders react to Ian Stark’s final cross country design here at the MARS Maryland 5 Star, presented by Brown Advisory. As we

10/21/2024

What a great weekend with Cool Breeze Equine, LLC students at the at Fair Hill International! The weather could not have been more perfect, & Ian Stark's final course was an impressive challenge to witness. We can't wait for next year!

10/21/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/g7qiyJQshsaAWnAA/

Ex-racehorse takes fourth at Maryland 5 Star: ‘He raced 60 times and he tries his heart out’

Read more via link below

10/21/2024

Came across this gem today. The great Ian Stark before his iconic course building career. It was great to witness his final course in action this weekend at the MARS Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill this weekend.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/MFBGt4gC8HdLrmyS/

10/08/2024

ISO Rider/Instructor OR Rider/Barn Manager at Cool Breeze Equine, LLC in beautiful Hume, VA.

Job description can vary slightly based on your strengths, but basically seeking someone with strong riding skills & confidence with young horses to help put training rides on horses under the supervision & direction of our head trainer.
Ideally the same person has skills to EITHER help manage the barn appointments, inventory, & staff, OR with solid teaching skills & good theoretical knowledge to keep a busy, but fun & positive training & lesson barn running smoothly!
We are happy to provide further training for the right person, but candidates should have a solid foundation.

We have a really great training program & riding academy with wonderful students (no drama & we work hard to keep it that way!), great horses, a super team of positive hard working individuals who care about each other, & a professionally run business where professional communication is a priority.

Excellent compensation package including
- a great salary
- room for 1 horse can be negotiated
- regular lessons
- regular time off
- a 40hr workweek typically Tue-Sat (some exceptions may arise for ill horses or competitions, but we try to accommodate additional time off the following week),
- additional hours available if desired
- paid vacation
- paid CE for personal development
- coaching perks for those competing

PM for more info!