Beginnings...
HEART CONNECTION HORSEMANSHIP, originally posted SEPTEMBER 9, 2019·
Welcome to Heart Connection Horsemanship!! I am Karen Behler, and I want to tell you all a little bit about my horse journey. I started begging to ride when I was....I have no idea actually, for as long as I can remember I wanted a horse. I started riding here and there at a stable in Vermont when I was 12, but not
really lessons just following someone on a trail ride. Then when I was 13 my family moved to N.Ireland for 8 months and I actually got to take lessons! I was overjoyed, it was an English Jumping barn, and looking back I cringe at the tight reins and long hours those ponies put up with, but I loved it, every minute of time I got to spend cleaning stalls, or brushing the horses was just as amazing to me as the ones I got to spend in the saddle. And I did learn some valuable lessons about it not all being glamorous, there was a lot of mud and p**p and hard work involved. When we moved back to VT I continued the Jumping lessons and also started to learn Saddle Seat, I would go to lessons Saturday morning at 7am, even in the winter and I loved jumping, I wanted to go back to England and become a steeplechase jockey (I love reading Dick Francis novels) but being only 14 that was not really an option! Then that summer my neighbors, and best friends leased a couple ponies, and we would spend hours and hours riding them anywhere we could get them to go, sometimes with saddles but more often then not ba****ck, and I was lucky because it taught me to have a good seat and how to shift my weight going up and down and fast and slow, IT WAS AMAZING. And as an adult I can see just how amazing it really was to have that opportunity to just learn from the horses. what worked and what didn't without anyone telling me it was “right” or “wrong”. When my family moved again, this time to Northern California the summer I was 15 I didn’t want to go, I told them I was going to run away. I went back to my plan to try and get to england and be a jockey, I had a current passport but could not figure out where I was going to earn enough money for a ticket...Then my parents outsmarted me, they got me a horse in CA. My mom’s best friend had a horse and a guy at the ranch she boarded at was getting rid of his horse and agreed I could have him, that was it, MY OWN HORSE! Somehow I got lucky, I had planned to continue Jumping, but the barn my horse was at did not really do that, the trainer did something I had never heard of in New England. She had rope halters, and did ground work, and worked in the round pen, and at liberty in the arena....I was fascinated, and quickly realized how much better I felt about this type of horsemanship, no tight reins, no forcing the horses to do things, it was all about communication instead of domination. I got to learn so many things at that ranch, I learned about breeding and imprinting foals, I learned about starting (NOT BREAKING) young horses, I learned how to give lessons to kids on the gentle souls that were the lesson horses, and I started the journey of learning to COMMUNICATE. I am still learning every day how to find different ways to understand and be understood by these amazing animals. I got to go to clinics with the trainer, I got to work with some of the greats, Tom Dorrance being one of them. I got to choose a foal at the BLM auctions and start her all by myself. I worked with Harry Whitney, and Richard Winters and so many others. I feel like there is always something to learn, (even if sometimes its how we don’t want to do something!) But there are words or wisdom and lessons from those three I have never forgotten. In 2000 I struck out on my own, just part time, I had two other jobs. I became a Veterinary Technician for the local Large Animal vet and got to meet so many people, It was easy because I knew everyone, I always had work, I never had to advertise. But I stayed small, I held my dreams close to my chest. I was afraid if I got my own ranch I would fail. I would have to get such a big loan and it scared me. Then I met my husband, and we had our first son. I worked the whole pregnancy, I still rode and trained. But I had to cut back after he was born, I wanted to take care of my baby, be there with him. I put my dreams of my own ranch on hold...
In the summer of 2015 my little family moved to Chandler AZ, CA was so expensive and my husband got a great job offer that would mean I could stop working and stay home with our son. It was great getting to have the time to take him to the park, and gymnastics and just play, but I missed horses...We would drive around while my husband was working and just look for horses in fields, I would pull over and we would just watch them. I tried going to a couple barns, but would watch they way the horses were being handled and knew they were not the place for me. Then just one day in PetSmart getting fish for our son luck struck again, I started talking to the women working there and she and I started talking about horses and she said you have to go to the ranch my horse is at, you would love it. So I called, and made a time to meet the owner and see. So early one morning I headed over there and we talked for a while, and we agreed on so many things about how we want to communicate and how we would handle situations, then we pulled a couple horses and went for a ride. It was like coming home to finally be around horses again! And more importantly for me to be around like minded horse people. So here we are 4 years later and I have been training, and I have been giving lessons, but I’ve been keeping it small, I’ve been holding my dreams close. I have not advertised, I have not put myself out there. I made excuses. I had another son, I don’t have the land, I don’t have time...
But the time has come, I need to stop making excuses and put myself out there for the world to see. Do I have a lot of time for lessons? No, I can only work for a few hours in the morning. Do I have my own ranch? But I feel like I have lessons to share, I feel like I can help people and their horses have a better relationship, and I want to do that! And someday I will have my own ranch, I will be brave, and I will follow my dreams...
