Rebekah Halladay Training

08/17/2024

I had someone ask me this week why attendance is one of the factors that affects scheduling.

I thought it was an odd question, because it has a pretty simple answer...open lesson times don't pay bills. So scheduling someone who isn't going to show up regularly isn't a good business decision.

But it really goes deeper than that.

One of the most profound lessons that horses teach us is commitment. Commitment to caring for them, commitment to bettering ourselves, and commitment to setting goals and achieving them.

If you aren't attending the lessons you scheduled (horseback riding or any other sport) regularly, you're missing this point. Your progress will be minimal and you'll end up frustrated.

Holding space for someone who isn't committed to that space will suck the life right out of you. (Read that twice, because it applies every single day of your life). It isn't just a financial drain. It's tough to get excited to teach someone who isn't committed to learning.

So yes, I'm going to schedule riders who are committed to learning and who attend regularly first. Their enthusiasm keeps me going when the day is kicking my butt. They remind me that this purpose is far bigger than just what is happening in the arena.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk. 🤣

08/11/2024

08/07/2024

Imagine a world where dressage scores were awarded for the most ethical performance? The lightest of pressures, the most self-carriage, the least amount of gear, and so on.

As in other sports, many horse-owners, trainers and riders will arrive at a choice between doing something ‘bad’ that may increase their chances of winning, or not doing it and relinquishing the possibility of first place.

It may be a decision about using a gadget or a drug, withholding food or water, or hurting the horse.

The extent to which sport horses are coerced to perform is often the focus of welfare debates. Equitation science will be able to play a vital role in deciding the outcome of these discussions, and, particularly in dressage competition, emergent technology will remove subjectivity from judging and will underpin the development of high-welfare dressage.

The sport of soccer has set an excellent example of how judges’ decisions can be supported by technology (e.g., by introducing goal-line technology to increase objectivity of judges’ decisions when keeping scores).

Equestrian sports that involve judging decisions might be well advised to learn a lesson from the progressiveness of other sports and science may be able to help us value training of any manoeuvre that is dependent on and achieved through lightness of pressure (i.e., attesting to self-carriage and the horse’s self-maintenance of rhythm, straightness and outline).

Equitation Science, 2nd Edition, Andrew McLean, Paul McGreevy, Janne Whinther Christensen & Uta König von Borstel

08/05/2024

“Too many kids have been taught that the goal of showing is to win. Here’s the truth, the goal of showing is to be a better person, a better horseman, a better communicator, a better worker, and to enjoy being a kid who loves their horse. You’ll never get this time back… so enjoy it win or lose.”

07/31/2024

*Than 😉 (Sorry, I didn’t write it, just passing it along.)

07/13/2024

"New Home Syndrome"🤓

I am coining this term to bring recognition, respect, and understanding to what happens to horses when they move homes. This situation involves removing them from an environment and set of routines they have become familiar with, and placing them somewhere completely different with new people and different ways of doing things.

Why call it a syndrome?

Well, really it is! A syndrome is a term used to describe a set of symptoms that consistently occur together and can be tied to certain factors such as infections, genetic predispositions, conditions, or environmental influences. It is also used when the exact cause of the symptoms is not fully understood or when it is not connected with a well-defined disease. In this case, "New Home Syndrome" is connected to a horse being placed in a new home where its entire world changes, leading to psychological and physiological impacts. While it might be transient, the ramifications can be significant for both the horse and anyone handling or riding it.

Let me explain...

Think about how good it feels to get home after a busy day. How comfortable your favourite clothes are, how well you sleep in your own bed compared to a strange bed, and how you can really relax at home. This is because home is safe and familiar. At home, the part of you that keeps an eye out for potential danger turns down to a low setting. It does this because home is your safe place (and if it is not, this blog will also explain why a lack of a safe place is detrimental).

Therefore, the first symptom of horses experiencing "New Home Syndrome" is being unsettled, prone to anxiety, or difficult behaviour. If you have owned them before you moved them, you struggle to recognise your horse, feeling as if your horse has been replaced by a frustrating version. If the horse is new to you, you might wonder if you were conned, if the horse was drugged when you rode it, or if you were lied to about the horse's true nature.

A horse with "New Home Syndrome" will be a stressed version of itself, on high alert, with a drastically reduced ability to cope. Horses don't handle change like humans do. If you appreciate the comfort of your own home and how you can relax there, you should be able to understand what the horse is experiencing.

Respecting that horses interpret and process their environments differently from us helps in understanding why your horse is being frustrating and recognising that there is a good chance you were not lied to or that the horse was not drugged.

Horses have survived through evolution by being highly aware of their environments. Change is a significant challenge for them because they notice the slightest differences, not just visually but also through sound, smell, feel, and other senses. Humans generalise and categorise, making it easy for us to navigate familiar environments like shopping centres. Horses do not generalise in the same way; everything new is different to them, and they need proof of safety before they can habituate and feel secure. When their entire world changes, it is deeply stressful.

They struggle to sleep until they feel safe, leading to sleep deprivation and increased difficulty.

But there is more...

Not only do you find comfort in your home environment and your nervous system downregulates, but you also find comfort in routines. Routines are habits, and habits are easy. When a routine changes or something has to be navigated differently, things get difficult. For example, my local supermarket is undergoing renovations. After four years of shopping there, it is extremely frustrating to have to work out where everything is now. Every day it gets moved due to the store being refitted section by section. This annoyance is shared by other shoppers and even the staff.

So, consider the horse. Not only are they confronted with the challenge of figuring out whether they are safe in all aspects of their new home while being sleep deprived, but every single routine and encounter is different. Then, their owner or new owner starts getting critical and concerned because the horse suddenly seems untrained or difficult. The horse they thought they owned or bought is not meeting their expectations, leading to conflict, resistance, explosiveness, hypersensitivity, and frustration.

The horse acts as if it knows little because it is stressed and because the routines and habits it has learned have disappeared. If you are a new human for the horse, you feel, move, and communicate differently from what it is used to. The way you hold the reins, your body movements in the saddle, the position of your leg – every single routine of communication between horse and person is now different. I explain to people that when you get a new horse, you have to imprint yourself and your way of communicating onto the horse. You have to introduce yourself and take the time to spell out your cues so that they get to know you.

Therefore, when you move a horse to a new home or get a new horse, your horse will go through a phase called "New Home Syndrome," and it will be significant for them. Appreciating this helps them get through it because they are incredible and can succeed. The more you understand and help the horse learn it is safe in its new environment and navigate the new routines and habits you introduce, the faster "New Home Syndrome" will pass.
"New Home Syndrome" will be prevalent in a horse’s life until they have learned to trust the safety of the environment (and all that entails) and the humans they meet and interact with. With strategic and understanding approaches, this may take weeks, and their nervous systems will start downgrading their high alert status. However, for some horses, it can take a couple of years to fully feel at ease in their new home.

So, next time you move your horse or acquire a new horse and it starts behaving erratically or being difficult, it is not being "stupid", you might not have been lied to or the horse "drugged" - your horse is just experiencing an episode of understandable "New Home Syndrome." And you can help this.❤

I would be grateful if you could please share, this reality for horses needs to be better appreciated ❤
‼️When I say SHARE that does not mean plagiarise my work…it is seriously not cool to copy and paste these words and make out you have written it yourself‼️

07/13/2024

“The student must make an effort to look friendly at all times, to caress his horse often, and not to correct impatiently. Even if not everything succeeds according to his thoughts occasionally, he should not get upset and choleric, and mistreat his horse, in other words pr******te himself in front of the observers.

For there is nothing more unpleasant than seeing a rider spur and beat his horse, especially when he himself is the cause for the mistake. And it happens quite frequently that the rider causes the horse to make this or that mistake through an imperfect seat or an unsteady hand, for which the horse is not to be punished, but the rider is to blame.

A horse that is trained to subtle aids and who pays attention to the rider’s smallest movement, will inevitably react as soon as the hand, the legs or the seat move incorrectly. However, the horse must not be punished, since he only did what the rider asked for with his careless movement.”

Anonymous ~ 18th century chief rider of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna

07/10/2024

So very cool!

What if your horse could run up to you and say, “I’m cold, may I have my blanket?”

That’s exactly what a group of researchers at Norwegian University of Life Sciences and their team of 23 steeds have accomplished in two separate stables in Norway. Anyone who has ever had a relationship with a horse knows how intelligent they are, and that they often understand what the human wants – but now we may have an entry into better understanding what it is a horse may desire.

The team trained the horses for 10 to 15 minutes a day to learn the meaning of three symbols. After just 11 days, all 23 horses were able to recognise the meanings: Blanket on, blanket off, or no change. What’s beautiful is that not only were they so easily able to learn the symbols and then they put that knowledge to work, but the whole thought process involved. “I’m hot, I want this blanket off, I’ll nudge the “blanket off” symbol to have my blanket removed" – which is what participating horse Poltergeist is indicating in the photo.

Results show that choices made, i.e. the symbol touched, was not random but dependent on weather. Horses chose to stay without a blanket in nice weather, and they chose to have a blanket on when the weather was wet, windy and cold. This indicates that horses both had an understanding of the consequence of their choice on own thermal comfort, and that they successfully had learned to communicate their preference by using the symbols.

What may be the most heartening aspect of all, however, is that once the horses understood they could express themselves, they seem to have loved it! "When horses realised that they were able to communicate with the trainers, i.e. to signal their wishes regarding blanketing, many became very eager in the training or testing situation," the researchers write. "Some even tried to attract the attention of the trainers prior to the test situation, by vocalising and running towards the trainers, and follow their movements."

Read more about it here...
https://www.treehugger.com/animals/these-horses-just-learned-communicate-humans.html

For more, you can read the study in the journal
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168159116302192

07/03/2024

06/07/2024

Things my young horse has taught me about sport psychology

Success is not linear. Highs, lows, forwards, backwards. Buckle up.

Keep your head down but chin up by setting small goals. One foot in front of the other and you’ll be amazed to see just how far you’ve come without realizing it. You’re getting where you’re going, you’re just not there yet.

Progress is a reasonable expectation, perfection is not. Perfect often gets in the way of good enough.

The outcome is never within your control. Your effort and attitude are.

Mistakes are a good thing. It means you’re learning. Put your ego aside and and be coachable.

Appreciate the process. You get to do this, you want to do this, you don’t have to. Riding, especially competing, is a privilege not a right.

Emotional control is mandatory. Lose it on your own time, not on your horse’s time.

Ask for help. Learn something new. Try something different. It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.

Resilience and confidence are flip sides of a coin. Exhibit resilience to grow your confidence, establish resilience by leaning into your confidence.

05/28/2024

EQUESTRIAN ART

The idea and the practice of true “self carriage” necessitates that ‘lightness’ be an important part of it. True “self carriage” is beyond mere ‘permeability’ to the aids, which can be practiced in submission but sometimes with little lightness. We use it in terms of Equestrian Art as denoting a certain freedom of expression. But what does this lightness in equestrian terms really mean? And what is the difference between a Circus equitation and Equitation as an Art?

If one is to study and practice a "lightness" as it pertains to 'artistic equitation', one that was practiced by the masters, then the term usually takes on a different meaning to competition riding.

This can be because true lightness in sporting equitation is of little value to many as marks are awarded for precision often demanded by a schooling entrenched by a rigid discipline and gymnasticization rather than that based on a free expression of the horse. The goal is more often than not prizes given for precision , which places the horseman on a different plane.

General L'Hotte said in 'The Quest for Lightness in Equitation' (H. Nelson);

'In equitation, it is not a question of refining or following minutely the horse when he raises or puts down one of his limbs, or of regulating one's actions on one or the other of these fleeting actions, or as Aubert described it “the moment of the leg”. One must look at art from a wider perspective, otherwise one will follow a path filled with difficulties, already so numerous and inherent in equitation.'

Self carriage is when the horse carries itself, no longer dependent upon the hand for balance. It responds to the rider's lightest indications, rather than heavy aids often maintained despite an initial response.

There is a much better way.

When we maintain an aid to keep the horse going, we are training him to ignore our requests and the cycle of brusqueness continues as the suppliers of equestrian equipment steadily profit, and trainers sell 'ready made', and often very expensive, horses to entertain the egos of their new owners.

If we instead school our horses to the 'aids' and then 'allow' the horse to execute the movements, we are well on our road to achieving an equitation close to what can be described as artistic. We must use our aids for direction, balance and to begin, modify or change a movement but never to maintain it.

This is not to say that we must accept a minimum and allow the horse to dictate what he does, but to teach him, with the utmost respect, and knowledge, to maintain what we have asked for until we ask for something different. This may only be achieved by a moderation, separation and release of the aids practiced within a spirit of good schooled activity. That is why there must be a certain maturity in riders to be able to ask progressively and be fair.

This is a prerequisite for all high quality equitation and should not be confused with the training of horses by riders who use aids to maintain movements.

'Circus equitation seeks only the movement, generally of a flamboyant and extravagant nature, to thrill and excite a crowd. It is an equitation that seeks to delight Philistines and is little concerned with lightness'
(Question Équestres)

One is circus. The other is not, contrary to what many believe. Perfection is infinitely more difficult to achieve.

https://www.facebook.com/christiane.slawik.photography?ref=hl

05/27/2024

Remembering those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for us to be FREE! It’s because of those who fought for your freedoms and lost their lives doing so, that you have these four freedoms: the freedom of speech, the freedom of worship, the freedom from want, and the freedom from fear. The American flag symbolizes those freedoms - no matter how you choose to use them. Hence, respect it accordingly and take a moment for those who shed blood to preserve it.

From Susan Albright Dvm

05/26/2024

How awesome! Great teamwork!!!

05/21/2024

🤣🤣

05/17/2024

Love this!

05/14/2024

Gorgeous and something to aspire to! A great example of good riding!!

06/23/2023

Rebekah (Larimer) Halladay Training has a few openings for lessons and horse training.

Yes! You can haul in for lessons!
Yes! Fantastic lesson horses are available for those who do not own/lease their own horse!

Rebekah is Internationally Certified, European and Olympian trained trainer and riding instructor. Rebekah trained with Belgium’s 6 time Olympian Karin Donckers for 3 years, plus other fantastic trainers throughout the years. USDF Bronze Medalist

Rebekah can help achieve your goals if you want a horse trainer and riding instructor who is:

* Patient
* Positive
* Supportive of your endeavors whether you want to compete or not
* Willing to work with any breed including gaited horses
* Willing to work with any discipline
* Work on trail rides, obstacles, and getting horses and riders braver together
* Willing to adjust and adapt for individual rider and horse's learning styles
* Willing to explain the "WHY" behind everything
* Helps find the balance of being too soft and sweet and yet too harsh and abusive
* Helps you learn how to understand, communicate and work with your horse
* Teaching beginners through Prix St. George
* Internationally Certified in over 20 different countries to train horse and rider
* A Tony Robbin's Graduate: Unleash The Power Within, Date With Destiny, Wealth Mastery, Leadership Mastery

Please message Rebekah directly or go to rebekahhalladaytraining.com to learn more about how Rebekah can help you achieve your goals with horses!

Please like and follow at our Rebekah Halladay Training page!

05/25/2023

Zoomi is learning to be a big girl and pick up her hooves! She is so smart and sweet!! Love this filly!!!

05/23/2023

Maybe some of these will be helpful for you.

05/19/2023

A friend asked me what my Trainer’s Passport looks like, so I thought I would share.

It has been much easier to say “Internationally Certified” then International Group for Qualifications in Training Horse and Rider.

They (and I) have a new name now.
Their new name is International Group for Equestrian Qualifications (IEGQ). There are currently 31 member countries that this is good for me to teach and train.

Please let me know if you ever want to see my other qualifications and certificates!

05/17/2023

It doesn’t work for every horse, but I love my horses being barefoot. Of course, you need a good barefoot trimmer!

New Swedish research on the difference between shod horse hooves and barefoot hooves has finally concluded: Barefoot hooves can move 50% more than hooves that are shod with traditional horseshoes. That, and other findings from the study, helps to explain why horses can improve their performance by g...

05/16/2023

My boy, Epic, enjoying the sun while grazing today! I love it when they can be out all day again!!

This is one of the easiest and best tools to train our horses. Let them be horses! Work with them, not against them!!

05/13/2023

Live Foal Guarantee offered for frozen and live cover!

Grail Quest Varekai is the entire dream package with his kind, sweet disposition, great confirmation, trainability and movement that he passes along to his offspring.

He recently scored 68.2% at his first USEF/USDF Dressage Show in Training Level Test 3 which helped qualify him for the year end championships. He also drives and loves to jump!

Varekai is a 16 hand, 2010, FPZV registered and approved B book foals. His scores at the FPZV inspection were 8.9 and was recommended for the stallion testing.
We are working on getting his scores in dressage to get foals into A book. Either that or have to ship him to Europe.

Grail Quest Varekai is the entire dream package! Fantastic bloodlines, confirmation, movement, sweet, smart and well mannered stallion. Truly a 1 in a million stallion!

Varekai is for Friesians and other quality mares of different breeds.

Offering live cover or frozen. Multi mare discount.

Dwarfism and Hydrocephalus: Negative
Homozygous Black

Sire: Rembrandt
Dam: M’ Lady’s Quest
Dam’s Sire: Von Faust

Tons of pictures and video of him and pictures of his foals upon request.

Varekai's sire, Rembrant, earned the highest score ever given a stallion at the Stallion Performance Testing and is the winner of numerous USDF Championships. Varekais dam, M'Lady's Quest is by the amazing stallion Von Faust and out of Grand Champion and Model mare Warna. M'Lady's Quest was Site Champion 2005 and Reserve Champion USA 2005

Varekai is located in Vancouver, WA. His frozen AI is stored at the vet in Oregon.

Accepted forms of payment: cash, check, Venmo, Visa, MasterCard and Discover

Please message Rebekah or call/text 360-487-9001 for additional information.

You can also follow Grail Quest Varekai on his page at Grail Quest Varekai!

Varekai has been bred to: Welsh cob, Morgan, Arabian,Appaloosa, Quarter, Thoroughbred, and Friesians all with wonderful dispositions and beauty.

05/11/2023

Left to right: Rebekah on Shannon Allpress’s Lulu, Tom Shupe’s granddaughter, Cassie, on Rebekah’s mare Gigi and Connie Jo on Aletha Bakke’s Kaladin during a trail ride today.

Lulu and Kaladin are youngsters, but did a great job training on the trails today! It was great to get out of the arena in perfect weather!!
It was Gigi’s first trail ride being ridden (we have hand walked her to make sure she was okay several times first) since we purchased her. She was such a very good girl and so grateful to have this beautiful mare!