Strong Spirit Stables LLC

11/23/2024

Passive exposure…

Sometimes we can’t always adjust the environment to prevent flooding, but what we can do is adjust the triggers.

If our horse is struggling with a new environment, whether we’re tying, or exploring, we can make it easier by bringing a buddy.

Ponying and ‘herd tying.’ Pretty time-tested!

What I’m not going to do in this situation is actively train on the horse who just needs some passive exposure, because that’s going to create overwhelm and conflict and very probably a negative association with me.

I know I have the hard skills to ‘win’ in these situations, but that’s not what I’m looking for. I’m looking for confidence.

Sometimes we’re the problem.

Stop picking on them and just let them get used to this crazy thing called the human world.

It’s pretty humbling how little ‘training’ they often need.

It can be really humbling to realize a tie post can do a better job of supporting them than all the extra training ‘stuff’ we do that stresses them out.

Hard skills are so 2010.

Soft skills are where it’s at.

11/23/2024

👌

Natural balance versus a better posture where the horse uses his core muscles to carry himself. I always say it is not necessarily the exercise but the way it's done that matters. The mental image we focus on during training is crucial. Whatever you do, have an idea of what kind of posture you'd like the horse to be in, and help, support and guide him towards it. 💝

11/22/2024

🧘🏼‍♀️

11/20/2024

The words we use and the feelings we attach to them have such a profound impact on our horses and how they feel and move when they are with us.

Having a healthy awareness of this and making corrections that benefit our horses is an essential part to building that healthy relationship with them.

You get what you train.

And that is with respect to the muscle groups you target, the emotions you practice and the nervous system state you operate from.

If you practice sitting hunched at your desk like a shrimp, you will lay down muscle to support you there.

If you are always operating from an upregulated nervous system, your body will try to adjust its physiology so that this becomes the new homeostasis.

If you spend your life practicing negative thoughts, this will become your default setting.

This means that you will develop into wherever you spend the longest time - irrespective of what you *think* you are working on.

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"Tell me 3 things you love about your horse"

I was working with a lovely lady, who cares very deeply about her horse and was diligently helping him to feel better in his body. And yet every session started with all of the ways in which he still wasn't quite right, or was doing things she didn't want him to do.

Frustration was radiating from her body.

She looked at me, a little derailed by my question.

"Do you want me to tell you 3 things I love about your horse?"

She nodded

"I love the black tips on his ears. And the way the markings on his muzzle look like a love heart. And the way his black stockings make him look really classy"

And then she got excited and told me all the things she loved about him... as he stood there yawning, licking and chewing, releasing the tension in his neck.

And as her energy changed towards him, his energy changed towards her -

And in that session he moved like a totally different horse, flowing in a way that we had never seen before.

The exercises were the same, though the output was totally different.

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My initial training taught me about targetting the musculoskeletal system and that, if you repeat the exercise enough, with an appropriate amount of progressive loading, you develop the body.

And this isn't wrong at all.

But I subsequently learned that the emotional and nervous systems run the show.

We can do all the right moves, but if the nervous system and emotional association to the work aren't in alignment then you will be perpetually putting a stick in your bicycle spokes.

This provokes topics for discussion -

How do you show up to your horse? They can feel that energy and it has an effect on how safe they feel.

If your horse does not feel safe, the quality of their movement will be compromised. And let me tell you that their own personal safety is their opinion based upon their perceptions - not yours.

Though we do need to give them coping strategies to feel safe in a chaotic human world.

What does your horse perceive of the work? The exercise might be appropriate for their muscles but if the emotional association is poor, the output will be too.

Whilst the body may benefit, if their amygdala-hippocampus relay is perpetually assigning the work with negative emotions, its never going to feel nice to them.

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📸 before & after of stripping the tension out of this guy's neck by helping him to find safety in some very simple movement patterns combined with very gentle upper cervical mobilisations ❤️

11/19/2024

This 🤙

The horse doesn’t all of a sudden start to kick when you ask for canter for no reason. The horse doesn’t suddenly hate the girth being tightened. The horse doesn’t try to nip or bite when you lift their front feet because they suddenly want to “test you” or give you a hard time. The grounded horse doesn’t just become spooky.

A sudden change in behavior is very clear communication from the horse. Find the why. Don’t shut down their communication. You will get a far better, faster, and more complete resolution by getting to the why.

Oftentimes, riders tend to try training through a change in behavior for long enough with no improvement that they feel they can prove to themselves something is really wrong. The problem with this is it can go on and on.

Don’t take that long.

If a behavior change is rooted in pain, training through it can lead to a more severe injury or difficult recovery.

🐴

11/18/2024

1️⃣0️⃣0️⃣%

"Advanced training is just the basics done really well." - Ken Ramirez
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"Training often fails because people expect way too much of the animal and way too little of themselves." - Bob Bailey
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"Please just do your homework." - Fred

11/17/2024

Balance and straightness lead to happier, healthier horses.

How does this work?

When the horse is balanced, he will be able to relax because he no longer feels that he may fall down (and be eaten by the lion lurking in the bush behind C).

The crooked, unbalanced horse will become nervous, scared, and anxious because he is worried that he may fall down at any moment. As a prey animal (which horses are), this is a dangerous predicament. A prey animal is most vulnerable when they fall down.

For this reason, the crooked and unbalanced horse may become spooky, distracted, shying at everything that lurks in the shadows. He may be over-reactive and over-sensitive to the aids because he is on edge. It may seem silly to us, but he is instinctively worried about his survival.

When we help the horse improve his sense of body awareness and balance, he feels more in control of his body. He feels that he is no longer perilously helpless if something unexpected happens. The balanced horse feels secure and less vulnerable to falling down.

Therefore, he can relax, focus, and tune into the training work. He becomes less spooky, less distracted, and less over-reactive.

Balance depends fundamentally upon Straightness. Balance depends upon the horse’s ability to adeptly shift his balance longitudinally (front to back), laterally between each side of his body, and between different legs. The horse can not improve any of these things as long as he is crooked.

By working on Straightness, your horse’s balance will consequently improve. We work on the horse’s ability to shift the weight from side-to-side, front-to-back, and between the different legs. He becomes straighter and his balance improves.

When the horse is straight and balanced, he is happier. And healthier.

We have an online course that guides you through exactly this process, so you can train your horse to become straighter and better balanced, therefore happier and healthier.

Our next course starts Friday, November 22nd.

Enroll here - https://courses.artisticdressage.com/straightness-course

Drawing by Assistant Ritter Trainer, Yvonne Lübcke. Come meet her inside the course!

Any questions? Hit reply. :-)

11/17/2024

I know you want to force me.

They all do. They all want to force me.

Some are obvious about it. Out in the open. Some force me in secret. They hide it in plain sight. But you cannot hide from me. I can feel the plague of your cravings, your urge to extract from me the things you want from me.

You misunderstand responsibility. You have the responsibility to listen to me. But what you do is listen to your fantasy of me. The image of your desires, that have me roped into them. You are willing to move mountains... in listening to that fantasy. But you won't budge an inch if you listen to just me. Especially if what I have to tell you is "No."

So you go out and relentlessly search for yes men. You fire anyone who says No, the Truth, or uncomfortable facts that put the cross hairs directly on the facts of the matter; which are that I cannot be the thing you desire. I can only be me. And I was damaged long before you "got" me.

But you never "got" me. Thats human paperwork. I have not been gotten by you, because you are still not listening.

So, I know you want to force me. I wonder how long it will take you to actually be honest with yourself about that, and exact violence on me.

Go ahead. The minute you do that, become violent to me, you actually become the weakest animal on the planet. A pathetic, whiny, selfish little monkey that is determined to watch the world burn or get what you want, when you want it, how you want it. Tell me, when did the pain start?

When you force me, you break whatever tenuous threads of social connection we might have left with each other. Those reluctant pets on my neck when I try my heart out and still don't please you sufficiently, but you offer a pet anyway, eyes rolling, are basically the duct tape and baling twine holding together the last knackered threads of our social agreement: I won't hurt you if you don't hurt me.

Once you hurt me, it is all bets are off.

I am bigger than you. I am emerging into that knowing.

I am smarter and more aware of you than you are.

I can hurt you. I don't want to.

But if you give your power away, and back me into a corner, it is my only avenue to save myself.

My kin have been sold down the river to the knackers for this. I know I might be too.

But it is better than the living hell I currently am in. No matter how shiny that saddle pad is, or well swept that yard. This is my hell.

And the only thing you have to do to fix it, is listen.

11/17/2024

At first glance, we see the horse as a student.

In reality, the horse is the teacher.

The horse teaches us our limitations.
But, it also helps us overcome them.

The horse unveils our weaknesses.
But, it also helps us build new strengths.

The horse sees us at our worst.
But, it also helps us become our best.

The horse challenges us to be present.
But, it also makes us look forward to the future.

The horse demands a lot from us.
But, it also gives us more than we could ever return.

The horse is one of the greatest teachers we will ever have—if we allow ourselves to slow down long enough to be good students.

11/16/2024

Unpopular opinion…

It’s inconsiderate to our horses not to educate ourselves on the mechanics of riding.

There is no getting around the fact that we are mechanically influencing another being, for better or worse.

Deciding we don’t want to over-complicate things generally just ends up over-complicating things for the horse as they try to interpret our inaccuracies.

I’ve seen so many riders who prioritize relationship with their horse who refuse to pick up a classical source, who get in their horse’s way by using the wrong mechanics.

The horse is an incredibly generous being.

Balancing both us and themselves, often in spite of us.

The least we can do is try not to be a burden.

If we’re frustrated learning something new, imagine how frustrated our horses are if we don’t.

Now, this acknowledgment often leads to paralysis of analysis, fear of frustration or imperfection.

That’s not helpful either.

Just get out there and try it.

Our horses try so hard for us, so we don’t get to quit as soon as we feel a little intimidated or overwhelmed.

Ride. Read. Ride.

Spend five minutes a ride really being conscious about it, and then forget about it and just ride. It will begin to take over all your riding naturally.

Mastery is supposed to take a couple lifetimes, so we shouldn’t get so discouraged about not achieving it in a couple rides or a couple years.

For those who asked about the title of the book yesterday, here it is.

There are several several cavalry manuals out there that contain this information.

This stuff used to be basic knowledge for cavalry.

Riding for dummies, if you will.

Sure, it’s gonna feel a little awkward thinking about a rein angle at first, but it will become muscle memory, and something we do without thinking, I promise.

It’s often shocking for people how much better everything flows when they switch over to indirect reins.

That’s because riding the shoulders is the first step to riding the feet instead of the head and riding back to front.

Next up, maybe we’ll learn about inside lateral effects and outside lateral effects, and inside and outside diagonal effects.

That’s the real meat of understanding and being responsible for our influence.

Aiming to ride only off our seat and legs does not release us from the responsibility of learning about the influence of our rein effects, for better or worse, intentional or unintentional.

11/15/2024

11/15/2024

Engaged brain, engaged body!

MIND GAMES

This has been a hard essay to write. I had a sleepless night re-writing it over and over in my head. I don’t seem to find the clarity of words to make, what I believe, are very important points. I hope you’ll give these ideas some consideration despite my failure to be as clear as I wish.

How do you explain complex things to horses?

It begins by explaining simple concepts to horses and then gradually building on those concepts.

Let’s look at an example.

I know folks who have green horses. I know many of these folks ride circles using rider aids meant for seasoned educated horses. Inside leg, outside leg, inside rein, outside rein, pelvis, core muscles, shoulders, etc all are used to explain a circle to their green horse.

However, despite most riders best intention to explain to their horse how to execute a circle, they use these aids to block a horse from doing inaccurate circle rather than using them to explain to a horse how to ‘go with’ a feel and perform a precise circle.

Recently a student told me they had a light bulb moment at one of my previous clinics. She had a light-bulb moment that gave her the clarity of what it meant to connect her feel to her horse’s mind. When I asked her what that moment was she said, “It was when I rode my horse and you asked me to use only my left rein and step his hip to the right. Then use the same rein and step his forehand to the left. Then use the same rein to ride a circle to the left. Then use the same rein to leg yield him to the right with a left bend. All with only the inside rein. The left rein.”

She said it was a clear realization of what it meant to connect to a horse’s mind. It was a ‘wow’ moment for her.

Many people believe that directing a horse’s movement involves a concoction of aids - using the reins, a rider’s seat and their legs in a very specific manner. And it can be. Especially if you want to be picky about the quality of movement. If you are training for Olympic quality instead of paddock quality, all the parts might make a difference.

However, nothing is more important when directing movement than a horse’s mind. If it is the horse’s idea to perform a movement it’s easy to make the parts come together. If it is not the horse’s idea it is hard because there is conflict between the horse’s idea and the rider’s aids. The horse is being dragged kicking and screaming into a half pass or a sliding stop or around a jump course against its will. And I will add that this “kicking and screaming” is the most common form of training I see in every discipline.

If you need the outside rein to block your horse from drifting to the outside when riding a circle, you are in an argument with your horse. If you need your inside leg to block your horse from falling into a turn, you are in an argument with your horse. If you need to use your outside leg to block the hindquarters during a shoulder in, you are in an argument with your horse. You get the picture. The list goes on.

So while a rider’s seat, legs, and rein aids can direct the minutiae of how a horse organizes its body during a movement, the beauty of a movement comes from directing the horse’s mind.

When my friend abandoned all aids except one single communication device (only a single rein) she was able to direct her horse’s mind to yield a hindquarter, then a forehand, then both together in either circle or in a leg yield. Nothing more than a slight adjustment for an inside rein to create all those movements with softness and fluidity. No use of an outside rein. No use of her legs. No use of an active seat. Just a single rein in communication with her horse’s thoughts.

I wish I had a dollar for every time a horse comes to a clinic that does not understand how to be in an agreeable conversation with its rider. The rider uses a concoction of aids, such as the inside leg and outside rein, to perform simple and everyday tasks like a turn or a circle. It begins almost with the first ride after the horse comes home from being started. Yet, none of those horses can follow a simple aid with their thought. None of them know how to yield away from the inside leg or change their idea when a rider uses an outside rein. They are green broke. Yet people ride them as if they came with a step-by-step instruction manual.

I’m not suggesting there is no benefit to using seat and legs and outside rein. I use them myself to aid in precision and accuracy. But I am saying those things come later. They become important after my horse and I can converse and agree to how to respond to a simple aid like an inside rein. If you we don’t agree about what we both want, using more aids to make it happen is not a fruitful path to beauty and harmony.

A horse is a brain with four legs. It is not a machine with moving parts controlled by levers and buttons. It’s a brain with which we should be in constant conversation.

Until your horse can yield its thought to a simple aid like the inside rein, there is no benefit to applying other aids, signals, and pressures to your horse to block what you don’t want. It is just fuelling the conflict. The most important change worth having is a change of thought.

Photo: Duchess’ in the early learning of a leg yield. I am using my left rein to direct her thought (and feet) to the right while at the same time I am using it to flex her to the left.

11/13/2024

“I think horses lead us to consciousness,” he says. “I think that’s what they’re here for.”

“Horses are so genuine,” she said. “They call us to our greatness.”

This article is a must read. A shift is coming and I’m here for it with every ounce of my being. Thank you Warwick - for helping the world to see there is so much more, than what meets the eye when it comes to horses, life, and creating mutual trust and understanding.

Warwick Schiller made his name as an expert trainer. An enigmatic little horse completely changed his outlook.

11/13/2024

Always be teachable♥️

11/13/2024

This is a good read. Find the balance.

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.

11/13/2024

Discover the amazing benefits of the Bai Hui acupoint - a favorite among many of my training horses!!

Discover the amazing benefits of the Bai Hui acupoint - a powerful tool for relieving stress and unlocking the mind. Not only does it aid in improving hindquarter and spinal health, but it can also help with arthritis, lameness, and irregular estrous cycles.

This is a must-have acupoint for anyone looking to enhance their light therapy techniques for their animals and promote overall wellness!

11/13/2024

Folks often complain about their horse’s attention wandering, or the horse disconnecting from the rider.
More often than not, the rider’s attention left first, or wasn’t steady in the first place. People often don’t notice their own attention has wandered until it manifests in the display of unwanted behavior from their horse.

For a horse to be connected to a rider, a rider must have the capacity to connect to the horse and to provide steady, quiet guidance, step for step.