Blue Moon Horsemanship

26/01/2024

Chinook had some great releases! He’s usually pretty stoic, but was being a little love bug today 💙🥰

15/01/2024

Stay warm and safe out there! ❄️🩵

02/01/2024

Look at my baby cousin y’all! Learning the way in Florida, can’t wait to ride with this cowgirl 🤠💕

27/12/2023

Reiki releases 💛 Plus Oak’s adorable baby teef 😍

09/12/2023

Finally getting Oro back in shape! 💛 And Waylon “helping” of course 😂

08/12/2023

Wonderful trail ride and awesome lessons at Fancy Forest Farm LLC 💕

25/11/2023

Waylon did amazing leading at Elkmont! Such a good little man 💕

12/10/2023

What a good helper Oak is 🫶

15/09/2023

Baby Oak turns 3 today! 🎂 But you wouldn't know it by his fuzzy old man ears 😂

20/07/2023

Baby Oak's 1st ride 💙

18/06/2023

Babies did great at the show! Waylon got exposure in a halter class and Oro took home some ribbons 💙

15/05/2023

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30/04/2023

💚💚

22/04/2023

Proud to report Waylon has done great on his walkabouts in just a halter 💙💙🥰

07/04/2023

😍

24/03/2023

Nocona did so well today! Thank you Fancy Forest Farm LLC for having us 💚💚

03/03/2023

💯

Disobedience is a sign of intelligence.

Read that again.

An animal who will blindly obey you, no matter the circumstance, and never choose to advocate for themselves, is not an animal displaying intelligence.

They are displaying their ability to learn and follow instructions but if that always comes above their own innate needs, bodily discomfort and overall welfare, they are not making the more intelligent decision.

The act of saying no, while being aware of risk of punishment for it, is an act of self advocacy and is a sign of intelligence.

Having a mind of their own rather than becoming a vessel for their trainer to control is your animal showing you intelligence.

As trainers, we put way too much emphasis on obedience at any cost and this has resulted in a lot of normalized shutdown in horses.

It’s resulted in us applauding trainers for having robotically obedient horses who do their every bidding without question. Never having an opinion of their own.

If we want blind obedience without any regard for emotional, physical or mental well-being, I think what we are looking for is a bicycle, not a horse.

28/01/2023

Grateful for these angels on earth 😇

17/01/2023

Yasss I tell this to my clients, horses don't think the way we do, but they DO feel deeply 💙

ANTHROPOMORPHISM
the attribution of human characteristics or behaviour to a god, animal, or object.

EMPATHY
the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

Is anthropomorphic training practices and principals the evil it is often made out to be?

"They are a horse, not a human. So they don't need X-Y-Z"

Advice like this is always well intentioned. But some of the worse things in history were done with the best of intentions. Intentions are abstract thoughts about a thing, describing the thing, without the thing participating in the description. Intentions are not reflections of truth, but truth as we intend it to be. That is an abstraction. It is a thought. Not a feeling, or observation.

Let us examine some facts:
1. Horses don't think like humans think.
2. Horses DO feel the same way humans feel.

Abstract thought, concerning the pre-frontal cortex and more, is a human trait. But it is not uniquely human. When exposed to intelligence tests involving short term memory, Chimpanzee's out perform a human every time by a margin of 30-40% superior performance. Something which made Anthropologists very upset. Dolphins and Elephants have a higher ratio of neural-connections than humans. Orca's have a larger brain by ratio than humans do. So do Blue Whales, by ratio, a larger brain than us. Humans do not hold monopoly on intelligence. If we did hold superior intelligence over other species, we would not be so rapidly destroying the planet, with the best of intentions motivating us.

Horses have a limited ability to think abstractly, and can only do so in a state of physiological abundance. When their cup is full of safety, health, well being, their brain flows over into limited clever thoughts.

But the strongest part of the horses brain, is their neural-hardware that inspires living 'software'. Feelings. Instincts.

Emotional states are evolutionary root originators of thoughts. They are primary biological functions designed to allow a living creature to navigate their life and also, thrive and enjoy the experience.

We share this with horses. So, it is not anthropomorphic to describe horses via empathy and the description of their emotional states via human derivatives. Indeed with all mammals. If humans were so different, why was research on human anxiety disorders and treatments conducted by studying fear responses in rats? Rats, a rodent, also a mammal.

In an effort to avoid Anthropomorphism, have we boxed ourselves in? Restricted our access to empathy in horsemanship, and instead formulated training based on clever thoughts? Which is what makes horses and humans most different, our thoughts.

I would rather start a training program based on what makes horses and humans most alike. Common ground rather than exclusions of difference.

Because at a biological level, all mammals share the same base evolutionary traits. Chimps and Bonobo's share so much DNA in common with humans that if it were any other species comparison, we would share the same genus. But we believe we are special, so we made an exception and gave ourselves our own genus because sharing a genus with apes, made anthropologists very upset.

Is it time we stopped dividing ourselves from our animal brothers and sisters?

Anthropomorphism is not the enemy by category. It would be more specific. If we are going to draw parallels between ourselves and our horses, we need to be educated about how we do so. "Bad Anthropomorphism" is the enemy. Not Anthropomorphism overall.

I teach details on this and more in the Emotional Horsemanship Foundation Course, over 500 students served:
https://www.udemy.com/course/emotional-horsemanship/?referralCode=AE1B37113975C9045A41

03/01/2023

💃 🐴

Was it really a bad ride/lesson?
Figuring out what is wrong is HUGE. If you find out your hands are horrible- AWESOME. That’s great! You can fix that. It’s usually during a really difficult ride, or a challenging lesson when suddenly you recognize bad habits in your riding, or massive holes in your foundation.
Occasionally I think I had a fabulous lesson with someone, because we really figured some things out, just to find out the student thought of it as a disappointment. I might falsely assume that the rider understands that now we can move forward and make some massive improvement!!! But in their mind they just found out they are “doing things all wrong”. I assume the rider will be ecstatic to now have the answers for success, but I’ve learned that not everyone sees it that way. But the good riders- they DO SEE IT THAT WAY!!! Good horsemen are excited to recognize their shortcomings because we all know we have them- but we can’t improve until we know what needs improved.

30/12/2022

Welcoming this sweet (& spicy) mare to the herd! 💕 She started out uncatchable, now she's first to the roundpen. Rehabbing her feet a bit and we'll see how she rides in spring 🐴

09/11/2022

💙

04/11/2022

Orion 🖤

28/09/2022

💯

AN ODE TO THE ADULT LEARNER…

KEEP SHOWING UP

I always begin sessions by expressing gratitude to my participants and giving them kudos.

Many riders worry they aren’t good enough for their horses, or not spending enough time with their horses, but believe me, just by showing up, you are way ahead of everyone who isn’t.

And by showing up, I don’t mean those learners showing up to learn from me, in particular, but showing up every day in their horsemanship, as a student of the horse.

Showing up is hard… but I see you.

Being an adult learner isn’t easy. It requires a lot of vulnerability and fortitude.

Being a good horseman can be mentally and physically taxing as we try to master ourselves.
It requires the ability to hold space for mental and physical discomfort as we discover new skills and balance in our horsemanship.
It’s often simple, but never easy.

It’s always very humbling to be entrusted with a learner’s hopes and dreams, fears and insecurities, and sometimes, the scars that other trainers and coaches have left behind, and never fails to amaze me how fathomless people’s curiosity and dedication is, especially with the distractions and complications of everyday life.

Many people can only ride on the weekends, because they’re trying to make a living the rest of the week, some make a living riding, and can’t always focus on their horsemanship while doing so, but when they show up for the horse, they show up 100%.

“Shoshin is a concept from Zen Buddhism meaning beginner's mind.
It refers to having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even when studying at an advanced level, just as a beginner would.”

Below:
The notebook is probably one of the most underrated horsemanship tools out there…

24/09/2022

First ride with Waylon today! And he's filling out so nicely 💙

08/09/2022

Now these two 💙

28/04/2022

Wonderful day of lessons and body work! 💙💙

20/04/2022

We did it! So proud of my mustang. I had to work super hard for this tag! Solace had a rough start with human hands at the pens and is very reactive. He has really driven home some pieces of wisdom when working with horses: progress isn't linear, frustration only occurs when you have expectations, and it takes the time that it takes. Love that sweet, snorty boy 🖤

03/04/2022

How is he so cute! First ride for him this year, he only has 6 or 7 rides on him total so I'm proud 😍💙