Amy Skinner Horsemanship

26/08/2024

When I was a little girl, I remember hearing the adults in my life instructed not to stop at red lights, or our vehicle would be parted out in short order. I remember cat calls from strangers, and making sure not to make eye contact on buses. Small talk carried a risk, and whoever shoved their way to the front of the line the most aggressively was the one who was served.

By necessity, lies and manipulation were a way of life.
One night as a teen, friends and I walked a dimly lit street where I made out the blood covered body of an old man, the clear stench of urine and alcohol traveling my way.

“Don’t stop,” my friends said. “It’s a scam”

Thieves, beggars and elaborate scams were a normal part of city life. But I felt deeply unsettled as we stepped over his body to make our way home.

As an adult, i made it a point to live in rural areas. But that suspicion took years to melt away - the suspicion of a stranger saying hello, a man offering to help me with a door, or someone legitimately needing help. I missed out on many a community of people looking out for each other due to residual jumpiness. Everyone was a potential risk to keep an eye out for.

Now, whenever I drive through a cutthroat city, with folks weaving in and out, honking, cutting in front of each other; I have the fading memory of this life- where every man is for himself; where if you don’t push your way forward you’ll be left behind to struggle. I remember this as a bad dream of the past.

I make it a habit driving through these smog dense, cortisol spiking cities to play Don Edwards in my truck.
To imagine campfires and the sound of coyotes and the smell of cattle. To remember eating at a strangers table and having old ranchers hold doors open for me with gnarled fingers and dirty flannel shirts.

And I remember my fortune, to see both worlds, and ultimately have the freedom to make my home where the fireflies still light up my pastures.

26/08/2024

You can try to stay in the middle
When life throws you

But the next best thing
Is to maintain a sense of wonder
As you twist your way down
For the power that upended you

Photo by Jasmine Cope

25/08/2024

Good equitation is not just about a certain look but more of a function. It’s about sitting “into” the horse and absorbing their movement through our bodies, instead of just perched on top of them. A good rider is not something for a horse to carry, but instead creates no discrepancies between the horses back and theirs.

That means that every body will have the same principles of movement, but there will be many modifications for individual bodies.

To be able to absorb the movement of the horse, we have to move beyond achieving a look and develop a feeling. It means letting go of some places and becoming more structured in other places.

I always remember the words my teacher said to me: if you can’t feel the hind legs of the horse under you, you are not absorbing movement but perched. When I understood this that feeling became as clear as day - no longer just an idea or a memorized and disconnected timing, but a very clear feeling.

And so good riding is mainly that- feeling ourselves to feel the horse, and going together. Becoming more than a body controlling another body, but one entity, two bodies moving in harmony together.

Photo by Jade Premont

25/08/2024

24/08/2024

I am eternally grateful for a humbling and inspiring
education.

I know quite well that good teachers are rarer than unicorns, and I hold onto mine with everything I have.

Good teachers inspire you and encourage you, but they don’t let you get the misleading idea that you deserve endless validation.

Over my career, I have wrestled with feeling embarrassed at being corrected in public, or feeling like my peers are much better than I am because they don’t receive basic feedback like I do.

But over time, I’ve become aware that what I have is a real gift - a teacher who really believes in you will not allow you to believe you’re above basics, and will not allow you to grow a head beyond what your actual skill set is.

I’m often told by other professionals that it is damaging to my career to be educated in public, and that I should always put my best foot forward

But I think me as a student is my best foot forward - it’s me learning, observing and comparing what isn’t working. Learning to teach others better through putting myself repeatedly in the hot seat and getting critique.

The best me is one who doesn’t always need to be right or know it all - one who has become comfortable from years of learning with being wrong, or letting others take the limelight.

And I know for certain that a teacher who doesn’t think much of you won’t put that amount of energy into you to help you. And so my teachers who don’t let me off the hook, who push and encourage me to be better are showing what true care looks like -

I’m extremely grateful to have such people in my life- who want the best me, because that is what I want too.

24/08/2024

Thought for the day: stop resisting what the horse offers, even if you didn’t want it- flow with it, and balance it

The quickest way to brace a horse against you is to resist them
The fastest way to soften a horse is to flow with them, and show them balance within their resistance

Nothing can resist flow-
And nothing wants to resist flow, because it’s the nature of life itself

23/08/2024

“With” the Aids

For a long time, I pursued lightness: a horse that was zippy to the leg, light in the bridle, attentive. I didn’t need to drive much with my leg because they were very responsive, and they didn’t weigh anything on the reins. It was a far cry better than the ten pounds of pressure feel in the reins that I had ridden with before- the relentless driving leg, the blisters between my fingers from heavy contact.

My teacher one day asked me, as I applied a quick and sudden drive aid to “wake up” my horse- “when you’ve finished chasing your horse away from you, when do you hope to have him come back to you?”

I hadn’t yet felt the swinging, soft, elastic and melty feeling of a horse totally with the aids: one who isn’t heavy but isn’t running away from you. One who feels completely settled into your hand and leg without leaning on it, one who feels safe with your body. One who dances with you, step for step: one that swings under your seat happily, not driven, not contained, but part of you.

With the aids, my teacher always says- not in front of, not behind, but with. The mind frame is completely different.

22/08/2024

Short term stress vs long term stress : or, how avoiding stress makes you stressed out for much longer

This is a topic I have become very interested in and curious about, as I witness the horse world become more interested in protecting horses from stress. This is happening in parenting culture too, and the result is very anxious children. Are we actually helping them by preventing them from being upset if they didn’t get what they wanted?

I like to tie things back to personal examples to bring things full circle. For much of my life, I have had poor conflict management skills. I knew how to have enough conflict to separate from someone, or avoid conflict entirely- but I had no skill to resolve issues and carry on with a relationship.

Becoming a parent, and ultimately a single parent, forced me to learn this, through intense stress. Suddenly my resources were very limited - not just money but time. And if someone I was working with didn’t do a good job, just couldn’t afford to just ignore it, or just let them go. I needed the money or the service, and I didn’t have much time. And so I was forced to learn to communicate better, set expectations or boundaries more clearly, bring up issues and work to fix them, and ultimately let someone go as a last resort if needed.

This was extremely unpleasant as I only had two switches in my head previously - on or off.
Someone is in or out. And so learning to bring up issues for resolution was hard for me, and then on top of that watching other people have poor reactions and being able to be calm was also extremely unpleasant- intensely stressful at times for me.

But, a short term stress is giving me a long term peace - I have to take care of my kids first, and if I didn’t learn this skill I could have sunken our ship.
I would not likely be interested in learning this without enough pressure on me to be forced to.

Sometimes the discomfort of our lives has to be greater than our desire for familiarity or comfort

So in all things we have to think of the long view - what’s the long term result of a momentary lesson? And what do we want to achieve - short term or long term comfort? We get to decide which bucket we fill moment to moment.

22/08/2024

Be honest
How many times in a session does your mind wander?

How much are you feeling, listening, and connecting to your horse’s body and thoughts?

We all complain about their behavior when it happens and we don’t like it, but where were we when it was forming?

Where were we when the seeds of it were planted? Where was our awareness when it was repeated and cemented?

Do we only attend mentally when the behavior is out of hand?

The entire world and our experience in it changes when we stop being victims of the moment, and engage in our lives actively. When we listen, think, and observe. When we take responsibility for our engagement and for our own behavior, our own understanding, our own ability to guide the horse.

Your self confidence will blossom when you give yourself the self respect of saying you are fully capable of doing this - you are not some shriveled up flower who is a victim of circumstance.

You are here, in the moment now, fully capable of tuning in and grabbing this moment in the palm of your hand. Tune in- that is where your power lies.

21/08/2024

Is stress free training possible?

You love your horse and you want what’s best for them. That’s admirable and a quality to never lose.

I want you to consider how we’re wired for a moment -

A newborn foal is born, and feels the first pains of life- cold, hungry, thirsty. It is driven to the first and most important task of life: standing on brand new wobbly legs to seek the comfort of mother and food. Stress drives the foal to seek comfort and growth.

We want to care for our children, but the stress that drives a baby to walk is probably a maddening amount of frustration- their desire for doing something or getting something is limited by their physical ability to move, and so begins the frustrating endeavor of trying to make their uncooperative body match their desires - days and weeks of frustrating falls are part of this process of growing new skills.

I watch horses integrate into a new herd - the newbie is driven off hay and water- it’s hard to watch, but their desire for safety forces them to display acceptable behaviors to the herd to be allowed in. Interfering with this can lead to diminished social skills and reading of expression- an essential skill for wellbeing in a horses life.

Do we need to put unnecessary stress on the horse? No. Do we need to be rough and unfair? Of course not. We can guide them fairly, with confidence and clarity. We don’t have to make them twist in the wind when we could provide support and help -

But don’t forget that the nature of growth requires some stress, by design. It’s a healthy and essential part of life. Our attitude toward and mindset makes all the difference.

I love my son dearly, I don’t want him to suffer, but I understand he has to develop - but he wants to lift this flake of hay to help more than anything. Should I interfere and lift it for him, reducing momentary stress? Or does his frustration lead him to developing ability, self reliance, and self confidence ? Wouldn’t avoiding momentary stress lead to the long term greater stress of lacking skill, lacking confidence, and lacking the ability to problem solve?

Here he figures out how to lift smaller pieces at a time - because of his frustration and stress, he develops a way forward.

You can’t avoid stress - you can only choose between short term pain and long term pain - the pain of having no confidence or skills - which is much more stressful, and much more harmful.

20/08/2024

Mr Delton decided since he knows so much, he needs to put his money where his mouth is and actually contribute to society. Here he is helping people understand how to evaluate where they are in their horses development: essentially, if you can’t ride in a rhythm what good does doing a lateral movement do? If your horses legs are swinging around out of control, and you don’t have good alignment or range of motion, what are you actually strengthening ?

You can learn more about this in the video library which will be releasing asap!

Mr Delton is so happy to be working from home that he forgot to put on pants.
You just can’t take him anywhere

20/08/2024

20/08/2024

How do you teach patience?

Patience is a common problem across the country, and I’d venture to say probably the world. I get asked about this quite often by people who are frustrated with their horses fidgeting and anxious movement -

Here are three very important things that must be learned in order to develop patience :

1- not anticipating: it’s important for the mind to not constantly jump into the next exercise, but to be able to fully participate in what we’re doing right now

2- following simple directions/perfecting the basics: this ties into the first step. In order to develop patience, it helps to learn to be able to break things down into smaller steps, pay close attention to each one, and work on the basic building blocks that comprise the bigger picture.

3- emotional resilience: getting frustrated and shutting down, getting overly excited, getting ahead of the game, or even getting downright ornery are common problems in the arena. Emotional resilience is an essential skill for developing patience.

Sometimes, with an impatient human, more groundwork is needed, or firmer boundaries. But with a simple, consistent training system, a human can be (sometimes slowly and painfully) brought to better behavior. It can be hard, but I’ve had success with these three steps creating a human who can appreciate their horse’s willingness and learn to effectively lead a horse.

19/08/2024

Want to be as ethical as Mr Delton? He knows every catch phrase from every Internet forum and can spew them a mile a minute! He is more than happy to tell you why you’re evil if your horse has a dropped thoracic sling or other currently popular segment of your horse, your horses poll is too low, or your saddle doesn’t fit according to the article he read! He can’t actually ride and hasn’t produced anything of import, but he can sure make you feel bad about your work!

Thank goodness for Mr Delton making the world a better place, one comment section at a time!

Stay tuned for the courses’ release! You can learn to rise above catchy phrases to dominate comment sections and develop actual feel, so you can be a friend to the horse’s back. Learn how to manage your body, integrate the concepts of rhythm and correct tempo to create a harmonious relationship, and develop a happy healthy horse, and happy healthy you.

19/08/2024

19/08/2024

It’s simple, it’s meaningful, it’s subtle -

It’s not magic- it’s attention to detail and good basics. It looks easy, fluid, and boring. There need not be talking up of it, or hype, or feeding the student the belief that it’s mystical or something that it isn’t.

But, if the student pays attention, if the student is receptive, it is deep. It’s profound in its simplicity, it touches every aspect of life. The magic is in the profound quiet of balance : how everything comes together with the smallest details done with care. It doesn’t boast or promote itself to be special, but it is moving, life changing and profound.

It doesn’t belong to me, to you, to anybody: they are simple truths that belong to the ages, repeated by those who looked and saw a horse, maybe worded another way- but a common thread runs through.

There is no need to talk it up, or make it into something bigger, because it’s bigger than life itself, and its secret is in humble details.

Photo by Jasmine cope

18/08/2024

So you’ve gone down the rabbit hole and you’re incapacitated with uncertainty….

You know how harmful or unhelpful your old ways are
But you have no idea what to do, and you’re scared to death to make a mistake

I hear this from students nearly every day. The climate is changing in the horse world, so many people are gravitating toward trying to get along better with their horses. Some folks are becoming interested in posture and movement and maybe feel overwhelmed.

To make matters worse, the average person’s social media feed is chock full of a thousand different programs, each with their own subscription, and all in disagreement with the next one. You have every book and every subscription, but have no idea what to do. What can be done?

Well to start with, I like to think about some advice I got from a drawing teacher. I was staring at an outline I’d made of the model to be drawn, and I was petrified of ruining it. “When you don’t know what to do, do something,” he said. That has stuck with me ever since. Inaction can sometimes be far worse than a mistake, so-

Step 1- just start. Do something, anything. Pick something small and basic and focus on doing that with quality. Even if you end up doing it wrong, you can’t go wrong with becoming more aware of your habits and your horses habits.

Step 2- accept your imperfection. I have a little secret for you- you’ll never be perfect. I’m not perfect, my teachers aren’t perfect. We make mistakes. The biggest difference between a pro and an uncertain amateur is not the mistake making, but the ability to recover, and the confidence to experiment. So quit worrying about making mistakes, because you’re going to anyway.

Step 3- become a master observer of the horse. Even if you don’t know what to do, you can learn a ton from watching the horse. The most important part is changing your muscle memory from old habits to new ones- so if you become a watchful observer of the horse, rather than an auto pilot handler, you’re bound to learn a tremendous amount.

So there you have it. Three simple steps to get the ball rolling- don’t just stand around avoiding your horse forever just because of a little uncertainty. Learning is messy, but, an object in motion stays in motion- so just take one shaky step forward and give it your best.

18/08/2024

All good movement has the underlying principles of diagonal balance, rythm, and elasticity. It’s pretty simple, the more I understand it, the more I realize it isn’t anything but those things. We can rearrange the body, school the body, and develop the horse further, but we never leave those basic elements.

We like to overcomplicate movement, but I’m finding more and more that it’s extremely simple: diagonal balance, rythm, and elasticity- for horses, and humans too.

18/08/2024

17/08/2024

There are many perspectives, biases and beliefs on movement and biomechanics. If you follow different schools of thought, you’ll get very different ideas of how your horse should go, all backed up by some cherry picked study or some big figure promoting it -

Probably the most common question I get in my courses is about how to get their horse to take an idealized posture from their very contracted, forehand heavy posture. “What height should my horses head be? I read X study or article about the dangers of X head height”

The trick here is that there is a lot of variables. It’s true that there is a certain look accompanied by having the haunches dropped enough to lift the forehand -

But what’s more important is understanding where your horse is actually at now, and what they are physically capable of.

I always try to bring it back to our own development of fitness - what’s my body able to do right now? What’s more important, an immediate shape that’s “correct,” or longevity, joy of movement, a sustainable approach to fitness, and making little changes over time?

If I study videos and pictures of top ballerinas, who are in excellent form, and I want to make myself move that way-
I’ll very likely hurt myself. And so correct form for me, at this point in my life with this body I have, will look and feel very different. If I share photos of my form on ballet groups, I’ll surely get a million opinions of what I should look like, from folks much fitter and experienced than me -

And so we have to take context into account. What’s good form for your horse NOW, and tomorrow, and the next day? What’s a healthy movement pattern fair to expect of your horse with your skill and riding ability ? That’s another can of worms - because if your horse is capable of lifting the forehand, but you’re not capable of absorbing that movement, then a flatter posture is more stable for the horse to carry you in.

I urge all students of riding to spend some time learning a physical activity they don’t know - study the ideal finished form, and then consider the steps required for you to get there- because even a good posture can be damaging if you aren’t strong enough to hold it, or hold it for too long.

It’s all about context - who is it, how is it, and why is it ? Movement is not a look or some two dimensional product - it’s an ever changing, ongoing, dynamic and nuanced thing.

It takes no skill to get on a comment section and critique every horses form if you don’t have the context

16/08/2024

16/08/2024

Conditioning the haunches to carry for the forehand up - a process of education and strengthening and lengthening - not an artificial shape created by a rider manually

Christopher Bartle explains collection:
“The freeing of the forehand as the hind leg is engaged and active is dependent on the supporting role of the horse’s topline. The muscles of the neck and back, if stretched and supporting will draw up the base of the neck and lead to the raised and arched appearance which is sought after. This of course must be volunteered by the horse rather than imposed by the rider’s hands. The stretching of the neck upwards will lead to the greater freedom of the forehand, and a rounder action from the shoulder, because the muscle which draws the forearm forward is attached at the poll.” Dr Klimke and Ahlerich demonstrate.
https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2017/02/introducing-collection-with-christopher-bartle-part-one/

16/08/2024

If an opinion was formed, but there was no comment section to blurt it into, does the opinion still exist?

If it does exist, and it isn’t expressed, does the human possessing it cease to exist?

Todays philosophical musing from a man with many opinions, and all of them correct

15/08/2024

“I’m teaching my horse to accept contact”

If I had a dollar for every time I heard this! Typically it is accompanied by a horse throwing their head up, diving behind the vertical, gaping at the mouth- essentially attempting to be anywhere BUT the contact.

Here is something I often say to people in my clinics.

Imagine you’re on a date. Your date grabs your hand and doesn’t let go. You squirm to get away, but he holds tighter. He says, some day you will have to hold my hand so you need to get used to it. I won’t release until you accept this contact. Maybe he’s brought up in the school of thought that your display of evasion should be countered with a strap of some kind to prevent you from moving away- a flash nose band of sorts for you.

It doesn’t matter how light or heavy he touches- it is contact that isn’t right for the moment. It’s greedy, and inappropriate.

Now imagine you’re on a date and the conversation has lead you to realize you really enjoy his company. Your relationship is developing, he brushes your hand, you reach out and hold it.

Those are two very different feelings, and they come from two very different places.

When the conditions are there, the contact is taken by the horse. Not the other way around.

Contact has meaning. It is not meaningless pressure on the horses mouth, it is a holding of hands while you dance- it is a connection between your body and the horse’s hind legs. It is the display of everything you believe and who you are- manifested through your hand and into the horse- and the horse’s response is a direct representation of their preparation and feelings about your body and hands.