Simple Truths

Today Eddie and I went back to simple truths. Well that's what we've been doing for the past couple of days. It's gone SO SO SO WELL!

I've been reading Mark Rashid's book, Horses Never Lie and it's amazing.

It really dives into what leadership is about. Here are a few quotes that really stood out to me:

"Just because we think a horse should do things a certain way doesn't mean that the horse sees it the same way."

"No amount of training in the world can take away what Mother Nature has instilled."

"The less you do, the more you can accomplish."

"The old man would set things up for the horse to make a decision and allow the horse to make it. He never seemed overly concerned about forcing a horse to do something it wasn't comfortable doing or punishing a wrong decision. He would simply let whatever was going to happen, happen and then go from there."

I think it's a really great book, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to do natural horsemanship!

With those quotes in mind, I went out to play with Eddie and Scout. Boy it did change some of the things I did! Like yesterday, when I decided to ride Eddie. I just let whatever was going to happen, to happen and we went from there. I think we could all learn that!

Eddie did really, really good today. We started with some falling leaf and he was really offering a lot. He did some amazing spins and turning on his hind quarters. I also reminded myself that falling leaf is a sideways game. ?! Yep, a sideways game, and with that in mind, we did some fun sidepasses at the walk and trot. :)

 Then we went to the log and I had him do some sidewayses until he was calm with it. Because he would jump and just gallop away. So I let what was going to happen, happen and I let the 45 foot line slide all the way to the end, slowly closing my hand until he came trotting back. Then I would send him over the log again and he would do it again. Yet again, I let the rope slide through my hands and he came trotting back. So after the 3rd or 4th time, he did a perfect squeeze game. I sent him, allowed him to go and jump, and disengaged him. Saaaavvy!

We did some more falling leaf and some S patterns after that. Then we ended by doing some trotting from zone 5 and going to the pedestal from 45 feet away. It was really cool. Almost the whole time we were playing, I only had 4 coils in my line. Usually we have about 10. But this time it was less than half of what we normally do. Saaaaaavvy!

Then we did cavaletties for 15 minutes. I could already see him stretching and bring his energy through his topline and bringing his hind quarters underneath him.

I love you so much Eddie! You are the love of my life and you're my dream!!!

Scout was next! He was super! (I'll put this in a different post, this one is pretty long!)