MIND MELD MOMENT

I had the most surreal experience in the truck the other day. I was driving the Rockstar to Leahurst to drop him off for his Spinal desmotomy or ligament snip in common parlance. I absolutely love my truck. With one horse on board it bowls along beautifully. On a sunny day on a good road, trucking always makes me smile.  And suddenly  I had this incredibly strong feeling that I wasn’t the only one smiling. It was just me and Rocky in the truck, and in that moment, for some reason,  we had a total horse-human mind meld, driving along the M53 on a sunny Sunday afternoon. 

Rocky on full alert here- Periscope up!

Rocky is the most cheerful horse. If he was a human he would be the one sauntering along, whistling the whole time. He loves life and he loves food and he really loves humans and most of all he loves fuss. And whatever anyone else said, when he was ‘naughty’ I could not reconcile that cheerful, friendly, genuine personality with a horse that actually wanted to hurt me, or a horse that was ‘work shy’, or ‘out to get me’, or ‘knows that he can have me’ at any moment. All those phrases assume that horses have the ability to plan and to reason. And while I am usually the one speaking up for the intellect and emotional intelligence of the horse, planning mischief is not in their repertoire. They might associate certain behaviours with a resultant reward, such as pawing for attention at feed time, but there is no reward that comes from dumping your human on the floor apart from an end to pain or discomfort. And the super quick, super violent buck that he does very occasionally, to me, that one feels like a reaction to pain. It feels like an electric shock cattle prod type reaction. It’s an instant reflex ‘get off me now!’

I made Rocky some promises as I was driving along. I promised him that from now literally the only person that I would listen to on matters affecting Rocky would be Rocky himself. I promised him that I would listen, with an open heart and mind, that I would spend enough time with him to learn to spot and understand his body cues so that he would never have to escalate his behaviour unnecessarily loudly again. I promised him that the rehabilitation and the re-education would go as slowly and as carefully as he needed it. I promised him that we would deal with the separation anxiety and the unfamiliar step by step, with sympathetic trainers and helpers. And I promised him that any advice, no matter who well meaning, no matter who from, that felt off kilter, or instinctively wrong, or that raised more questions in my mind, would be carefully examined and considered from all angles and disregarded if it made me feel uneasy. I don’t know if I am always right, but when I am doubtful of advice from others that is proving to be a warning I should heed.

We had a bad winter last year- I took bad advice. I was told I had to decide if I was strong enough mentally to step up to the challenge that is Rocky. I sent Cal away on loan so I could concentrate on Rocky and  winter was spent lungeing him until he was too tired to buck and then ‘riding him through his bad behaviour’. After a few concerted months of this regime, he was still wildly unpredictable. I decided he wasn’t the horse for me and made arrangements to sell him but thought  had best get him scoped before he went to sales livery. Of course, the behaviour turned out to be caused by Grade 3 ulcers, which are generally secondary to pain and anxiety. And so after the scope, I treated the ulcers and then got him investigated for causes of low grade lameness; which led to the referral for the spinal desmotomy, and the truck journey. 

Rocky seems to have forgiven me but he now doesn’t like the instructor who ‘helped’ us all that time, and definitely doesn’t like having him stand behind us. I wonder if he fights worse now in the presence of that person because he felt like he was fighting for his survival over those few months last winter. I have promised him we wouldn’t do that again. I have promised Rocky from now on he would get to choose. The main factor will be the level of pressure that Rocky feels he can cope with. We will go at his speed, and no one else’s. I have also promised Rocky that I will listen to my own instincts because the recommendation to commit to his work programme once and for all and decide if I could step up to be that clear in my intentions, or not, came from another much respected source. And I was so busy being clear in my own intent that I stopped listening to Rocky.

I promised to love him for ever and to keep him safe and from now on to make his choices for his good and with no one else’s bias or vested interests clouding my judgement. It’s a lonely feeling that. I have two really good instructors and had a great support system in place. But for some reason Rocky is demanding my full commitment to his self determination. I have cut him a deal; we are not necessarily talking about an easy life at home as a happy Sunday hack here, he’s a big athletic horse, he knows I would love to take him to grassroots one day, if he is physically able. So we would go as carefully and slowly and incrementally as we need to go, but the end goal is still function. And if function in a working sense is impossible he will not be allowed to suffer. He is absolutely my responsibility.

And so when we got to Leahurst it was surprisingly easy to hand him over for surgery. We’d done all our talking on the way there. All he had to do was behave impeccably and then come home and do his best to get better. He mooched off to the weigh-bridge, towering over the petite, young vet with his ears pricked and not a care in the world. He had never looked better. And he did behave impeccably. They all said what a complete gentleman he was, and all fell in love with him. The Labra-dude horse has yet another army of fans. 

And I have promised that it will be just him and me, in our training and rehab bubble, for better or for worse. Of course I will seek help, but I will no longer listen to outside opinions or experts without question. And the new question will be very simple- instinctively, with an open heart, does that feel right?

A Good Horse is Never a Bad Colour

STOP PRESS UNTIL MAY 2022 ALL DONATIONS raised by this blog will go to the Veloo Foundation, feeding and education the children in Mongolia who would otherwise scratch for survival on the refuse tip in UB Mongolia. The link to donate is to be found here

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“A good horse is never a bad colour”

There are many phrases threading through the English language handed down from the old days when horses were the main form of transport and we humans owed them our livelihoods and oftentimes our lives. This blog has mostly been pre-occupied with

“No Foot, No Horse”

but the BLM movement has dramatically leapt to the forefront of public awareness again at a time when I was a little lacking in inspiration for topics to write about and

“one should never look a gift horse in the mouth!”

That was a flippant link. But colour is a hard thing to write about, and flippancy has always been a sterling defence against the difficulties of existing as an outsider in an often monochrome world.

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and please excuse the use of the judgemental terms ‘good’ and ‘bad’- it’s a neat phrase and an old saying- let’s not argue those semantics today LOL

We don’t generally judge horses on their colour, although we do offer up some tired stereotypes as facts.

Gingers (chestnuts is the correct term in the equine glossary) are sensitive, twitchy, flighty, a bit mad- like Ginger the highly strung chestnut mare in Black Beauty, and similar to the many of the oft quoted stereotypes about human redheads. In less politically correct times there have even been scientific studies conducted in an effort to ascertain whether there is a real difference in the way redheads perceive pain, for example

Do redheads feel more pain?

I had a whole polo team of chestnut mares at one stage. They were all brilliantly unique. Horse people will mostly judge you on the quality of the horse you are sat on, rather than on your human attributes. I once nearly ran over Lady Vestey senior at a polo match; it was in the early days of the Innerwick team and I was on Francesca, Roger’s chunky, solid, dependable chestnut starter pony. We spun around and Lady V walked more or less into us so it wasn’t mine or Francesca’s fault. Lady V turned around quick as a flash and said “I’ve been squashed by much classier beasts than that”, looking down her nose at Francesca’s ample behind and perfect white feathers. Francesca certainly wasn’t a blood horse!

“The term bloodhorse dates back to 1615 as a term for a horse of good descent. Its usage spread in the 18th and 19th centuries to refer to the English Thoroughbred racehorse breed.

The name may derive from the idea of blood as pedigree or from the concept of hot-blooded and cold-blooded horses.

In an 1857 book Horse and Horsemanship, English author Henry William Herbert describes blood as “descent, through the American or English race-horse, from the oriental blood of the desert,” referring to the Arabian horses that were the ancestors of the Thoroughbred. In the same book, he contrasts the blood horse with the “cold-blooded cart horse.”

It was a funny day that- shortly after us nearly trampling our lady host, the Kiwi truck driver completely wedged the new artic sideways in the narrow gateway between two dry stone walls. Roger then tried to cheer us all up by taking us for a drink in the clubhouse but ‘staff’ weren’t allowed to drink at the bar. He bought a slab of beers and sat on the ramp drinking with us instead. A true gent our Roger.

Other horse associated observational myths- dark bays are the spooky one while greys tend to be calm. This is certainly true in my little herd. Paddy the dark bay always signals my presence first; maybe the other two see me and aren’t bothered but Paddy’s is the head that always goes up. Cal just keeps eating most days; he will possibly deign to flick an ear as an acknowledgement. And Cal has always been a pleasure to take out and about whereas with Paddy one could never relax for a moment. He can untie knots, break string, dismantle a trailer, flatten the picnic…all in the blink of an eye.

Horses are strangely attracted to other horses of the same colour. Cal is fascinated by the little grey mare on out yard, and was also very attached to Bliss when she lived with us. And horses are really freaked out by very tiny ponies if they haven’t met them before; similar but different. Donkeys too- the braying and the funny ears really alarm them.

So ‘people like us’ is not just a human phenomenon.

“People Like us”  Hashi Mohamed-  “what it takes to make it in modern Britain”

https://amzn.eu/3vCYlcC

I will say this now; I myself have never encountered overt racism directed at me amongst the horsey community. Horsey people love horses much more than people, look at horses, talk about horses, dream about horses. The people attached to the horses are mostly incidental. I recognise many of my horsey acquaintances by their horses first.

There was a classic line in a Dick Francis novel- the protagonist thought the crumpled photo that the groom was keeping in her wallet was of her dead boss, and that they must have been lovers. Of course the photo was of the horse, the boss just happened to be holding the rope!

But it is undeniably true that there aren’t many people of colour involved in equestrianism in the UK. Not so in America where most of the barn work is done by cheap manual labourers, therefore often by Mexicans. In the UK we tend to employ skilled grooms to do all the work including the hard manual labour, and mostly pay them a pittance to do so. Polo was an exception, hence my summer holidays spent sweating in the sunshine, messing about with fast cars and fast horses.

I can’t think of a single contemporary famous black equestrian athlete. Yet historically in the USA, Black jockeys were commonplace. They started out as slaves of course….

“On May 17, 1875, thousands of eager horse racing fans poured through the gates of Churchill Downs to get their first looks at Louisville’s sparkling new racetrack and cheer on the thoroughbreds in the featured race, the inaugural Kentucky Derby. Finely dressed gentlemen and ladies adorned in bright colors thronged the grandstand and hundreds of carriages filled the infield as the horses toed the line for the day’s second race. At the tap of a drum, fifteen horses thundered down the track. As excited shouts echoed across the oval, jockey Oliver Lewis spurred on his chestnut colt Aristides to a one-length victory in the fastest time ever recorded by a three-year-old horse.

That Lewis was a black man in the sport of horse racing was of little note. In fact, 13 of the 15 riders in that first Kentucky Derby were African-Americans. In the years following the Civil War, black jockeys dominated horse racing at a time when it was America’s most popular sport. African-American riders were the first black sports superstars in the United States, and they won 15 of the first 28 runnings of the Kentucky Derby.

For centuries, Southern plantation owners put slaves to work in their stables. Slaves cared for and raced their masters’ horses. They served as riders, grooms, and trainers and gained a keen horse sense from spending so much time in the stables. After emancipation, African-Americans continued to rule Southern race circuits while white immigrants from Ireland and England predominated in the North.”

In contemporary British life, access to horses is an expensive upper middle class pre-occupation in the cities, and an upper class pastime providing a working class source of employment out in the country. And rural Britain is still not an ethnically diverse community. I live out in the country. I can think of one black man, an Asian friend or two and a few diverse kids that I have encountered on horse back at 20 years of equestrian events in rural Cheshire and the surrounding countryside.

Where do most BAME communities live?

By contrast, my beloved NHS family is incredibly diverse, on the frontline at least

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although we are now getting called out for a shocking lack of BAME representation at higher levels

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Having said that, I don’t declare as BAME- there isn’t a box that describes me so I refuse to engage in being inadequately or inaccurately pigeon holed.

If wishes were horses

It didn’t matter to me as a child that there were no brown horsey role models for me to look up to. I was obsessed with horses long before I even knew what the colour of my own skin was. I don’t remember not being obsessed with horses.

I was already reading pretty fluently aged 4 or 5, and my first books were the well known stories of silver Brumbies and chestnut Arabs. My first poem was about Thowra, Evleyn Mitchell’s brumby stallion. I didn’t know I was a brown person until someone shouted “Pakki” at me on the way to school; that was on the way to junior school in London so I must have been about 6 or 7 then.

When does a child realise he/she is brown?

At what age do kids realise skin colour is a thing?

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The Black Lives Matter slogan has been incredibly triggering for some people. Of course all individuals have their challenges, but it is fair to say that in most of the countries of the world, having black skin as well as being poor, female, alone, less than able bodied, will add a layer of complexity to the other challenges that you might face, not make your life easier.

I am lucky, I am very privileged. I’m a middle class, intellectually gifted, slightly brown woman with a first class education and a first class RP (posh) accent, tinged now with a tiny bit of North. I am able bodied, fit, and healthy. I count my blessings every day.

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Racism comes out of the funniest, darkest, subconscious corners. Most often it comes out as a stray comment, from a friend, directed at someone other, because of course your friends don’t include you in ‘that group’ they are talking about. Often the assumption of difference comes from other people of colour- I wrote a long rant many years ago about how much I hated the question “where do you come from?”, a question that is most often asked by well meaning others from elsewhere looking to find a connection.

And the reason I hated that question was because I did not have, and still do not have, a truly simple, assured answer. I am a child of globalisation; my mother is Singapore Eurasian but she left there when she was 20 to escape the benign but still politically oppressive regime. My uncle got jailed briefly for teaching history as it actually happened rather than the government sanctioned politically correct version, and the many siblings scattered around the Commonwealth after that episode. My Dad is from the Wirral, but he would say he is Scottish (by age old ancestry) and I was conceived in Sweden, then born in Germany, where I spent my formative years as an expat child of the European Space Agency, before we came “home” to London. We then spent a year living in France and I have always loved travelling in a way that enables me to live and work in a country not just visit. The place I have felt most viscerally connected to was the West Coast of Scotland, as would befit the McNicol heritage, but the Scots say you only truly belong to the place you were born in.

And yet fundamentally I am British through and through. No ignorant bigot can take that identity away from me. I was born and registered a British citizen. Both my parents are British citizens, Singapore was in the Commonwealth after all. My mother was brought up a full British citizen, in Singapore, educated in English at a convent school, leaving with A levels and perfect RP pronunciation and a weird attachment to British rituals like afternoon tea. I grew up in London, went to one of the top ten schools in the UK, sailed through a top notch British education and devoured all the reading and conditoning that goes with that. When we learned about the colonies, a risible few lines that came up mostly in English Literature rather than history, I thought of myself as one of the British colonial ladies, not one of the indigenous natives.

There is a fine balance between not talking about colour and talking about it too much- different experiences can separate us as well as connect us.
Note that I make a deliberate distinction between colour and race- because for me in my peculiar mix of experience and genetics the two are not connected at all.

So I find it very unsettling when people ask me where I am from, or if I will ever go back home, or where I learned to speak such perfect English, or where I got my lovely skin tone from. Because all of those questions threaten my sense of belonging, question my right to thrive here, in the country that I belong to by birthright, where I grew up, where I should be able to feel secure and at home, like most of you do.

And if the inability to deal with that question is my weakness, so be it. I have shared it with you now, so you can treat your friends, and the strangers that aren’t friends yet, with the empathy and respect that all humans deserve. And that respect doesn’t involve making preconceived judgements based on appearance, skin tone, level of ability, sexuality or any other protected characteristic.

Please read this link- unconscious bias is rife among the well meaning

Horses are simple, if not always easy. Horse sense intent, and connect with congruence and truth. Horses never say one thing and mean another. Horses read energy, and have no preconceptions. And that is why, to a horse at least, a good human can never be a bad colour.

Peace and love.

Thank you as always for reading. I truly appreciate each and every one of you. To those influencers who comment, share the site with friends or help to promote in any other way, I remain eternally grateful. To those supporters generous and able to offer funds, whether small or large, karma is finding its way back to you with a rainbow of horses and abundance beyond dreams. Thank you all for joining in the adventure.  

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If Only my Horse could Talk…

STOP PRESS UNTIL MAY 2022 ALL DONATIONS raised by this blog will go to the Veloo Foundation, feeding and education the children in Mongolia who would otherwise scratch for survival on the refuse tip in UB Mongolia. The link to donate is to be found here

http://www.veloofoundation.com/fran-mcnicol.html

“If only my horse could talk!”

How many times have we all said those words? In jest, or in despair?

But consider that our horses could be equally frustrated, stamping their feet and tossing their manes and screaming “if only my human could listen”

They don’t actually scream of course. Until it gets really bad and then they need to get really loud.

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Amongst themselves horses talk mostly in whispers, a sideways look, a flick of an ear, an imperceptible yield. Horses are naturally very peaceable animals. The equine ethologist Lucy Rees has spent a lifetime observing horses in the wild.

“To understand horses and their difficulties in our hands, we need to watch them as they really are, without anthropomorphic interpretations and expectations”

To this end, she has studied many populations of feral horses in the Americas and Australia, above all in Venezuela, where for years she ran residential ethology courses. These studies led to Horses In Company (2017), a book whose evolutionary perspective revolutionises our view of horse society. She started the Pottoka Project, in which she released a herd of feral Basque ponies in the mountains of north Extremadura, and, with a few volunteers, observes them as they live normal equid lives.

There is a very educational and beautiful series of short films available on her website or via Epona TV 

Meet the Pottoka

For me, her most astonishing finding is that, in an environment in which there is no resource shortage, horses exhibit virtually no conflict behaviour. I have written about this before, against the context of that other pervasive myth, the alpha male.

The Myth of the Alpha

This is a lesson that I thought I had learned already. but as the saying goes, until you truly know something, and take that truth to heart and actually act on that truth, you don’t really know that something. 

The last year and a half have been really tricky for me and Rocky. I previously told the story of his initial diagnosis of a sore back. His time off and six months of slow and careful rehab,

The Rocky Road to Rehab

coincided with my change in personal circumstances. However, as we got back into consistent work there was no real improvement to his behaviour. His back looked and felt perfect, with improving muscle coverage and no sore spots, but his behaviour remained erratic and I was still getting regular reminders on the inevitability of gravity.

I had him scoped him for ulcers a couple of years ago. The rationale at the time was partly to check out his behaviour, but also based on the fact that at the time he was a full 100kg lighter than his two equally classy sisters

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The scope was essentially clear. The vets looked at me wth sceptical cocked eyebrows when I explained my reasons for scoping him; if you don’t actually know his sisters, he is big enough and looks like a strapping lad and he didn’t look unhealthy at the time, but I was the client and it was my money. 

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He had some very mild traces of inflammation, but no true ulceration. They didn’t push me to treat him formally and were quite happy when I said I would organise an empirical trial of treatment with the well known blue granules that one can buy online from America. He did put some good weight on, so I thought the ulcers must be better, and so we never re-scoped. And his behaviour never changed- he was still occasionally obstreperous but nothing one wouldn’t expect or excuse from a young horse?

Extra bit of information required here- on the ground he is the sweetest, most affectionate horse you could imagine. He loves people and loves a good fuss.

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Because he had previously been scoped clear, with no behavioural benefit following on from that half hearted trial of treatment (isn’t the retrospect-oscope a wonderful instrument),  the possibility of continuing ulcers just didn’t enter my brain. I am a very literal thinker, and my brain really only works in lists and straight lines, so in my head, ulcers was ticked off, as was back. All that was left was learned behaviour and an athletic and strong minded horse that I had to decide if I was capable of riding.

I bought Rocky as a yearling. He has the most beautiful paces I have ever sat on. Had I not bought him as a youngster, I would never have been able to afford his Olympic standard genetics. For those of you who are into bloodlines, he is by Royaldik. 

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Heraldik xx is a very well known sire to all eventing fans- Ingrid Klimke’s Butts Abraxas, Andreas Dibowski’s Butts Leon, and Sam Griffith’s Happy Times are all among top flight horses sired by Heraldik.

At WEG in 2010, Heraldik had 3 offspring in the Eventing and 2 in the Show Jumping. Heraldik had a full sister Herka, and Royaldik is out of Herka. And Royaldik’s full brother Rohdiamant is also the WBFSH world number 3 dressage stallion.

So my gorgeous little baby Rocky

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is quite simply the most well bred horse I am ever likely to own. Particularly as his famous relatives have proved to be functional as well as flash, with the confirmation to withstand a busy life at top level competition. 

I remember vividly teaching Cal to jump. Until he learned to canter, and developed the bulk of muscle required to carry his draught bone along the ground let alone up, jumping an 80cm oxer always felt like a lottery. 

By contrast, Rocky can be looking at everything else, going sideways and then just pop the same fence as a minor inconvenience as it appears in his path.

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All of which is a very long winded way of saying I wasn’t gong to give up on that feeling without a fight. It’s addictive, sitting on a horse that gives you a feeling of such ease over a fence.

It’s not quite so addictive, hitting the ground on a regular basis.

As I tell this story now it is so fricking obvious that I am cringing as I type these words. I share this story, as brutally and as honestly as I can, to help you avoid similar obstinate mistakes, and to spare your horse having to shout quite so loudly.

Rocky had severe separation anxiety. He was dramatically reactive to all new situations, to horses coming up behind us, to getting a bit too far away from other horses, to a gate closing. He would freeze out on hacks, at invisible obstacles. His reaction to any unexpected stimulus was to dump me and run.

He had been scoped for ulcers. His back was now fine. We had checked the saddle situation and solved it with a gorgeous Stride Free Jump.

So I decided we needed remedial training. My long term local eventing instructor helped me with the riding and the training and we lunged him “thoroughly” before we got on to establish forwards, and we taught him that forwards was required before all else.

And he did become more rideable. I gave it my best shot. I rode him 5 days a week, every week, all winter, through the dark and the cold and the rain. I sent Cal away on loan so I had the time to concentrate on Rocky. We had regular lessons and outings. And he did come on really well. He put on muscle, his back improved, his canter got stronger. But he still bucked.

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Then one week in mid January he put me on the floor three times in the same week. And there were no mitigating factors. He had done enough work, there were no scary things out there, I was riding at my usual time, in my normal routine. The same week he booted the part time groom in the chest and shook her up really badly.

And I just knew I couldn’t do it any more. I couldn’t ride him, we couldn’t keep him safely here. I searched my heart and I made arrangements for him to go on sales livery. And was absolutely at peace with that decision. I think a few of my friends were even quite relieved. 

I had a couple of weeks to spare before he could go, and Patrice, my long term mentor and classical dressage instructor, suggested I scope him once more. It made sense. I couldn’t conscientiously sell a sick horse, and I would be gutted if I sold my horse of a lifetime because he was too quirky for me and then found out someone else had treated him and he turned out to be a poppet under saddle too.

Of course he had ulcers. Really bad ulcers. Multiple lesions, several grade 3, lots of grade 2 and significant amounts of fibrin deposits and areas of irritation. 

OK I thought, I’ll treat him but he’s still going. Once he’s healed, he’s still for sale.

Then lockdown happened, about two weeks into his ulcer treatment.

And he’s not a horse you could leave out of work altogether, his brain is quite active and he does find mischief.

So I had to ride him…..just light hacking, in company., to keep him ticking over and his brain occupied….nothing challenging….

He got better, and better. The bucking objections turned into leg flicks and stalls, then just to ear flicks. He hacked out on his own, with no trouble at previously nappy corners. We could cross the main road ( a major barrier previously) and go around the whole village. We had to stop occasionally and check out things like a scarf left on a street sign but he looked and worked it out whereas before he would have dumped me and run away. We even did the long circuit under the railways bridges and went past the scary white log on the bridle path on our own, after a few looks and a couple of reverses. But they were only reverses, not gymnastics. And I could feel his brain working it all out rather than his body reacting.

I’m still an idiot. And we were still in lockdown. As we couldn’t do the second check scope at the time I let his meds run down to see what would happen. About a week after the PPI ran out and the day after the Misoprostol finished, I swung my leg into the saddle and instantly felt like I was sitting on a different horse.

I had to prove it of course. I am still an idiot. He dropped me in the school so I got back on and we went around the block. It was tense but manageable. Until we got back inside the gate and then he tried to drop me on the concrete.

Se we started the meds again. It took a few weeks to get back to lovely horse again. But he had been very clear- and yes the lesson obviously needed re-iterating. 

My horse doesn’t have behaviour problems. He has pain problems.

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And I am genuinely ashamed that he had to get to a point of shouting out his pain so loudly at me that I put both of us in danger.

“If only my human could listen.”

 

sic ‘nothing one wouldn’t expect or excuse from a young horse.’

Question- how much of bad horse behaviour is actually pain?

He has just been re-scoped. The ulcers look much better. We are still only on light work but he is putting on huge amounts of muscle. He is currently off the transfer list!

Part 2 to follow in a few months

Thank you as always for reading. I truly appreciate each and every one of you. To those influencers who comment, share the site with friends or help to promote in any other way, I remain eternally grateful. To those supporters generous and able to offer funds, whether small or large, karma is finding its way back to you with a rainbow of horses and abundance beyond dreams. Thank you all for joining in the adventure. 

Loves a cuddle

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A Regular Gratitude Practice

STOP PRESS UNTIL MAY 2022 ALL DONATIONS raised by this blog will go to the Veloo Foundation, feeding and education the children in Mongolia who would otherwise scratch for survival on the refuse tip in UB Mongolia. The link to donate is to be found here

http://www.veloofoundation.com/fran-mcnicol.html

 

Why is it so important to develop a robust and regular gratitude practice?

1- The average person has 12-60k thoughts/day.

2- 80% of those are negative.

3- 95% are exactly the same as the day before.

4- 85% of what we worry about never happens.

                   The National Science Foundation and Cornell University in the US:

For those of you who have followed Tim Ferriss – no fewer than 80% of the people he has interviewed in his podcast have a daily routine where they consciously practise gratitude.

The interviewees are a selection of billionaires, massively successful entrepreneurs / actors / musicians etc…

Tim Ferriss and his friends demonstrate that a daily meditation and gratitude practice is quite literally invaluable; it proactively overturns our innate tendency to negative self talk and redresses the balance.

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Gratitude is defined as the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness

A regular gratitude practice actually rewires our brain. Consciously finding things to be thankful for, no matter how bad the situation we find ourselves in, teaches us to recognise the positives in every situation. It develops resilience, and resilience better equips us to overcome psychological stressors.

The-science-behind-gratitude

Gratitude works both ways- a regular gratitude practice has been called

the open door to abundance

I use the “Five Minute Journal” app for my daily gratitude practise. It’s  quick and easy thing to do with the first cup of tea in the morning. It offers an inspirational quote, the facility to upload a photo for the day, and asks for 3 things you will do to make today great. It then has a space for affirmations, and an evening review section. I’m not quite so good at completing the evening review, but I do enjoy looking back at past entries and past affirmations. And yes, I know it’s been said before, but it is amazing how much can change in a life in a year. With proactive observation and the implementation of good self care habits.

It is as true of humans as it is of horses; we are either improving or deteriorating ourselves every day. We choose. You won’t be the same person in a year, you won’t be in the same head space….why not consciously choose better.

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Practising gratitude is not all about relentlessly chasing the positives in the face of death and despair. We can also acknowledge our dark times, and be grateful for the strength to cope with them.

In our darkest moments, it may be that the only thing we have to be thankful for is the strength to carry on.

The strange determination to keep breathing, no matter what.

One of my favourite quotes

“Men have died, and worms have eaten them, but not for love”

For me, this a reminder that every moment we live, every breath we take, is the result of a conscious choice.

8-ways-to-have-more-gratitude-every-day

Sometimes, in the dark times, my regular gratitude practice has involved simple thanks for every breath.

As my asthmatic friend pointed out, in response to the previous instalment,

Learning how to breathe

not everyone on this planet gets to take breathing for granted.

The ongoing environmental disaster in Australia is a stark example of this; the air was so heavily laden with ash and soot that the fire alarms were going off inside air conditioned buildings, causing people to be evacuated to stand outside in the even more acrid, smoke laden air they had been trying to escape from.

“All I need is the air that I breathe

What can we do when the air itself becomes deadly?

The funny thing that if we just persist and endure, the sun will always comes out in the end.

The sun is always there, above the clouds. Just because the light is hidden doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

But we can’t ignore the clouds either.

Focussing on Positivity alone is toxic

At some point in our journey, be it towards wisdom, or enlightenment, or just plain sanity and functionality,  whether we are examining the contents of our own head, or our own navel, working out just what triggers which dread and what emotion lives with what feeling, we will have to deal with the night horrors too. We can’t just focus on the light, we have to deal with the shadows to find our way through to the light again.

To grow, to learn and to heal, we have to find a way to sit with our discomfort and take in the lessons.

What we will not look at, will not feel—in ourselves, or in the world—we cannot address.

We have to learn the importance of chasing our shadows, not just glance away from the painful and difficult parts of our apprenticeship. Like Le Guin’s Ged, chasing the shadow is the most important quest of our life, and the integration of our shadow being is the magic that makes us whole.

Thank you as always for reading. I truly appreciate each and every one of you. To those influencers who comment, share the site with friends or help to promote in any other way, I remain eternally grateful. To those supporters generous and able to offer funds, whether small or large, karma is finding its way back to you with a rainbow of horses and abundance beyond dreams. Thank you all for joining in the adventure.  

 
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Learning how to Breathe…properly

STOP PRESS UNTIL MAY 2022 ALL DONATIONS raised by this blog will go to the Veloo Foundation, feeding and education the children in Mongolia who would otherwise scratch for survival on the refuse tip in UB Mongolia. The link to donate is to be found here

http://www.veloofoundation.com/fran-mcnicol.html

We all know how to do it, right? We all breathe, all day, every day and every night. Taking a breath is the first thing we do as our physical bodies arrive into this world, and the last thing we will do before we leave it. So why are so many of us so bad at breathing? Why are you even bothering to read this article, about learning how to breathe…properly?

Learning how to breathe… properly, is the first practical step to living-in-the-here-and-now

Learning how to breathe…properly, is the first step in the mindfulness practice that will help to free your mind from the emotions and dramas your body creates.

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What Is Mindfulness?

“Mindfulness is the practice of becoming aware of one’s present-moment experience with compassion and openness as a basis for wise action.”

“Mindfulness means maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment, through a gentle, nurturing lens.

Mindfulness also involves acceptance, meaning that we pay attention to our thoughts and feelings without judging them—without believing, for instance, that there’s a “right” or “wrong” way to think or feel in a given moment. When we practice mindfulness, our thoughts tune into what we’re sensing in the present moment rather than rehashing the past or imagining the future.”

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It’s really hard to do most sports or tricky activities without learning how to breathe…properly. Learning to breathe…properly, in the rhythm or technique specific to that activity is part of the technical challenge that leads to excellence. For example, the very precise breathing rhythm associated with a good front crawl, with choral singing, with long distance running, or with playing a wind instrument. There are more advanced techniques such as circular breathing techniques, for a didjeridoo, or the breathing without moving that I demand from a good laparoscopic camera person!

 

No one ever taught me to breathe properly while I am operating- it took me years to realise that I hold my breath for tricky bits of adhesiolysis, and brace my left knee for hours. I am now so used to holding my breath when I concentrate that it is usually the pain in my knee that brings me back to reality, not the gentle gasping for oxygen associated with prolonged low level hypoxia….

My horsey friends will all joke that we hold our breath for the show jumping element of eventing. 9 fences, about 45 seconds, it is easy to allow our breathing to get tight and shallow due to nerves. Not quite so easy to manage a full 5 minute cross country course without taking a proper breath…talking to the pony helps there.

rocky pic 1

 

It is impossible to develop a meditation practise without breathing well. The first part of learning to meditate is learning to focus on the breath.

Why meditate?

For me, the hardest part of learning to meditate was learning to breathe…properly

Breathe in deeply. Let the air gently fill your lungs. Pause, then release. Feel the tension in your shoulders drift away. Inhale again, then exhale… yeah….right…..

The more I thought about my breathing pattern, the more erratic and evasive a good deep breath became. I play a wind instrument, so I’m really good at controlled breathing out, but bizarrely not so good at slow breathing in; in breaths were a short sharp gasp (get as much in as you can) for the next complicated passage of notes.

Yoga helped a bit, as did Pilates. In class, I am always the dork at the back, out of sequence, out of balance and out of breath.

As with everything else, meditation skills improve with practise. I set my alarm for 7 minutes at first, which felt like an eternity after 2, and I just sat on my mat, not quite Vaipassana Lotus style, because my hips don’t go there yet, but cross legged with upwards facing palms.

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Cal is great at meditating

I have to really count my breathing, like a metronome- in for 3, hold for 3, out for 3, hold for 3, etc etc. I can do a relatively slow count of 3 consistently. I can do 5s for a bit but I can’t sustain that pattern easily enough to let the clock tick down. Counts of 3 allow me to get into a theta brain wave pattern.

Theta brain waves explained

As wit many other skills, the important thing initially is just to do the practise, in a state of mind that doesn’t care about the result. Some days it can feel like I am just going through the motions, or even going through my to do list. In the beginning I used to get so impatient I would have to peak at the clock and then be disgusted to find that only two minutes had passed.

And then gradually something strange started to happen. The alarm going off would take me by surprise. I would feel like I had nodded off, but I knew I hadn’t really been asleep. I would drift back into my body to find myself completely relaxed, in lotus position! Turns out I was getting good at this mediation thing!

Signs you went into meditation

And then one day driving to work I felt myself experience such profound joy that I wanted to sing out to the world. It’s hard to explain pure joy. It’s not justa mood. It’s not an “I feel happy”. It’s not laughter, or smiles, it’s not a “body feeling good” after a brisk walk in the fresh air. It’s a profound upswelling of well being that has no basis in the experience of that day so far. It comes from nowhere, yet totally changes the light of the day.

rocky pic 3

 

And that feeling of joy is why I now try to meditate every day.

Just try it…you might surprise yourselves.

And if nothing else, you will finally be learning how to breathe….properly, for which your horses can only be grateful.

Live in joy. in love,
Even among those who hate.

Live in joy, in health.
Even among the afflicted.

Live in joy, in peace,
Even among the troubled.

Look within. Be still.
Free from fear and attachment,
Know the sweet joy of the way.

—The Buddha, from the Dhammapada, Thomas Byrom, translator

Thank you as always for reading. I truly appreciate each and every one of you. To those influencers who comment, share the site with friends or help to promote in any other way, I remain eternally grateful. To those supporters generous and able to offer funds, whether small or large, karma is finding its way back to you with a rainbow of horses and abundance beyond dreams. Thank you all for joining in the adventure.


Living in the Here and Now

STOP PRESS UNTIL MAY 2022 ALL DONATIONS raised by this blog will go to the Veloo Foundation, feeding and education the children in Mongolia who would otherwise scratch for survival on the refuse tip in UB Mongolia. The link to donate is to be found here

http://www.veloofoundation.com/fran-mcnicol.html

There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called Yesterday and the other is called Tomorrow. Today is the right day to Love, Believe, Do and mostly Live.”

I have been reading Eckart Tolle’s The Power of Now.  I have to say it is the slowest read of a book I haven’t yet given up on. This is because the concepts are completely foreign to the control freak, overthinking part of me. Due to a fear of loss of security in my life, I have always tried to micro manage every moment. I have lived nearly every minute either ahead of or behind myself, wallowing in the paralysis of  “what if?” or agonising about “How do I prevent that? What can I do that will stop that happening?”

Living in the here and now is a strange and alien concept.

https://www.wanderlustworker.com/how-to-be-present-the-5-steps-for-living-in-the-here-and-now/

That micro managed place where we are avoiding excess discomfort can become a place of limitation and challenge avoidance. It doesn’t necessarily prevent high performance. That’s a relative concept. But it does limit potential peak performance.

I love high adrenaline activities. But drip feed adrenaline…not the dare devil activities where you completely surrender control but those where you saunter along the knife edge proving how controlled you can be, choosing the move, every next minute…..until you really aren’t in control at all, and you finally have to deal with living in the here and and now.

As Mark Twain said, “I have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.”

We cannot change the past, and we cannot prevent the future. All we can do is make the most of the present moment, informed by the past, and a series of best present moments will then build up to become a brighter future…if we are careful enough to wish it so.

Our wishes will come true…whether we like it or not.

Change is inevitable- be careful what you wish for

top ten tips to start living in the here and now

The big horse has challenged me in ways I would never have thought possible. I love riding, I love horses, I ride because I breathe. Ever since I was a tiny child I have dreamed of having my own horses and riding them every day, of schooling them from scratch, of transforming them from clumsy awkward novices to beautiful, elastic, supple unicorns. I have never been without horses to ride, never been in a situation where I wasn’t rushing home from work to get an extra session in, rain or hail or shine.

Imagine then having to psych yourself up to get on the big horse. Imagine having to talk yourself into doing the very thing that has always brought you joy. Imagine driving home  from work on a windy evening, making excuses in your head, thinking “Oh, I might leave it today, it’s a bit windy, he might be a bit naughty, maybe I’d better not tempt fate…” we say it for a gale first of all, then a blustery day, then a light breeze…until

Suddenly happens over a long time

suddenly, we never seem to get on our horse.

On those days of doubt and fears maybe we need to square up to our gremlins and ask ourselves

What is the worst thing that can happen?

and then we need to JFDI (medic speak for Just F*cking Do It)

Fear setting was a new concept to me until last year.

We are taught goal setting from an early age. Positive thinking is important. But if we ignore the darkness, if we ignore the abyss of fear and dread, it will bite us at the most inopportune moments.

Fear setting was a key part of the process that enabled me to leave my previous “dream life”. I asked myself “what’s the worst thing that could happen?” It turned out that staying unhappy was a much greater than stepping out into the unknown.

Positive thinking increases the likelihood of positive outcomes. But when the outcome is not so positive, how we cope with that eventuality is the space where we learn resilience.

Resilience is the ability to be happysuccessful, etc. again after something difficult or bad has happened

Put simply, when facing a new challenge, what is the worst thing that can happen to you?

For a few months, I found myself avoiding new situations with the big horse. He is incredibly athletic, and has possibly put me on the floor more times than all the others combined! But I know this; I never yet get on him without a body protector, and a hard hat, and I know now that he needs regular, strenuous, work…like a stroppy teenager, he is better behaved when well exercised. I was avoiding challenging, stretch zone situations, keeping us within our narrow comfort zone, which meant that our comfort zone never expanded and we never got into our learning zone.

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I asked myself “what is the worst thing that could happen”? Answer in my head turned out to be that he could ditch me in front of a load of strangers… well guess what? He’s done that loads!! We got the shiniest poshest rosette of my equestrian life for the most spectacular dismount, at riding club camp last year. That worst case scenario has already happened, so nothing left to be afraid of there….

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So what else am I afraid of? What else might happen?

You never know- it could go really well…Like our jumping lesson tonight. Yes there were shenanigans. Yes we made mistakes. Yes he tested me. But the outcome??? I stayed in the plate (hurrah) and he came on in leaps and bounds, literally. I learned that I have to turn on a forwards feeling,  without pulling the inside rein, (finally that lesson went in).

We just have to turn up, daily, and do the thing. We just have to believe that learning occurs in the stretch zone, for human and horse, and that although it may not always be pretty, it’s only by doing too much that we learn what is enough. We have to believe in ourselves, to be willing to expand our skill set but also to forgive ourselves and learn from our mistakes. We have to be non judgemental about our mistakes, observe them with wry amusement and do differently next time.

Differently, not better. Better is a judgement. And above all, we have to keep showing up, living in the here and now.

“Over the course of our lives, situations will arise that can sometimes seem insurmountable. When I’m faced with obstacles and life seems really difficult, my unconditional love for myself gives me the strength to continue. I greet the ups and downs of life’s journey with unconditional love for myself and the people in my life by understanding that I am only truly alive in the present moment; the future is a projection that does not yet exist. As long as there is life, everything is possible. Practice with awareness, remember to love yourself and others unconditionally when the road gets tough. Only through love can you overcome obstacles with peace.”

– Miguel Ruiz Jr.

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“Perhaps our dreams are there to be broken, and our plans are there to crumble, and our tomorrows are there to dissolve into todays, and perhaps all of this is all a giant invitation to wake up from the dream of separation, to awaken from the mirage of control, and embrace whole-heartedly what is present. Perhaps it is all a call to compassion, to a deep embrace of this universe in all its bliss and pain and bitter-sweet glory. Perhaps we were never really in control of our lives, and perhaps we are constantly invited to remember this, since we constantly forget it. Perhaps suffering is not the enemy at all, and at its core, there is a first-hand, real-time lesson we must all learn, if we are to be truly human, and truly divine. Perhaps breakdown always contains breakthrough. Perhaps suffering is simply a right of passage, not a test or a punishment, nor a signpost to something in the future or past, but a direct pointer to the mystery of existence itself, here and now. Perhaps life cannot go ‘wrong’ at all.”

Jeff Foster

Thank you as always for reading. I truly appreciate each and every one of you. To those influencers who comment, share the site with friends or help to promote in any other way, I remain eternally grateful. To those supporters generous and able to offer funds, whether small or large, karma is finding its way back to you with a rainbow of horses and abundance beyond dreams. Thank you all for joining in the adventure. 

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In the Spaces in Between

You will have heard this before- the magic is in the transition. Or to put it simply- the magic can only occur in the spaces in between….things……

This is especially true in music; a melody is only truly heard because there is silence between the notes. My main instrument has always been the Baroque recorder. Towards the end of school, when I was practising for recitals, I did 2-3 hours practise a day. Being an enterprising teenager, I used to do a couple of those hours at the bottom of the staircase in Covent Garden tube station; the acoustics were fantastically suited to my beautiful Mollenhauer boxwood treble and the Opera House crowd were educated, appreciative, and generous. I used to make £60 an hour, for work I would need to do anyway; easy money compared to a pub shift dodging bikers in the wine bar in East Finchley.

I still love the formality of Baroque tradition- there is no slurring in Baroque wind music, only a soft or a hard tongue, TKTKTK for the solos, slurring of notes came later in history, popularised in the romanticism of the Renaissance construct and only when the greater clarity was made technically possible by the advent of the modern flute.

The true magic of the melancholy Baroque lament is heard in the spaces between the notes.

This is a universal principle- if we want amazing things to happen, we have to allow room in our lives for the new thing to occur. Or we need to take action to open up a space where there previously there was none.

Making space for the change to occur is the key to giving ourselves permission on the deepest level for that thing to be possible. Or in PD psychobabble speak; we are taking positive action to remove those subconscious blocks.

Examples of this are clearing out the garage for the arrival of new car, jettisoning clothes that belong to an old version of you, de-cluttering unnecessary possessions ready for a move, or making space in your bedroom for the partner you might be seeking.

Insanity is repeating the same action over and over again and expecting a different outcome.

Those of you who know me personally will know that this has been a year of radical change for team McNelipot!

I’m still feeling my way towards a new future- some goals have changed, others are now completely irrelevant within the new paradigm.

And countless others are still to be categorised…or realised…..

To find a new path we must first open ourselves up to new possibilities.

I’m getting better at that! Although I still find myself making some decisions from a place of fear.

So I have been reading about the art of making conscious decisions.

Choice is part of the magical process that converts our thoughts into reality, and our energies into occurrences. Every single choice we make can either be made from a place of fear or from a place of  power- and thus every choice will either lead to expansion or constriction, to freedom or captivity, to creation or destruction.

We are offered 35000 choices  a day, apparently. Unless we practise the art of conscious decision making, our learned patterns of response and our self limiting beliefs will keep us making the choices that limit us to our safe, familiar, comfortable lives, all while we complain that it is circumstance which conspires to keep us trapped in our humdrum routine.

Many of the choices I have made in my life, some for an easy life, some for academic efficiency and many as the pathological people pleaser, have actually led to constriction not expansion. In seeking to preserve comfort in my existence, or to stick to the safe, better known path, I have inadvertently been saying no to wider opportunities.

Some of my drivers are emotional safety, keeping control of my destiny, fear of losing my self sufficiency, fear of loss, fear of change.

My positive drivers are a love of learning, a love of new experiences, a need to learn new skills. Some contradictions there!

Now I am obviously a pretty high achiever, in my career, in my chosen sports, in my hobbies, so in many measurable terms, this manner of making choices has not limited my more tangible achievements, such as income, career, holidays, routes ticked, adventures. But is has limited many of the ancillary experiences I might have had along the way. I have missed side turnings and detours that might have led to magic.

It’s not so much what we choose that becomes important, but exactly how we made that choice, that will determine the energetic outcome.

What are the motivations that made us choose the thing we did?

A simple spotlight question- Did that decision come from a place of power or a place of fear? 

A useful test question- rather than goal setting, have you tried fear setting? What is actually the worst thing that could happen?

Am I choosing consciously or I am blindly repeating an old and familiar pattern?

What would it take to make a different type of choice?

How could I make this decision from a place of power not a place of fear?

Our beliefs about ourselves and our own capabilities, as well as our construct of the world, will determine our possibilities, and our limits.

Our beliefs shape our choices, our choices affect our actions, and our actions determine our outcomes. This is true at every level and in every aspect of life.

Those of you who know me and Cal will know that the grey horse has occupied a huge place in my heart ever since he arrived, the pink roan pony from Ireland that broke his knee after a few months and yet still came good. The emotional investment in a much loved horse is huge, especially one that regularly finds new and imaginative ailments on which to expend your time, energy and money.

Rocky, although much loved asa personality, has always been second string both in his training and energy invested. This was entirely appropriate when he was a youngster out in the field, or just starting in light work. But he will be rising 8 in spring, and now he really does need to learn his job, and grow into those very posh genes.

I’m beginning to realise I am probably a serial monogamist where horses are concerned. Polo grooming a string of 7 didn’t count because none of them were actually mine.

So when the opportunity came recently for Cal to go on loan for the winter, to a trusted friend, although I dreaded the thought of being without him, although my first reaction was “you must be crazy”, deep down, I absolutely knew it made sense. Allowing him to go away for a bit has instantly made mental head space and physical time for Rocky. This has meant that on the cold dark days when work has been tough, there is no juggling act, just a clear, clean choice….what do I do with Rocky today?

Only in Cal’s absence will Rocky get my full attention and the emotional investment that the not so young youngster needs at this stage to turn him into an upstanding citizen and fantastic riding horse.

Rocky’s real name is Royal Magic….let’s see what magic shows up.

And watch out world- opening doors with conscious positive intent becomes a habit….

 

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Learning Our Horses’ Alphabet

Learning our alphabet is the first step of learning any language. And dressage is no different. Except that learning our alphabet isn’t quite the right phrase, really we need to be learning our horses’ alphabet.

Elizabeth Ball

As horses are movement itself, and the best way to access a horse’s brain is through his body, learning our horses’ alphabet actually means learning the alphabet of our horses’ movement.

First, the gaits. The step pattern, the footfalls, the sequence of pure gaits. How will we know if we have a pure walk or a good quality canter if we don’t know what the pure gaits consist of?

Humans are born with the ability to make every common sound heard in every language, from the Welsh ttthhh to the Xhosi nk. Babies learn, by imitation, to repeat the sounds they hear the most around them; they perfect those, the voicebox adapts and they may lose the ability to create other language sounds.

I learned to speak French in the Ecrins mountains when I was 10. I have a regional accent that most native French can pinpoint to that area, and I always get a very warm welcome when I go back to that region.

Glacier des Violettes- the best mountain HVS in the world runs up to the left of the glacier- Ailefroide

But there is one telling detail that a true linguist would spot, one omission- my rrrrrr is weak. I can just about roll my rrrr, but not quite like a native.

Coming down from the Violettes

In the same way, horses are born with every variation of every gait at their disposal. Some will come easier than others, some are bred selectively, such as the tolt or the pacing gait, but all foals can do all gaits at the beginning. They learn first by copying their mothers, and their peer group, which gaits are the easiest for day to day life. And then in training, we reward them for the four pure dressage gaits, and every variation thereof. But we can only do that if we know how the four pure gaits are meant to look , feel and sound.

A young Milton with Caroline Powell- brought on slowly and correctly to become the world’s most successful show jumper

The reason these specifically defined pure gaits have been selected as the most desirable over the centuries is because time has shown that these gaits are the most efficient for the horse to carry a rider in a healthy biomechanical posture.

And we have to understand that aberrations of these gaits are not healthy, and should not be ignored, let alone rewarded. How many lateral walks do we see in FEI dressage tests, not only ignored but scored highly, against the directives?

Then we need to remember that horses are born crooked. Just as humans are born right handed or left handed, the symmetrical, perfectly balanced horse has not yet been born.

Training is therefore first rehabilitation, followed by therapy, and finally it can become gymnastic.

To complete the training of the dressage horse we need to be able to speak to his body in sentences, in combinations of aids that combine targeted exercises and accurate patterns to enable the horse to develop strength and suppleness.

CDK talks about the daily vocabulary of training; like a virtuoso musician practising their scales every day, a trainer must help the horse to run through his full physical repertoire every session- all bends, all gaits, every length of neck, every length of stride, all directions of travel.

Paul Belasik

Run through, not drill.

Simple repetition does not bring about improvement- targeted focus does. When doing scales we did them fast, slow, staccato, slurred, syncopated da deee and deee da, forwards and backwards. Every variation, to avoid strain and boredom.

The quality of each movement will vary according to the horse’s level of training, but a fragment of each exercise will be possible in every horse from the very beginning.

This can be achieved from the ground, in hand, or from the saddle.

The brilliance in the virtuoso comes from a solid foundation, from the long hours spent perfecting the details of the basics.

Perfect practise makes perfect.

So know your horse’s alphabet, and help him to write three dimensional poetry in motion.

Make the Mental Transition to “I can”

We must make sure that we do not inadvertently teach ourselves to fail regularly in our training. It is important that we learn to make the mental transition to” I can”.

I heard a story this weekend about a very high achieving golfer. Every time he takes a lesson to improve one aspect of his game he goes out, applies the lesson and plays much better. Instead of being pleased that he has played better, he then looks for the gaps in his recent good game, focusses on those, practises those aspects which he has not improved and then goes out and so has a horrible time again. Essentially he has trained himself to fail, repetitively.

Golf and dressage have much in common.

Golf swing fundamentals

We must train ourselves to bank the good stuff first, especially in riding where there are two sentient beings involved in the encounter. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t learn from our mistakes; reflection, adjustment and testing is a key part of experiential learning of a practical skill.  But we must learn just as much if not more from our successes.

 

I have started videoing myself riding more regularly. A friend once made the comment that high definition video is the most brutal feedback anyone needs. I don’t have hi-def capability but a mobile phone propped up on the arena fence is effective enough.

The first time I watch the video I am always appalled. I look like cooked spaghetti, what are my legs doing there, what on earth makes me think I can ride….

Then I look at it again and watch the horse…and generally there are some nice moments. And I have to remind myself that if the horse is improving then I can’t be that bad…

If the horse wasn’t improving, I would possibly have appalled myself so much that I would have given up.  I am my own worst critic.

Do as I say, not as I do!!

But luckily for me the grey horse loves the nitty gritty of training, and loves the way good work makes his body feel. Which means he loves me.

If we want to improve a movement  or an exercise then we have to pick one aspect to work on. We can’t just “try it again” and hope something will improve globally by accident. Practise doesn’t make perfect, perfect practise makes perfect. So you have to be consciously competent enough to choose one aspect that you can change to improve the overall performance of the task. A bit like teaching surgery….

Which means we have to choose other aspects to leave alone, or even better, aspects to keep because they are already good.

So for example; I’m doing trot halt, rein back, trot, transitions in step sequences of four. Four because even numbers make it predictable for the horse so the transitions should occur with less resistance. (That bit is magic, don’t question it, it just is, even number of steps for predictability, odd number of steps when you want change).

I ask myself what I can do….generally I can count to four, the transitions occur when asked, the rein back is diagonal, the line of travel is straight, the trot out has lovely oomph.

What do I want to improve? Lets just say one thing- the softness of the topline, for now.

Do I throw all the good qualities away just to focus on the topline? Do I say topline first and foremost, at whatever cost, no matter how many steps, no matter if it’s straight, …

Or do I try and add another quality to the good stuff I have already?

I have written before about how essential  positive feedback is to the horse if you want to keep him on side. The horse is never allowed to think he made a mistake.

Every Opportunity to Praise

Imagine how dispiriting it would be for a horse if, every time he does a movement or an exercise, to the best of his ability, exactly as you have aided it (because again that is the truth) and you say “No, no, that was terrible, it was all wrong, we have to do it again, we are just so rubbish!”

He wouldn’t keep trying for very long would he?

Imagine if, instead of saying “we just can’t do that”,

you made the transition to thinking I can,

if we thought “We can do that even better! We can do that more like an advanced horse. What’s the most we can do?’….in the example, “What is the best most elevated and elongated topline we can do that rein back in? How would Granat feel doing that reinback?”

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What is the maximum we can ask for?

Not demand…that’s different. If we ask for the absolute maximum possible that we can imagine, the horse will give is the maximum he is capable of, in that moment, and he might just surprise himself and you!

Our limited expectations can limit our horse’s potential. I know I am often guilty of trying to make every step the best step, when sometime it just needs to be the next step. Sometime we just need to make progress, in the work and across the arena.

Dinner needs to get cooked!

Never mind if the balance goes awry, what is the biggest length of stride the horse can offer?

What is the longest neck he can keep that balance on without going splat?  He has to go splat at least once for you to find out the answer to that question. If he doesn’t go splat how do you know you have asked enough? Obviously you ask for a touch less next time.

And then the next time you pick another aspect.

So in my example; yesterday I worked on quality of topline. And the response to the aids also improved. Today I worked on responsiveness to the aids (and topline came for free with a few repetitions). Tomorrow I will need to find a different sequence or a different usage of that lesson (pretend piaffe/passage transitions with rein back legs maybe, or what does reinback leg do to the canter walk transition) otherwise I am drilling my horse, and sucking all of the joy out of his psyche.

So to get the best out of out horses, we need to learn to make the transition to “I can”.

To I can do the most magnificent trot, halt, rein back, trot that I can imagine, with this fabulous horse I am lucky enough to be riding in this moment. The horse doesn’t know this is a difficult exercise, he just hears your thoughts, well before your aids.

So make those thoughts worth listening to. Make him feel magnificent.

The magic is in the transition- when every possibility is available, everything is possible.

And teach yourself and your horse to succeed,  a little more every day.

 

Don’t feed the Trolls

Don’t feed the trolls. Or to paraphrase; don’t waste your energy worrying about what the bad guys are doing, because, as we all know, energy follows thought. I have been on a fairly steep learning curve this year in various ways, and one of my newly acquired and necessary skills is not to feed the dark side in any way, with energy or attention.

Dont feed the trolls. Every time we post a completely negative image of a horse ridden incorrectly, whether it is to stir up outrage or simply to dissect the ‘finer’ points of training, we are creating three inadvertent effects.

One is that we are exposing this image of incorrect training to a whole plethora of people who may not have seen it otherwise. If there are 500 people on my friends list, that is 500 people that have been exposed to a incorrect photo unnecessarily. Wouldn’t I rather ensure that those 500 people are exposed to the best most beautiful example I can find?

No photo is perfect, of course not. And not every photo of every old style SRS rider or every ODG is perfect.

But how much better to discuss nuance that would lead towards perfection rather than just complaining again and again about the head cranked in and the flinging legs.

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Don’t feed the trolls. All we  see in Horse and Hound and the other trade rags are horses held behind the vertical with cranked nosebands and flinging forefeet. If the general horse people don’t read other material and don’t go back to the old books where we can find the good photos, and the correct pictures, they may well never have seen a single image of a horse moving correctly.

And what is more, they don’t even understand that lack in their education.

When gold medals are won, it is a natural assumption to think that any image of that gold medal wining horse must portray the most correctly moving horse in the world moving correctly. How do we explain to those who don’t understand the fundamentals and have never seen correct that actually it is the most successful horse in the world, not the most correct; that they are simply the most successful horse/rider combination from a selection of horses and riders chasing a false paradigm.

Operating within a false paradigm

How do we explain to those who don’t know any different that this riding that is so highly rewarded in this current era actually causes horses to break down long before their time?

It is up to those who do know better to share the best possible images, and to keep explaining in a clear, concise and kind way why these better images are correct and beautiful and harmonious. It is up to those who do know better to keep teaching, with positive emphasis. People learn much better when they feel, relaxed, encouraged and safe. So rather than making them feel stupid, we have to teach, not preach. If people ask me why I ride the way I do, then I do my best to share what I have learned; as I do for the barefoot husbandry.

It is my duty and pleasure to help others on their journey.

The second problem with showing incorrect images is that our subconscious just absorbs those images. Our primitive brain doesn’t discriminate between good and bad images,  it just retains whatever visual information it is exposed to.

  • We retain 80% of what we see, 20% of what we read, and 10% of what we hear
  • Visuals are processed 60,000X faster than text

This means the picture of the incorrect horse has gone in and been filed before we even get a chance to analyse it. As we stare at it, picking it apart, the details of that image are going in even farther. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use pictures as a visual aid to learning,  but that we need to be scrupulous about how we use them. We need to ensure that we are exposed to many more good images than bad; so that it is the good images which are normalised and internalised.

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We need to get over ourselves and accept that our analytical brain is simply not as quick as the lizard brain. We need to train our eyes so that the good images still have the ability to make us feel happy and incorrect images of uncomfortable stressed horses make us feel uncomfortable.

Think of  Tarantino’s film “Kill Bill”. At the beginning the gore and violence is shocking. By the battle scene at the end, a bleak homage to the darkest of Samurai cinema, the violence is choreographed like a cartoon and we are strangely immune to the horror.

Tarantino is a master of manipulation of the human psyche.

So ideally we need to see at least 3 good images to every single poor image. The good images don’t need to be perfect, but they need to be near enough to good balance that we can see the next step might be better.

The third part of the problem is more subtle and a bit woo woo energy.

Energy follows thought.

We all know this. It’s why your mother always say “Oh I was just thinking about you” when you phone her, it’s how the dog knows you are coming home, long before he can possibly hear the car, it’s how the horse always makes sure he is at the far end of the field if you are in a foul mood from work, before you have even parked the car.

By sharing, discussing, dissecting a picture, be it with love or outrage, we are directing energy towards the subject of the photo. In the energetic universe, we are feeding them, powering them up. How much better it would be for all of us if we could direct our energy to power up the good teachers, the shining examples, the worthy mentors. And starve the others of attention and therefore energy.

That simple change would create the most amazing positive feedback loop.

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I am doing other, to the best of my ability, and shining as bright as I can in my little corner. And I just hope the light from my horses’ eyes is warm enough that people feel the difference and are drawn towards it. Then we can show them how to do better.

Seeking lightness in riding

And that shift in my mindset had provided a much better head space for me and the horses to work in. Riding is the ultimate martial art. And all martial arts are about discipline of the mind first.

If I tell you not to think about pink elephants, what have you just done? It is impossible to not do something without thinking about doing it. Rather than not doing what the bad guys do, do more of the good stuff.

Just do better.

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