Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Let's Play in 2017

2016 turned out to be one of my worst horse years with the loss of Jack and Dexter, and then Navar's injury. I still mourn the loss of Dexter nearly every day but sweet Navar is fully recovered from his catastrophic injury and doing his best to fill the hole in my heart.

It is important to remember the good with the bad and there was plenty of good. Uli fell in love with Fonz and is having the time of her "horse" life with him. Leopold has been a tremendous source of joy and Navar and I did our first ever Obstacle challenge out at Wareabouts Stables. I had planned to take him up and "send" him over the obstacles but decided to ride him instead. With less than 20 rides under our belts and only the second time for him to wear a bit, I was tremendously proud of him.

Uli, Jaclyn, Lena and I went up to the Horse Conference in Sherwood Park last weekend. As expected, there were some tremendous speakers and for the first time, a liberty demo by Jim Anderson, his wife and 4 of their horses.

I always come away from the conference with better ideas and more inspiration to do better for my horses and this year was no exception. Karen Rohlf has been a huge influence for me over the past year. I don't even recall how I came upon her web-site, Dressage Naturally. I was likely doing some research on behalf of Leopold and how I can help him become a useful dressage partner. Karen is an accomplished dressage trainer, instructor and competitor and she discovered natural horsemanship a few years ago. Her virtual arena and video library are invaluable tools that help marry natural horsemanship with dressage.  Her method and philosophy is exactly the type of influence Leopold and I were looking for and I can't help but think of the saying, "when the student is ready, the teacher will come".

Being a huge fan, I was delighted to meet Karen in person, attend her session, and have her sign my Dressage Naturally book. Her presentation was exceedingly funny, engaging and informative and I couldn't wait to get home and "play" with my horses.

One of my last rides with Navar last fall didn't go well at all. He got absolutely stuck out in a large field and refused to take one step forward. The good news is that he didn't even care that all his buddies rode away. It was nearly an hour of ground work and he would do everything except take one step forward in the direction I wanted to go. When my riding buddies came back, I jumped on and had a lovely ride home. Navar is typically an easy going horse that is a little on the timid side - he had me stumped and I felt an erosion in our relationship after that day.

After listening to Karen's presentation last week there were two takeaways that inspired me. Her story about spending years trying to replace her horse Brave Tom (reminding me not to try and replace Dexter), and a reminder about how important it is to "play" with our horses. Luckily, we came home to a beautiful break in the bitter cold temperatures, so Navar and I started to play and every day I saw him become his wonderful, playful, friendly self again. The transformation in our relationship has lifted my spirits and I can't wait to transfer this new "playful" feeling to the saddle.

Wishing you playful joy with your horses in 2017
Tovie, Navar and Sir Leopold

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