Oak Haven Stables

03/16/2024

So many words of wisdom!

Regarding the idea that good training will hold on a horse regardless of who buys it, 'When someone tells me they want a push button horse, I say you might as well buy yourself some fairy dust. You'll bring that horse down to your level in no time'.
~ Buck Brannaman

10/17/2023

This is excellent read that makes us all think about saddle fitting and how to improve our horses performance

October 2023. FIT RIGHT SADDLE SOLUTIONS, a business from Crossville

09/29/2023

Words of wisdom!!

DEFINING THE LIMITS OF OUR RELATIONSHIP

Anytime we feel a brace or resistance in our horse we are learning the limit of our relationship. A big part of training is to eliminate any and all ‘no-go’ areas of working together. A lack of softness to an idea is a horse telling you the limits of your relationship have been reached. It doesn’t matter if it is when you try to catch your horse in a stall or to take your horse snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. All resistances and all responses that begin with ‘no’ define the nature and limits of your relationship with your horse.

So when a world champion wins every event it enters because of a horse’s performance but there are spur marks on its flank. You know something about the limits of their relationship.

The event horse in a generation wins event after event, but it struggles to stand quietly when its rider tries to mount. You know something about the limits of the relationship between rider and horse.

When you own the safest and quietest kids pony that everyone wishes they had for their kids, but it has to be sedated when the farrier visits. You know something about the limits of the relationship with the pony.

All relationships have limits. All relationships are contractual and are defined by the terms of what is okay and what is not okay. It’s true of our relationship with our horses, other people, dogs, cats, the mice in our barn, and bunnies in our paddocks. The better the relationship the fewer limitations there are between us and our horse. That means as our relationship grows we can ask more and expect not only compliance but softness and okay-ness. Their idea and our idea are in sync.

The problem is not that there are limitations to our relationship. There will always be limitations. The problem is that either we don’t recognize those limitations or we don’t do something to eliminate them.

In many cases, the lack of awareness and/or the lack of action to do something about those limitations have the same root cause. It stems from our focus on what a horse is doing instead of how it feels about what it is doing.

An overly simple example is when we put a feel in the reins and our horse stops. Great! But because we focus on the stop, we either don’t think about how much rein pressure was required or we dismiss how hard we had to pull on the reins as being less important. After all, we wanted a stop and we got a stop (time to celebrate with champagne). We either don’t recognize the resistance to the reins or we put it down the list of priorities to work on because our primary focus was on stopping the feet.

You can equally extrapolate this example to the dressage rider who wins a medal but leaves spur marks on their horse or the pony that needs to be sedated for the farrier to trim.

Nothing means nothing when it comes to how a horse responds. Every response tells you something about a horse’s focus or the degree of clarity of understanding or both. Good horsemanship is the practice of constantly improving and expanding our horse’s focus, clarity, and softness and eliminating any ‘no-go’ areas of our relationship wherever we find them.

Now if you’ll excuse me I am taking my horse snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef.

08/29/2023

I believe this to be true. So many people I meet have no idea how to take care of a horse.

Please read:
I’ve been noticing a trend the last several years. We’ve let the next generation get soft. Kids want to ride, but they don’t want to LEARN HOW TO ride. They don’t like the heat, but they won’t get up early. They want a horse, but turn up their nose at the idea of cleaning stalls, as if it is beneath them. They want to make some money, but aren’t willing to work. They think horseback riding is something you do when the weather is perfect, and for the other 9 months of the year someone else can care for that animal’s needs. We have a problem folks, and I for one find it terrifying.
Let’s teach these kids to have a passion, and to commit to it, that in order to do something we love, it might at times require hard work, sweat and sacrifice.

01/02/2023

https://youtu.be/DPFg4np0wHw
WOW! Teresa has come a long way with Charlie. Check out this video of Charlie/Teresa climbing tire with confidence, nice🤠

08/30/2022

Oak Haven Stable is looking forward to hosting a Trail Obstacle Clinic with Kelli Paulson. Kelli hosts the Virtual Trail Obstacle Challenge and is coauthor of Working Equitation Handbook-Ease of Handling How to Guide. I first came across this last February and have been participating every month since. I have found this to be a great way to further relationship with your horse. That said I would like to understand if there are others in the area that would like to participate in this clinic. If I can get a list of 10-12 people I will look forward to booking a date. Please let me know if you have interest in learning more about Working Equitation-Ease of Handling. I am attaching a flyer for review, information inputs are TBD. Please let me know if you have interest or if I can answer any question.

07/17/2022

When using rope halters this is important consideration.

06/20/2022

I was told years ago that if a horse had to much energy/was difficult under saddle to look at what you are feeding. As noted in this reading riding a horse couple days a week is not heavy or even medium work.

Too Much Feed and Not Enough WorkIn my grandfather’s day, horses had to earn their keep. A horse eating his head off out in the paddock wasn’t much use to anyone. Not many people could afford to keep a horse as a pet or just to ride on Sunday. Grandfather managed ‘Abbotsford’ at Picton, abou...