Friday, July 24, 2015

A week of Hell or a week of Happiness?

This past week has definitely had its fair share of ups and downs. Typically I post highlights and the best moments from my week…. Because that is where I choose to put my focus, but there is more behind the scenes.

I’m going to share with you some of my ‘hells’ from this past week, but also some of the ‘happiness’. You decide what you would be feeling at the end of the week... and trust me there is a point to this!

This seemed to be the week that everything decided to break – the tractor tire had something wonky happen and needed a repair man to come up and fix it, our transmission blew in our TDI Jetta (ouch!) so that was another $3500, our pressure tank for our well decided to blow so that was $1500 to the plumber plus fixing up the wet damage in the basement caused by the pipes (at least it was just water- sewage back up would be worse!); My just purchased used Dodge Ram that had been etested/certified the day before had some electrical problem where all the lights wouldn’t work so there goes another $1100.

My deposit from my new trailer ($4000) still hasn’t been returned and I keep getting the run around that it’s in the mail. I had bought a brand new trailer that was supposed to arrive in May, but when the 3rd week of June came around and they told me they still had no idea of when it would arrive they offered to cancel my order which I accepted. I needed to buy a trailer asap – it is summer and prime horse season. The used trailer I bought is bigger than what I originally was looking for… our Silverado shouldn’t really tow it, so I needed a bigger truck. That led me to buy a big 3500 Dodge this past week. Having a bigger truck & trailer now means I need a CVOR to trailer so I had to do that paperwork and pay bigger bucks to register my truck – so not getting my original trailer has had a huge ripple effect. Oh ya, and I’m not used to driving such a big truck & trailer so I’ve already driven it into our driveway gate and dented the step rail – whoops.

Then the excavation site for our indoor arena is a complete mess – the original company basically dug a hole for the arena to sit in and it’s not even close to level with low spots about 1.5 feet off level. They won’t fix it, so we've hired another company for over $30,000 to fix the mess of the first people and I have to take them to court (papers already filed) to try and get money back from the original job.

A bunch of things that were supposed to be done by now – the indoor arena, fencing, and obstacles aren’t done and have been delayed due to weather or other people’s work schedule.

One of my best lesson horses, Shawna, is suffering from an unknown condition the vet thinks might be a toxin she is trying to fight off but currently is unknown with no treatment. I’ve ordered her a herbal anti inflammatory from the states she will start soon – she has a history of seasonal allergies we can never control (itchy all over – especially her belly, sometimes a runny eye) and this year she also has little swelling bumps that look like golf balls on her legs (around her joints).

My horses I bought for Kentucky are absolutely lovely, but they have ridiculously awful feet, so I needed to buy Cavallo boots (another $150 each), and they have horrible teeth… Cupid with the worst the vet has ever seen, and Kahleesi just had her teeth done last week and has 2 cracked teeth – more great news, right?

My new Genesis saddle that I just bought at the Royal Winter Fair last November already needs reflocking (saddle fitter was up Tuesday) so I have sent that away to be redone.

Plus our footing in our sand ring is now 4 years old and really needed replacing so I had that done last night/tonight while working around summer camp and a show tomorrow.

Oh and when the people came to scrape the manure/dirt from the paddock there was miscommunication so they scraped our muck pile and didn’t take much from the paddock… which was already delayed a few weeks because of rain.

Not to mention all of these things I am figuring out on very little sleep because I go to work every morning and leave by 6:40am, get home from work and then I coach/run summer camp, and get into bed by 11pm if I’m lucky and get woken around 5am by the puppies that need to be let out in the morning… so that’s about 6 hours sleep if I’m lucky.

Even if I think I am ahead of the game and getting to bed early, there is usually a problem like last night when someone decided to clog the toilet with a big poop (I understand poop happens), so I spent nearly an hour trying to plunge and scoop poopy water and I failed… I will have to try a better plunger tonight or will be calling a plumber for that too…. So I literally have poop water waiting for me to deal with when I get home – along with loads of sand for the riding ring to be redone tonight, and a show to set up for tomorrow.  

So what do you think when you read all that?  - that’s not even everything ‘negative’ that’s happened in the last week or so… there is always negative gossip, personal things, physical things, etc.

But here’s my point.

I make a decision every day to be happy.

I am in charge of my own happiness.

I don’t let other people take that from me. I don’t let things breaking or massive bills rob me of my happiness. I don’t let anyone or anything have control over my happiness. 

It is mine, I own it, I choose to be happy, I choose to see the upside, and I choose to see solutions.

If you come around the farm long enough, you’ll learn quickly that I don’t like to hear things like “that can’t be done,” “no we can’t”, “that’s impossible,” or “we can’t fix that,” or other negative phrases… I ask for solutions.

My two most powerful keys to happiness are:

  1.         Choose to see the good in every situation – the bad stuff just isn’t worth your energy
  2.         If something has gone to heck, focus on the things that can be done to make it better


With all the above ‘hell’ that has happened, here is what I choose to see:


I have a wicked awesome trailer that is so spacious with everything we need and want – James & I have actually slept a few nights in it and we are so excited to take it to New York next weekend with the dogs and horses. Even though I drove it into a gate, at least the gate is okay and it’s just a small dent on the step rail, barely noticeable. I also now have a truck I love – man is it comfy! It even has better fuel economy than my Ford Escape. It’s fantastic because James loves his truck and didn’t really like me driving it, so now we each have our own truck and our own commuter vehicle.

Things break on cars, it happens. Now that the Jetta has a new transmission it should be good to run for a very long time because we already did the timing belt too. Same for the tractor, stuff breaks, and I’m so happy to have the Kubota because it is so easy to drive – plus we still have our Massey as back up if we need it, so really no harm done.

For the water pump – I never liked the carpet in the basement anyway, so now I have an even better reason to rip it up this winter to replace it, and now we have an awesome and way bigger pump installed with a better ‘reserve’ so we’ll be saving in hydro. Heck it was 30 years old so we definitely got our value out of the first one.

The indoor arena situation isn’t ideal, but it’s still on plan to be done before winter – I’ve survived 4 years with no indoor ring, so what’s another few months? Now the people we’ve hired to do the arena site are the same ones who did Sweetwater Stables nearby – an indoor ring that I’ve ridden in and know they did an awesome job - so I’m feeling pretty excited about this decision.

The fencing and obstacles are slowly getting done…. I can’t control that, so I just make sure the workers have what they need to get the job done. The obstacle show is August 29th so we still have time to get the ‘wow’ factor accomplished. On the plus side we do have a lot done - a splash box, a couple new jumps, some nicely redone poles & standards, and a few other new obstacles. I just tell myself ‘patience Lindsey, patience.’  

The paddock scraping is set for Tuesday, so that will be done soon - and James and Justin did a great job scraping in the meantime to make it better for the horses. The arena footing was due for a change and I am excited to have nice new footing for the show on Saturday.

I’ve done what I can for Shawna at this point – she is still happy to come out and play. I can just hope the new herbal anti inflammatory helps. She is her usual self, so that is good.

Cupid and Kahleesi might need a lot of dental work and new hoof boots – but they are becoming two of our best lesson horses and are doing so amazing. They are so honest, kind, and quiet. They are wonderful editions to the PHH crew. Plus the hoof boots should last a long time and in the future another horse may need them so it’s good to have extra sizes of boots on hand.

For the saddle fitting, the reflocking is only costing $100 and that’s a small price to pay for my horse’s comfort. I’m excited to have it back and ride with confidence knowing my horse is happy – plus on the bright side, two of my other horses only needed a gullet change and some shims to make their saddles right and everyone else was fitting well – so that was great news.

Clogged toilet with poopy water… well there isn’t much of an upside to that one, but at least I had just brought in an outhouse a few days earlier so we still have multiple options for where to poop.

Little sleep – sure it’s hard, but puppies are adorable and I’m energized from sharing my passion for horses with students. I wish when I was learning to ride that natural horsemanship/centered riding was more readily available, so I am so thrilled to be giving so many students this experience.

It is truly rewarding to see the progression of students, and these are the faces that bring me happiness – people like...
  • Laurie who was so terrified of her horse when she came to our farm and now she is competing in barrel racing and obstacle events this year, 
  • Yvonne & Kim who have only been with us a year and are already mastering canter & obstacle challenges, 
  • Jill who just bought her first horse and has been riding less than a year, but is successfully retraining her off the track TB, Maya who has been teaching her horse natural collection without using a bit, 
  • Pat & John who took up riding as a retired couple that were scared to be on horses at first and now can canter around the ring enjoying it, 
  • Franny who has turned her pushy Fjord pony into a summer camp super star, 
  • Morgan who has taught her horse how to jump, Wendy who switched lesson farms and went from cross rails to 2’3 jumpers getting champion at most shows in less than a year, 
  • Sue who has a very spooky horse and mastered tarps and other obstacles, 
  • Raine who is filming her Parelli level 3 this summer, 
  • Christina who took a horse that would get into the ring and have a catatonic meltdown and used natural horsemanship to build her confidence to create a 2ft jumper super star in only a few months, 
  • Danica who recently bought her first horse and turned her from crazy to crazy awesome, 
  • Cailey who knocks our socks off with her jumping skills and mastered flying changes recently, 
  • Kayla who bought her first horse and impresses me every day with her love and devotion, 
  • Caileigh who has become such a valued PHH coach and went from Hunter Queen to Hunter Queen with a natural horsemanship twist, 
  • Nikita & Natalia who bought their first horse and are taking the time to do things right and are creating such a loving horse, Sabrina who turned a rearing horse into a dream ride, 
  • Annalise who has turned a sassy chestnut mare into a willing partner she can ride with no bridle, 
  • Emma & Ashleigh who are mastering their canter skills, 
  • Charleigh who is doing a fantastic job teaching Cupid to jump, 
  • Heather who brought her unstarted gelding only a couple months ago and is now riding him on trails & obstacles, 
  • Elana who challenges herself every lesson and is mastering ground games & progressing in the saddle, 
  • Robyn who is learning to canter, 
  • Anastasia who has become the best camp director and mastered riding Thetis!
  • Carolyn who has become so integral PHH and has found ways to keep us organized, 
  • and to all the other students & campers (I’m sorry I didn’t name everyone!) that are making such amazing progress!


Last but definitely not least, I have an amazing family & husband that support me everyday and work hard to make PHH a thriving reality. Thank you for being such amazing people – you help me find happiness every single day. I am super proud of all of you and very thankful for you.

We are all in charge of our own happiness - and we can all help someone else find happiness.

A positive attitude goes a long way, and a few kind words go even further.

Spread a little happy.


Have a happy weekend, and thank you for being awesome & reading my blog post, you rock! J

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Puppies, Extreme Cowboy & Pond Splashing













On Friday the first of the puppies went to their new homes. I am happy they are going to loving homes, but they are really adorable and I will miss them. There are a few in particular that I have become very attached to. Timer was one of my favourites who is just a cuddle bug, and he left Friday – a few tears crept from my eyes as I passed him over to his new parents.

My other favourite – Gem, leaves on Saturday this weekend so I’m hoping I’ll keep it together for her. Gem comes bounding to see me and wants to shower me with kisses.

On Saturday I headed out bright and early to Mount Albert for the Extreme Cowboy Clinic hosted by Cindy at her farm, Pine Forest Stables. Susan Caldwell was teaching the clinic – ranked 3rd overall in Ontario Extreme Cowboy she knows her stuff! Wow what a rush – if you haven’t tried Extreme Cowboy I recommend it! I practically had ants in my pants the whole clinic and couldn’t wait to try everything.

I love extreme cowboy because I think it’s the ultimate test of horse & rider – without any advantages to specific breeds… it’s pretty much a level playing field… except I discovered my 17H tall horse, Cupid, was at a bit of a disadvantage for quick mounting and to bend over and pick up things. It doesn’t matter if you have a fancy warm blood with a floaty trot, a quarter horse with a peanut roller frame, nor a mustang with a bit too much pudge in the mid section.

It all comes down to how brave are you? 
How trusting are you of each other? 
How accurate are you? 
And how good is your communication together?

During the clinic Susan had some fantastic exercises – we practised turning in the Daisy pattern without letting our horse’s shoulder bend too much (we focused on hind quarter control), we practised bridges, car wash, noodles, jumps, a rope gate, and a whole bunch of obstacles that I have no idea what they are called – but they sure are a lot of fun!

Susan impressed me -she focused on riding with your body, using your outside aids, helping us find relaxation and suppleness in our horses, and telling us that if our horse is being tense at an obstacle to walk away, find relaxation and responsiveness in our horse and then to try again. She also promoted simply dismounting and trying obstacles from the ground if the horse was unsure. These are all things I promote in my own way and mimic many other natural horsemen I admire.

I asked Susan if she uses natural horsemanship, and she said “no I just use horse psychology and what works for the horse.” I replied “that is natural horsemanship” – Susan is a great example of a person who is using natural horsemanship by a different name, but she’s definitely natural!

Tip to share: If your horse won’t stand still, try getting them to work more quickly then they want to. For example canter circles, sideways and things that are hard (i.e. not just walking). Then try offering for your horse to stand still.

This way you are trying to get standing still to become your horse’s idea to stand still because moving is too much work. You help the horse find comfort in standing still. This was something Susan asked me to do with Kahleesi because she was having a hard time standing still – and I definitely agree because this is something we commonly do at home and it works!

Kahleesi and Cupid impressed me with how willing and awesome they were with the obstacles, the only one that we had to work on for a bit was the gate – but in the end Kahleesi was able to do the backing up version (more difficult), and Cupid was being confident with the gate too… next we will need to try a real gate – we do have one at home in our obstacle challenge, and you can expect to see it in the extreme division of our obstacle show on August 29th!

Sunday our students decided not to show at Pickering Horse Centre because of iffy weather. Instead Sabrina and I went for a trail ride – Kahleesi and Zoey’s first time going through the water. They were both awesome and walked through the creek with no issue, and then had a blast splashing and dunking themselves in the pond.

Tip to share: It’s a great thing to take time for trail riding – it helps give your horse some mental stimulation, builds their confidence to so many different things (fallen logs, birds flying, dogs barking, going through narrow spaces, etc), and it helps build their fitness.

On both Saturday and Sunday after my other activities, I helped Sabrina put some miles on her young filly, Valentina. We progressed to having Sabrina ride her first follow the rail trots around the whole arena in both directions - and her first canter transitions while online! She is progressing so nicely in the saddle without any scary behaviour - just calm, accepting, and trustful in the saddle.... and that's saying a lot coming from this playful filly that used to think it was fun to rear and buck on the line only a couple months ago! 

Tip to share: when starting a young horse, first show them you can ride with them - don't worry about steering so much, just get our their way (without being dangerously out of control). Then as you gain their confidence that they can move with you, you can start influencing where they go. Follow the rail is the easiest pattern to start with because the horse use's the rail as a guide, and you only need one rein to make any correction to keep the horse on the rail.  

Now, I have a lot more ideas for the Obstacle show we are hosting Saturday August 29th – don’t miss it! We are building a lot of new obstacles for the show. We also have our first PHH show this Saturday. 

So what are you waiting for? Go try Extreme Cowboy and Trail Riding this summer!




  







Monday, July 13, 2015

My most insane weekend yet!

Wow what an incredible weekend with so much to learn and do. It started Friday evening we hosted a riding workshop with Parelli Professional Maureen & Todd Owens on Rein Positions for Power, Control and Performance. We had a beautiful night of riding and learnt to finesse our skills of the indirect and direct rein positions as well as some other exercises for back up.

One of the biggest learnings of the night for me was the notion ‘it will only get better if it becomes important to you.’ I thought this was a great way of looking at things. For example if your horse walks off at the mounting, or doesn’t stay on the rail while riding, or any other bad habit your horse develops – it won’t get better unless you make it important to fix and are consistent with the correction.

After the clinic ending around 9pm we then gathered up all the 17 dogs (includes 14 puppies) and took everyone to the vet for their vaccinations and deworming – what gong show that was getting all the dogs together, into the car, and into the building. All the puppies were really great for their needle and we are so thankful Cavan Vets keeps such regular late hours!

The next morning we loaded up and I did double trailer trips of horses to the NHA show at High Spirit Farm. Another beautiful day! The obstacles were fun and I was super proud of our team – someone from PHH took first place in every single class! The highlight of the day for me was my liberty round with Kahleesi – she was so amazing and really getting connected to me.

Tip – when training for liberty, think about using both a carrot and a stick approach. After the horse has done well and stayed with you through a task give them a treat. Likewise if they leave or don’t respect your cues then quickly make a correction and get them focused. Horses need to understand that being with you can be awesome, and that ignoring you is disrespectful.

When doing liberty, don’t hold a treat in front of your horse and have them follow the treat – because then the horse isn't really following you, they are following the treat. Instead use treats as rewards for doing what you want – not a bribe.

Overall the show was a fantastic day and I am very proud of everyone. Check out the video https://youtu.be/0dXluuGluxk 


After we got everyone home from the show and unpacked (around 7:30pm) I headed up to Sabrina’s for a lesson. I coached her on Zoey in the western saddle and worked on some centered riding to improve her sitting trot and canter. Then we did a session with her young horse, Valentina, who is just starting under saddle. We did another passenger lesson (where the person up top does nothing). After some passenger riding, Sabrina started to use her body and reins to ask Valentina to go, stop, back up, and turn. They are doing great!!

On Sunday I was up bright and early and loaded up to go to the obstacle course in Uxbridge – but unfortunately Kevin forgot about us so the gate was locked. We made the most of the situation though and went to the Durham Forest in Uxbridge for a trail ride. I learnt that Kahleesi needs more miles leading trails because she can be unsure, but Cupid is a natural and very great at leading. Even though Kahleesi was unsure about leading, she still was responsive and trusting of me and led a large portion of the trail.

After our trail we scooted back to Pontypool, switched over the tack and horses, and then loaded and went to the Sky Haven Jumper show. Wendy & Thetis, Franny & Shania, myself & Quartz and Cailey & Sabio competed in the 2’3/2’6 division. I also did one class with Dreamer just as a warm up for the mini prix and he got 3rd – what a brave western guy taking me to every jump boldly. Wendy rode very speedily and picked up champion. Franny had some great rounds and finished reserve champion. Cailey rode some beautiful turns and placed 2nd, 3rd, 4th. Myself on Quartz progressed amazing and placed 3rd, 4th and 5th. This was Quartz’s first time doing jumpers since the winter – when she was so scared she couldn’t even complete more than 3 jumps in the ring – now she was actually having clear rounds and placing!    

The Mini Prix was a lot of fun and I placed 1st with Thetis, 2nd with Dreamer, 4th with Quartz and 5th with Sabio. Thetis showed me just how much heart she has and whipped around the jump off in a speedy 18 seconds. It really showed me just how much horses will try for you once you win their heart – all of these horses did so well because of natural horsemanship and understanding how horse’s think. We didn’t use ‘force’ to make our horses jump.


Check out the video


We then got home and unloaded everything – wow what a fantastic and busy weekend!! 

Jumper Jackpot - a quick look at this fun day

Last Wednesday I competed in the Jumper Jackpot run by the Hamilton Hunt Club. 27 entries competing through two jumper rounds in an attempt to go double clear to proceed to the jump off.

When I got the show I went to put on my show jacket and realized I had accidentally taken my hubby’s suit jacket instead… well that wasn’t going to work. Luckily jackets were excused so I rode in my show shirt. Not a great start to the day!

The course was challenging – set on grass after a day of rain so it was a little slick. All my horses are barefoot and I have never wanted shoes before, but that grass did make me think we may do better with some corks grabbing into the ground.

I brought both Dreamer and Thetis to the show – originally I was supposed to ride Thetis & Sabio, but Sabio ended up having an abscess and was still a bit ouchy so that wouldn’t be fair to compete him. I tried Dreamer after I knew Sabio was sore – I had already paid for two entries so I wanted to see if another horse could go. In our practice session we were clearing 3ft easily – it turns out Dreamer can be quite the jumper!

When we got to the show and I saw the triple combination, a one stride combination, and a triple bar oxer, I thought Dreamer might be able to survive the course, but it wouldn’t be ideal to have that be his first jumper show. Instead I withdrew my second entry. It actually worked out really well because Thetis had a buddy on the trailer, and Dreamer had a great experience of coming to the show, riding around the warm up ring for a while and then getting to relax.

Thetis was slipping a bit on the grass, but she was showing me how she tries her heart out for me and was still managing to leave all the rails up. We rode our first round less than perfect with a few chipped strides but Thetis was good to me and left every rail up.

In the second round we had our act together a bit more and nailed our striding a lot better as we were figuring out the class. Out of the 27 entries, only 10 combinations went double clear and advanced to the jump off. My goal was to turn as tight as I could without slipping on the grass – and leave the rails up!

We rode a clear round with a nice time – only 3 seconds away from first place. We finished in third place and won $500. It was a really fun day, so I have a feeling I’ll be back there next year!

Next time I will make sure the right show clothes are in the trailer!




Check out our highlights https://youtu.be/LZ3POzevGuM

Friday, July 10, 2015

Centered Riding Certified, Parelli Learning, Adult Camp, and Wining $500 in the jumper jackpot!

I’ve been a bit busy and haven’t updated you all in a while (I’m sorry!) – I’ve been up to a few things these last couple weeks. Let me catch you up to speed with my latest learnings and happenings.

June 17th I flew out to Maine for part two of the Centered Riding Instructor’s course. It was 4 very intense days. Every day we did some body work (exercises with no horses to practice our riding position), riding, and teaching. I met Margreet from the Netherlands, she was assisting teaching the course. She is a Level IV centered riding instructor and does Sacral Cranial work on horses – which is pretty amazing to watch. I’m planning to have her up to our farm on the August 22-23 weekend so let me know if you are interested ($200 for the weekend).

One of my biggest epiphany’s during the course was learning to sit trot. Instead of thinking rise and fall with my hips, I learnt to think and feel a diagonal motion in my hips. Try taking your right hip to your left shoulder and vice versa. When you do this in rhythm with the horse you can sit a lot better in the saddle. It makes sense… the horse moves right & left so why wouldn’t I?

At the end of the course it was really rewarding to earn my Centered Riding Level I coaching certificate along with another 4 out of the 5 other women. Now I can keep growing and learning and hope to move up through the levels over the years.

The weekend of the 27th of June I took Cupid and Kahleesi to the Finesse clinic with Todd Owens – Parelli Professional. I had a really nice ride on Kahleesi in the morning and learnt some exercises to help supple her. In the afternoon I rode Cupid and he showed me what a calm and collected guy he naturally is.

I was lucky to have a private lesson with Kahleesi on day 2 to help our impulsiveness. To do this we really slowed it down and went back to basics of a good mount. Then I had a private lesson with Cupid and we did some neat porcupine game with the rope around his belly to ask him to yield from pressure in different ways.

I was reminded about a lot of excellent theory on natural horsemanship. One of the biggest messages I took away was
‘Never release on a brace.’ I love this because it reminds us that as natural horsemen we aren’t just trying to accomplish a movement or a task, but we are trying to get our horses emotionally and mentally connected and calm. Never releasing on a brace means always release when the horse’s mind is completing the task, not just his feet. If you release when the horse is bracing and tense, then you will teach your horse to be tense and bracing.

The July 4th weekend we had adult camp at PHH. What a fantastic weekend with so many people! We did some centered riding body work exercises, centred riding exercises in the saddle, ground games, riding obstacles, and jumping. We had a few new people and experienced people, so it was nice to have everyone together as well as splitting into groups.

Some tips from the weekend –
  • ·         Forget about your waist… it’s not a joint, instead ride from your hips and allow your hips to move, and let them fold into two point position.
  • ·         Get particular in your ground work – if you want your horse to be snappy with transitions and other cues, then you need to be particular from the start… otherwise how is your horse supposed to know when to be responsive and when you don’t care?
  • ·         Ride with a purpose – when you ask your horse for trot, canter, or anything, have in mind what your horse needs to do for you to reward them and move on. It’s important to have a plan and a goal, otherwise if you are simply trotting around aimlessly your horse can lose motivation and you may find it hard to progress. For example when you ask for trot, maybe you want to achieve stretchy trot, a fast trot, or get 3 laps in the ring before you move on – whatever your goal is, have it in mind so you know when to move on and can reward your horse in the right moment.


On Wednesday July 8 I went to the Hamilton Hunt’s Jumper Jackpot and placed 3rd out of a tough 27 riders, missing first by only 3 seconds… it was a super fun and exciting experience… I’ll write more later about that one after I have the video ready to show you (but I've given you a snapshot from show day up top!)– stay tuned


Tonight we have Todd Owens coming to PHH for a Rein Positions clinic for Power, Control and Performance, tomorrow I’m headed to the NHA Obstacle Challenge show, and then Sunday I’m headed to Kevin Alcock’s for play day on the obstacles, followed by a jumper show at 2pm in Bethany at Sky Haven…. Crikey it’s going to be busy and a lot of fun!