Senior Horsemanship - Tips to Help Us Enjoy Better Years with Horses and More of Them
The podcast name is changed to Senior Horsemanship and I’ll be building the senior horsemanship website over the next few weeks.So why the change? Probably the most important reason is that I’m certainly a senior horseman at age 71 with three horses. I’m very interested in riding, caring for, and training my horses as long as I can. I’m also very interested in making as long as I can to be as long as possible.That’s my goal in horsemanship. I don’t have any goals in the competitive arena, Not that competition is bad, but I just want to enjoy my horses. If you compete, then I hope you do it for the joy of working with your horse.So what will we talk about? How about the following.I’d like to talk about horse training, first because a well trained horse makes life safer and makes our time with our horse more enjoyable. A well trained horse also has better prospects for a good home if for some reason, we can’t continue to keep our horse. So for the good of ourselves and our horses, horse training for seniors is a great topic.I’d like to talk about horse care. I care for my horses myself and I’ve learned some things in the process that I’d like to share. I also hope to learn from others about ways to make horse care better and easier as we grow older.I’d like to talk about riding fitness and safety around horses. I’ve lost about 40 pounds over the last year and a half and it’s made riding easier for me and my horses. But with the weight loss has come a loss of some strength. I’ve also suffered from my share of horse-related injuries over the years including a broken arm, broken ribs, several concussions and most recently broken toes. What can we do to be safer with our horses. I’m not as nimble as I once was.I’d like to talk about the mental aspects of horsemanship because we need to rely on the mental more than the physical as we get older. When I was younger, there were ways of handling horses that could be characterized by “make them do it” and “don’t let them get away with it”. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that there are better ways and I’ll talk about them.Finally, I’ll talk about how horsemanship can be much more than riding a horse. I’ve been a volunteer with Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society here in Texas for a number of years and there are some volunteers who could be examples for all of us. Several volunteers can’t ride anymore, but they foster horses and give them a great start on a new path in life. Other volunteers work on the admin side to give the organization the ability to help as many horses as possible. All of those activities count as horsemanship. We’ll talk about those and more.Again, I appreciate all of the topic ideas I’ve received from members of the Equestrian Seniors Facebook group. I appreciate your interest in the podcast. And I hope to continue to provide information that interests you in the days ahead.Thanks for listening.
Senior Horsemanship - Tips to Help Us Enjoy Better Years with Horses and More of Them
Choose in the Best Interest of the Horse
“The point I would hope to make is that my choices and your choices are all valid as long as we adhere to the first principle of horsemanship — that whatever we choose is always in the best interest of the horse.”
This is a quote Denny Emerson from the closing paragraph of Begin and Begin Again: The Bright Optimism of Reinventing Life with Horses.
In describing that competitive mindset he says, “everything I had been doing was based on too much — too much force, too much pressure, too much too soon, too much assumption that my horse knew what I wanted but was simply not doing it right, too much, too much. I wasn’t teaching, I was forcing.”
I think that most of us who have been riding horses for some time have been guilty of doing too much. I certainly have and it’s resulted in lots of “make them do it” moments and “don’t let them get away with it” decisions.
As Denny says, the use of force with your horse “always escalates because force creates anxiety in the horse, anxiety creates resistance, resistance elicits more force from the rider to counteract it, and down the rabbit hole we go”.
So I hope you're listening to your horse, and you're experimenting with ways to train your horse with connection and relaxation. Please remember that you are an individual, your horse is an individual and your relationship with your horse is unique. Please choose in the best interest of the horse because that choice is in your best interest too.
Here's a link to the Second Half Horsemanship website.
And a link to Descript, my go-to choice for audio and video editing.
“The point I would hope to make is that my choices and your choices are all valid as long as we adhere to the first principle of horsemanship that whatever we choose is always in the best interest of the horse.” This is a quote from Denny Emerson from the closing paragraph of Begin and Begin Again: The Bright Optimism of Reinventing Life with Horses Welcome to the Almost Daily Second Half Horsemanship Podcast where we talk about using your mind more than your muscles on the path to better horsemanship in the second half of life. The podcast features a thought for the day on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and a more in-depth discussion or interview on weekends. I’m your host, Paul Sherland. Denny Emerson’’s Begin and Begin Again is a book that belongs in the library of every second half horse person. It reflects Denny’s change of thinking in second half of life horsemanship from his mindset as a Hall of Fame eventing rider and trainer. In describing that competitive mindset he says,“everything I had been doing was based on too much too much force, too much pressure, too much too soon, too much assumption that my horse knew what I wanted but was simply not doing it right, too much, too much. I wasn’t teaching, I was forcing.” I think that most of us who have been riding horses for some time have been guilty of doing too much. I certainly have and it’s resulted in lots of“make them do it” moments and“don’t let them get away with it” decisions. As Denny says, the use of force with your horse“always escalates because force creates anxiety in the horse, anxiety creates resistance, resistance elicits more force from the rider to counteract it, and down the rabbit hole we go”. I was looking at some video of one of my horses at work in the round pen a few years ago. This was before my reawakening to the need for a trusting foundation and the importance of connection and relaxation. The tension my horse felt in doing various groundwork exercises was obvious. My decision at the time was to do various desensitization exercises, but that only made him more tense. The better decision the less ego decision would have been to do less. Do something to remove the force, lessen the anxiety and promote relaxation. I hope that you’re a better horse person than I was. I hope that what you’re doing is always in the best interest of the horse, that you’re finding ways to train and ride with less force. That you’re interactions with your horse build trust and connection. Thanks for listening to the Almost Daily Second Half Horsemanship Podcast. If you’re also on the second half horsemanship journey, please leave a comment on our website, second half horsemanship dot com. We’re always looking for topic and interview ideas. When I use links to books, products and services in the podcast, some of those links might be referral links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I earn a small commission when you purchase something through those links, but you will not be charged more by using the links. One more note. I’m not in a place where I can record the podcast today. So I’m using the auto dub feature of Descript to convert my script to voice. If you do any video or audio editing, you should check out what Descript offers. It is an incredible tool for creatives. I’ll also have a link to Descript in the show notes. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. Your reviews help the podcast reach a larger audience. Thank you very much!
