Some of you have asked me to share my natural horsemanship journey with you, so I will do my best to entertain and inspire you with this reflection of my journey.
When I was two years old I got my first horse. My Dad always loved horses and inspired me to do the same. Ginger was a beautiful Shetland pony that my cousins took to ride the first year. They were older than me and could really ride. By the time I got her she had a lot of miles on her. We had a love affair like no other. She lived to be over 30 years old, and countless cousins and friends learned to ride on her. She was a jewel and I will always be indebted to her for her patience with all of us. We were anything but natural with the poor girl, but she took care of us despite our not so polite ways. My favorite memory is jumping hay bales in the meadows near the river, pretending I was riding in the Olympics. We won a lot of trophies and ribbons with her in 4-H and little britches rodeos. She could beat a lot of big horses in the barrels and poles because of her heart.
I won’t bore you with stories about all of my other horses as I was growing up, but I will say that I always wanted to find ways to get a more willing response from my horses. I was different than some of my rodeo friends, they seemed to use their horses for competition only and that was the main goal with very few principles involved. The end results appeared to justify the means. Seems a lot of people only rode their horse to practice, practice, and practice for the big competition. I did a lot of that also, but what I really enjoyed most was to just hang out with my horses, not worrying about winning. Consequently, my time and emotions were split between which should be my priority, (practice and press for perfection to win, or just become one with the horse creating a satisfying relationship.) It seems that I never found the proper balance, until I started the learning more about natural horsemanship 5 years ago.
Now I realize the importance of the 80/20 rule and I try to apply it daily. This happens to be the proper balance that I needed a very long time ago. The old saying “better late than never” is very appropriate when I think about the learning curve in my life. I have also vowed to not sacrifice my principles for my goals. It appears that the only thing I’m interested in winning now is my horse’s heart.
If 5 years ago you would have told me that I would be doing the things that I am doing with my horses now, I would not have believed you. If you would have told me the changes that I needed to make in my personal life to become a better horsewoman I would have thought to myself, “Surely, not me!”
This is a journey of “who we are” more than what we know!" It is a journey about
becoming the kind of person that your horse needs you to be, not about getting your
horse to become the kind of horse that you need it to be. This journey is about learning to
get out of your comfort zone, to think & behave differently, to communicate effectively,
to solve problems creatively, to be positive & progressive, and to love unconditionally.
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