Foxgate Farms, A Quality Equestrian Facility
FOXGATE FARMS,A Quality Equestrian Facility
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 Clinics

6/27/2014

4 Comments

 
Another great Jen Truett clinic at Foxgate this past weekend!  Every horse and rider showed amazing improvement by the end of their sessions.  Jen presented exciting new techniques she learned from Dr. Gerd Heuschmann to get the horses to unlock their backs and swing through at trot and canter.  All the horses changed their way of going, not cranky or sticky, but flowing and happy looking.  Both of my horses were able to relax to a level I've never felt, breathing all the way through their bodies like they never have before.  The feeling of lightness and flexibility was amazing.  The difference in the horses' back muscles was remarkable.

As usual with Jen, I now have a plan for working my horses until I see her again.  i have a solid feel for what it is I am trying to achieve and the path to do it.  When the path isn't clear, I have the recipe to find it again and again and again.  Jen reminded me that the training process doesn't always look like the finished product (see my Waterloo blog,).  It took some brain space for me to think about this concept.

Jen shared her philosophy of self improvement and the importance of investing time and money in learning new ways to help our horses with their training.  She emphasized the importance of continuing education and how we need to look for trainers who are making an effort to gain more education, learning better ways and new techniques to help our horses develop.  When looking for a trainer we should ask ourselves:  Is this person taking their job seriously, continuing to work with others and learning new methods of training both horse and rider?  Is this person continually investing in their own education on a regular basis?




Horseshows



4 Comments
Tammy link
6/27/2014 09:40:40 pm

I wanted to share our experiences at our last show with Wellington. He is a 12 year old warmblood/tb cross with a difficult history. This has made him super sensitive and the pressure of competition can become overwhelming for him. He shows this by getting stuck inside himself, becoming withdrawn, almost autistic, weaving in his stall with little awareness of what his body is doing. He did this all night the first night in his stall and most of the first day, then again all night the second night of the show This resulted in sore front legs from overuse. We had to scratch our second class to allow time to repair the damage before the final day. A day of hand walking, grazing, cold hosing, and poulticing, allowed us to rest his legs and undo the damage he had done. As he was grazing I started brainstorming ideas to calm him in his stall. I thought a slow-feed haynet would give him something to do and get him to focus and relax. It worked for a while but he would still withdraw and start weaving again. Sooo, back to the drawing board for more ideas. Weaving and stall walking is usually considered a sign that a horse is herd sweet and claustrophobic. I looked on different websites and found that one mentioned that a mirror helped slow a weaver. So off to WalMart we went at 8:30 at night, via Dairy Queen :) We got back to his stall, refilled his haynet and hung his mirror just to the left of his haynet. Watching him look at himself in the mirror was really interesting. He seemed so happy that there was a horse looking back at him right in his stall! Then he tried to go back to his weaving pattern. He would grab some hay, then start leaning into his left leg, catch his refletion in the mirror and jump back, very startled. Then he would stretch his nose out to the horse in the mirror. This cycle went on for some time. Over the course of the evening he started to stay more in the moment. focusing on the hay and his reflection, and then came his relaxation.

The last morning of the competition he was a different horse! He was ore mentally focused, relaxed, but quite aware of his surrounding, to the point you would think it was the first day of the show. In our final test he spooked at the red flowers on top of each dressage letter. He had seen these flowers before. Or had he ?? Had he been so withdrawn inside himself he wasn't aware of small details like the red flowers? For whatever reason, he spooked several times but we continued and completed our test. At that point I felt successful and the score didn't matter to me. We had finally found a way to keep his focus during stressful situation. I feel this was part of the "training process doesn't always look like the finished product", and part of showing a green horse. Horses need a system and a routine, even when showing. They need a strong leader to help them when they are stuck. The more I keep Wellington focused the less he has these moments of getting stuck and withdrawing inside himself. The difference under saddle is quite remarkable.

Reply
Gail McIntyre
7/11/2014 07:41:24 am

Congratulations to Tammy and Wellington. Qualifying score at Waterloo on your second try! Quite an accomplishment!

Reply
Gail McIntyre link
8/20/2014 04:07:25 pm

Congratulations to Tammy and Wellington for qualifying for regionals in Kentucky at training level. Good work!

Reply
Kylie link
4/24/2019 03:01:31 pm

Congrats Tammy and Wellington!

Reply



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