Morning Light Stable

I've seen this a million times and I've rarely seen a trainer have sympathy for the horse.

So excited to travel to Georgia in a few weeks and learn from this master.

A must-read if you sit on a horse's back. http://scienceofmotion.com/i_equine_back_research.html

Well it finally looks like my life is settling enough to get myself back in the saddle on the regular. Melissa, my 10 year old, and I have spent the better part of early this week getting the riding arena back to riding condition. Yesterday we started in-hand rehab work for her Shetland pony who foundered in early July. I have documented the shape and condition of her feet and am excited to see how the Science of Motion or SOM work can help her. Today I started SOM with my Ca...sh. Let me just start by saying he was not happy to be getting tacked up. Bobbing his head and stomping his feet, which was pretty much his normal before. I was always told he needed to suck it up and do his job since I took such great care of him and he was only asked to "work" for an hour a day. That attitude never resonated with me and I am excited to be learning a new way to help him. I stopped and promised him that we were going to take this one step at a time, instead of the old rushing him around in the trot and holding up his front end. Well, we did some work in-hand so that I could show him how I wanted him to lift his forehand and step more out and land flatter on his feet. I am VERY new to all this, so I'm sure I made many many mistakes today. But here's the thing. When I got off my horse, he stopped and looked at me and wouldn't move. He truly did not want to end what we were doing, I believe because it was making his body feel good. I did feel that he was getting tired, so I was not getting back on him, so I took off his tack and we played at Liberty. Using my body to ATTEMPT to show him how I want him to move. WE did slow and medium walk and then some trot. Lots of directions changes and some circles and then we bowed. This is what I have always dreamt that training horses should feel like. FUN, not work. I took some pictures today of him and will post them after a couple weeks along with the pics of Rosie's feet to see how our progress is coming along.

I was just discussing this exact subject with my oldest daughter this morning.