Young women, horses and confidence

There are a multitude of reasons why my future children will be horse people but today I think I'll focus on the effect that horses have on girls in particular. Yes, most little girls go through a "pony phase" where all they want to talk about are ponies and they ask for a pony at every holiday. For some kids they outgrow this stage when boys and cars come along or they pick up dance or gymnastics instead to have a less expensive sport. For others we never outgrow the "pony phase" and end up living our lives revolving around our horses (which I think is pretty awesome). 

I don't think that it is by chance that little girls go through a pony stage in their life. There are so many things in today's world that teach young women to look down on themselves, to focus more on their looks, to be less empowered but horses do the exact opposite. I honestly believe that there comes a point in every girl's life where horses can make a huge difference. For some it may be when they are younger and the shy kid at school, for others it might be those tough high school years when they need someone to quietly understand their heartbreak and then for others it may be after their children have grown and left home and now they are searching for someone to share their extra time.

The biggest impact that I have watched horses have on young women is the change in their confidence. A horse doesn't care if your pants cost $200 or you embarrassed yourself earlier that day in class, all they care about is whether or not you are going to be their leader or their follower. And trust me you want to be the leader! The best example of watching confidence develop would be teaching a young girl how to lunge a horse. It is amazing to watch how the different body languages affect the horse and the human. We've all watched it; someone walks into the round pen with their horse and you watch the person walk around in circles while the horse stubbornly stands in the middle and lunges their human, then the trainer walks in picks up the lunge line clucks once and the horse immediately goes out on the circle. The student stands there scratching their head wondering what in the world just happened, they were both doing the exact same thing but it only worked for one of them. The difference? The confidence that the trainer (or whoever happened to do the lunging) presented when they walked into the round pen. Horses need confident leaders and they will certainly teach you to fake it til you make it on the confidence front. The confidence that can be gained from having a thousand pound animal trust and follow you is amazing!

Horses can give girls the confidence to develop into leaders. They teach us to boldly take on new challenges, to trust in our own intuition and to walk confidently even when we aren't quite sure what will happen next. Horses teach girls how to earn and give respect through quiet persistence and teamwork. 

While horses give lots of confidence they can also give us a good dose of humility. For some being humble is a thing of the past but a horse can remind you to be humble in a heartbeat. I've watched students come in that think they know it all, they push the horses around and expect to have respect from them without ever gaining it, they forget the whole mutual respect side of things and then boom the horses snap them right back to reality. Horses show us that being confident doesn't mean being cocky rather it means working hard towards your goals and knowing that you will get there, not sitting back and thinking that you deserve to reach your goal without the tough work.

There are a million and one other reasons that I think every girl should have a chance to have her "pony phase" but for now I will leave it at the confidence factor.

Honey, you do dressage.

If you have ever ridden in a lesson with me or discussed riding with me and made the claim "I don't do dressage" or "Dressage is boring" then you know what a huge mistake you made at the time. It irks me to the core to hear people complain about doing dressage in their lesson or to talk about how boring dressage is to do. Well wake up call everyone...if you ride then you do dressage!!!

Dressage is the foundation of all riding, in fact the name itself means "the training of the horse." If you don't have dressage then you have none of the basics. 

Let's look at the dressage training scale:

These are not just factors in a dressage training program or test but they are, in fact, factors of every training program in every discipline.

Need some examples?

Say you ride hunter/jumpers and you are on course, first of all there are 8 jumps in your course but the only way to get to those jumps is through flat work....aka dressage. Here is your next dressage factor during your hunter course, you come out of the corner for your diagonal line but realize you have overshot the line to the left. What now? Do you turn around and try again? Do you veer of course in an attempt to straighten out your line? No! Instead you put your right leg on and leg yield over a step or two to straighten out your approach. Plus if you ever plan on riding with George Morris be prepared to do a lot of dressage work during your flat day!

Now let's head over to the jumper ring. You look over the posted course and good gracious there are some tight roll back turns. You get on course and head into your first rollback, you balance your horse on the outside ride and support with the inside leg to execute the turn successfully. Sound familiar? Yep there's that dressage basic of inside leg to outside hand. Now you head up to your last line and realize that you need a bit more stride in between so you put on your leg and stretch the stride out a little longer. Hmmm sounds like a canter lengthening doesn't it? Just like we see starting in First Level Test 1.

Now the english disciplines are not the only ones that utilize the foundation of dressage. The western disciplines are also formed on the basics of dressage. Reining may be the most simple to explain.
In reining you have a pattern, in dressage you have a test. Essentially they are the same thing as they give you movements to go through that you are then scored on for your final score and placing. Some of the reining movements include circles, spins, changes within gaits and flying lead changes. In order to achieve any of these movements one must use the dressage basics of rhythm, balance, connection and impulsion. Ta da reining and dressage.

photo credit: Barbara O'Brien
Moving onto another western sport, let's look at western pleasure. As some of you may be rolling your eyes western pleasure is actually all about collection. In order to get that kind of slow movement and have a horse hold up for more than one show season, you must use collection to build up the hind end. Collection comes from having a rhythm along with connection.
And finally we'll look to the other end of the western spectrum, barrel racing. Goodness gracious even barrel racers use dressage. The amount of balance and connection that those horses need to get around the pattern is amazing and goodness knows if you aren't balanced you won't be making it.

So if you don't think you do dressage think again because honey, you do dressage. Sometimes we need to remember to go back to the basics and tweek things which often times means we need to go back and look at the training pyramid. Now if you want a sport where your type A, perfectionist personality fits right in then please join us in the dressage world! And for those of you who think that all dressage people are boring and nit picky, please enjoy this video.
Proof that dressage can be fun!
  

College Prep Equestrian Style

I'm not quite sure where the summer went but here in the college world we are prepping for the school year and the IHSA show season. So if you're headed into college and considering trying out for the IHSA team here are some tips.

Many equine programs start the year off with lessons to get everyone on a couple of horses before tryouts for the team, if you are at one of these colleges be sure to take advantage of those lessons prior to tryouts! Remember that first impressions cannot be redone so be sure to put your best foot forward when you go out to the barn.

1. Be on time...which really means be early! Give yourself plenty of time to properly prep your horse without worrying about rushing through your grooming. Remember to also give yourself plenty of time to find everything at your new barn. Giving yourself time to ask questions will also save you plenty of embarrassment. Case in point: my first riding class in college I showed up with plenty of time to groom, tack up and be in the arena by lesson time. Thank goodness because I discovered that Jack was missing a shoe when I went to pick out his feet so I got reassigned to Floyd and still had enough time to groom, tack up and carry my polo wraps into the arena to ask for help! Which brings me to my next point...

2. Ask questions! Every barn has its own routine and way of doing things so by all means ask so that you can be sure to follow procedure.

3. Be honest! Trust me it is so much better to just be honest about your experience level than to talk yourself up and end up being overfaced. Your new coach wants to help you improve your riding from where you are right now, not where you think you should be at this point. If you come in and tell us that you have been jumping around at 3' but your riding says otherwise then we are less likely to trust you next time you make a claim about your experience.

4. Be honest! Yes I know I put this on the list twice but I cannot emphasize honesty enough. Prior to tryouts you will be asked about your riding and show experience to determine your division in IHSA. Being honest with the questionnaire is essential to insuring that you are correctly placed and that you are actually eligible to show in that division. If you aren't sure about something then ask for clarification.

5.  Listen, listen, listen. Soak in everything that is going on around you and listen to every instruction you are given. Take constructive criticism for what it is, constructive. Work on the things that your new instructor focuses on during your lessons and strive to improve with each lesson. The more you listen and try the better your riding will be and the better impression you'll make. 

6. Give your best. The horses always deserve your best and don't you want to put forth your best effort in this new exciting program that you are joining?! Give 100% in every lesson every time.

7. Dress to impress. Yes I know you are going to the barn and yes I know you'll get dirty and sweaty and hairy and on and on but this is not the time or place to show up in your holey jeans and t-shirt. I came across a quote the other day that nailed this predicament on the head, "Being well dressed is a beautiful form of politeness."

So put on your polo shirt, tuck it into your breeches with a belt, pull on your tall boots and put your hair up under your helmet. Remember first impressions can't be redone so dress like you are heading to a riding interview.

And finally...have fun! You are on the journey through some of the greatest and most influential years of your life so enjoy it! The equine program and IHSA team at my college gave me some of my best friends and most cherished memories. So soak it all in, try new things and work hard.
Good luck at try outs!
Stay tuned for more tips on getting through the IHSA show season.

All things horsey

Welcome to my new blog for all things horsey! Forever and a day ago I started a horsey blog but was awful about keeping up with it but after putting up so many horse related blogs on Hokiebirds Fly South I figured I should start a new one.

For those of you who don't know my personally, my name is Jessica and I am an IHSA coach down South. I graduated with my degree in Equine Studies and have been teaching for a living ever since and living the dream. This blog will cover all things horse related from getting the most out of your riding lessons, to horse etiquette to horse related product reviews. Please feel free to share your thoughts about topics, questions or suggestions in the comment section. Please also remember that all opinions and posts on this blog are of my own and do not represent the opinions of other groups.