Lesson Notes: An Exercise in Influence

 by Mary Gallagher

 Further thoughts on influence as leadership, which I wrote about here in March. - MG

One of the core ideas I convey to my students is that, 'I don't want you to make your horse do things, or control your horse, I want you to influence your horse.' When you influence your horse, you take control and force out of the equation, and communication is what you have left.

Lesson Notes: Our Horses, Our Teachers

By Mary Gallagher


Here at Freedom Farm we have the greatest teachers, our horses. Over the years, these great teachers come and go in our lives, but even as the horse passes on, the lessons remain with us.

Noticing: Why Hurry?

By Mary Gallagher

Third in a series about noticing your horse's body language.

When you first look at the photos in this article, you might think 'gosh, Mary wants that horse to step on the tarp', and you would be partly right. I do want him to step on it--eventually. More important are all the wonderful things that develop while he avoids the tarp. So many times we get the end result fixed in our minds and we think we should achieve it right away. However, if we slow down and allow the horse to work at finding comfort, we achieve so much more.

Here I have my rope just long enough that this horse has to work at going around the tarp. As he avoids the tarp, he has to bend his head and neck around. He is also picking
up his shoulder and reaching underneath himself with his inside hind leg stretching and loosening the hips, ribs, and back.

Noticing Your Horse's Body Language

By Mary Gallagher

Last month I began this new series on noticing what our horse is telling us through body language. I shared my belief that learning to read the horse's head carriage, ear position, shoulder direction, eyes, feet activity, tail position, weight on the rope, and proximity to our personal space is essential in our development as horsemen and horsewomen. All these signs fit together like a puzzle, telling us what is going on inside the horse's skin. We can use this information to put together a plan for how we will communicate back to our horse, ultimately improving our training and enhancing our pleasure time together.

Noticing: Seeing What Your Horse is Saying - A New Series

By Mary Gallagher

Sometimes life imitates art, or more accurately, is inspired by it. I recently received some wonderful horse sketches from artist Carolyn Guske (whom many of you know as Remy's owner), and found myself responding to one in particular. I instantly noted its body language, thinking, this horse looks pretty concerned, and is about to move away from something worrisome, maybe I need a sketch of a calmer horse. Then I noticed my own response, and realized this was a pretty fine sketch, that my usual instincts kicked in and I'd seen it like an actual horse. Then it hit me: perhaps I could use such a sketch, as well as photos, to point out what I see when I look at a horse at any given moment.

Lesson Notes: The Precise Placement of the Feet

By Mary Gallagher

A huge part of our success with the horse is through placing the foot in an exact place over and over again. We need to develop knowledge of where the feet are in any given moment--on the trail, in the ring, in a meadow--regardless. When you know where the feet are going to land, you can influence the flight of a particular foot, thus producing a new outcome, whether it is speed, direction, tempo or balance. Yet we are forever settling for 'close enough' or 'I'm not sure where those feet are going!'.

Lesson Notes: Commotion

By Mary Gallagher
 
Arianna Llewellyn of Serendipity Farms in Quilcene invited me to co-host a horsemanship workshop last month, which turned out to be a fun afternoon of motion. We started by putting motion in ourselves with jumping jacks, just to see what our horses thought of it. Some horses crowded in, while others started jumping around, themselves. The ones that crowded in ran into our flapping arms, while those that moved their feet inspired us to get even more active with our jumping jacks. But soon, all the horses settled down and found a place to rest quietly as their owners caught their breath and digested what caused the change in their horse.

Lesson Notes: Taking Time to Play with Your Horse

By Mary Gallagher

For those new to Freedom Farm, let me introduce my husband and Freedom Farm co-owner Jerry Schmidt. You can learn more about Jerry here. -MG
 
Recently I asked Jerry how he gets his horses to accept all the crazy things he does. Of course he gave me a simple answer:  "I take time to play with my horses."

Lesson Notes: Where Does Your Horse Want To Go?

By Mary Gallagher

 
Some of the best lessons in horsemanship are those we once learned that come around again, as if to be understood more deeply in the present. For instance, one of my early teachers, master horseman Jimmy Williams used to tell me, "Allow your horse to escape in the direction you want him to go."
Where does your horse want to go?

Lesson Notes: Achieving Goals and Having Fun

by Mary Gallagher

As I muse over my teaching and training life at Freedom Farm I feel deeply grateful for having Kenny Hall as one of my trainers. So many things have become clear since we began my fitness journey. Even better, the things I have discovered in myself are true for my horse.

Lesson Notes : Making Friends - Horse or Donkey Style

by Mary Gallagher

Here at Freedom Farm we have a welcome ambassador, his name is Salty. His special talent is making friends with any new horse that comes to the farm. Salty has a technique that is so effective that when a new horse arrives on the place I like to take time out to watch him work.

Salty and Friends

Lesson Notes: Trail Walking

by Mary Gallagher

I'm so fortunate to have good walking horses. I don't know how I got so lucky. Maybe one reason is they are connected to the ground or grounded (barefoot). Maybe because they are free in their shoulders and back. Maybe because they are living as a herd, moving and playing with their friends all day.

Lesson Notes: What Really Matters to the Horse?

by Mary Gallagher

Respecting what really matters to the horse is what horsemanship is all about. 
We find out what really matters to horses when we observe their behaviors. Let's say we take a horse out of his/her herd and we notice the emotions come up while leaving her companions. How do we respond? That is horsemanship. If we continue without addressing the insecurity that arises in the horse, we are losing an opportunity to help the horse.

Lesson Notes: Changes are not problems, and problems are just changes

by Mary Gallagher

Don't be afraid to look at things from another point of view.

Or start over with a different approach.

Here at Freedom Farm, things are very different than they are at most barns.

For instance, take the way our horses live in herds. When I was growing up, all the stables I rode at kept their horses stalled. When I started my own business, all my horses were stalled. It wasn't until I did research on natural living conditions for horses that I considered running my business differently. The changes came slowly and I am grateful for that. There was - and still is - so much to learn (and unlearn).

Lesson Notes: legs and emotion

by Mary Gallagher

Why are horses' legs long?


I know you know the answer to this, but I will spell it out anyway. To fly away from fear. Those long legs on your horse were meant to outrun predators. And linked to those legs are emotions, which are hard-wired in the horse's brain for survival. So, that being said, can we use that natural flight instinct to produce a more emotionally fit horse that can be more comfortable in the human environment?

Lets start by considering two attitudes: