Helicon Farm

Motivation Monday….. just a reminder!

"Stretch your arm out to the side, holding something like a pencil vertically in your hand. Look straight ahead. You won’t see the pencil in this position. You can’t even see your arm. Now move your arm slowly in a wide outstretched semi-circle toward the front, keeping your eyes focused on a distant point in front of you. The pencil remains invisible until it reaches almost a 45-degree angle. Human vision is limited to roughly 45 degrees on either side of our noses, for a total of about 90 degrees. By contrast, if we held a pencil straight out from the side of a horse’s head, it would be almost in the center of his vision. With eyes on the sides of his head, he catches a 340-degree view, almost four times greater than the range we see. Imagine what would happen if we humans had four times more vision to process every second of the day. We’d be edgy, too!" Janet Jones in Horse Brain, Human Brain, published by TSB. ❤️ 🐴 📕

Janet Jones, PhD, will be speaking at in West Springfield, MA! Don't miss her talks on Saturday and Sunday on the Seminar Stage in the Better Living Center--we promise it will change the way you think about horses and their behavior! See you in West Springfield. 😄

How you talk about your horse matters, because it reflects how you think about your horse.

How you think about your horse matters because it is the starting place from how you see your horse's behaviors, responses and needs...
.. and this will influence how you engage and work with your horse.

"He's just spooking to get out of work."

"She's just a snarky mare."

"He's just lazy and doesn't want to respond to my aids."

"She hates the whip."

"He just doesn't want to do it."

How do you relate to a horse if you're coming from that perspective?

Those are all negative words that come from a negative bias, and they make it seem as if the horse is plotting against us or unwilling to work towards a productive relationship.

Their brain simply isn't capable of working that way because of its construction and function.

It's in the horse's very nature to synchrinize and work together as a unit/group/herd/partnership for safety.

How about throwing away those limiting thoughts and replacing them with thoughts that reflect awareness, and offer actual insight to show our understanding of the situation and needs of our partner, the horse.

Replacing those thoughts above with more appropriate thoughts might look like this:

"He's tense or worried about something and it's distracting him from the work."

"She's sensitive and I offer my aids or requests in ways she thinks are offensive."

"He doesn't understand my aids clearly, or is maybe weak and unable to properly respond."

"She was never properly introduced to the whip, so I need to help her to reduce her anxiety."

"He just doesn't understand yet."

How do you relate to a horse if you're coming from that perspective?

The whole idea I'm trying to get at is that we need to drop our defensive negativity bias. Even in our basic thoughts towards and about our horses, because they have a tremendous influence on how we relate to them. This influences the success or failure of our partnership.

It up to you... and your thoughts.

THIS IS A MUST READ 🐎🐎🐎🐎

It’s absolutely mind boggling if you think about it.

Your horse gets absolutely nothing out of being competitive for you. Not a darn thing. Of course horses are bred for specific jobs, or they’re bred to be athletic to a certain degree. However, horses don’t wake up thinking about chasing cans, or cows, or flying over jumps.

They have no idea how much money is added to the pot. They have no idea that this is a qualifier. They have no idea that this is the short go.

And DESPITE us... DESPITE our nerves, our flaws, our incorrect ques, our huge emotions, they get the job done to their very best ability. Even when we fail them by letting our emotions get in the way, they come back and they try again. For US. Whoa. Let that sink in. If only we could all be so understanding.

To think of an animal that is forgiving and flexible enough to put up with the repetition of practice, the intense nerves of the rider, the stress of hauling and still meet you at the gate for scratches is MIND. BLOWING.

If you haven’t done so lately. Thank your horse.

If you’re successful, thank the horses that put you there and made you. Thank the horses that gave everything they had for you simply because you ASKED them to.

If you’re still on the journey to success, thank the horses that made you fall in love with your sport and who have helped give you the confidence to want to learn more and be better.

We can never stop learning as horsemen and horsewomen, and by continuing our education every horse in our future will be better off.

Next time you head to the arena leave your ego at the door and thank your horse!”
~Samantha Roffer

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Check with your local saddle fitter to set up an appointment to see our sale saddles!