Category Archives: Inspiration

A rider’s prerogative

17 Monday Dec 2012

Posted by in Inspiration, Training

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When I was growing up, it wasn’t unusual to hear someone say, “It’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind.”

This now-archaic truism with its almost archaic noun still has value — especially if you include men and children.  It’s okay to change your mind. And riders need to remember that.

It’s hard for riders to change their points of view and habits, in part because it takes so long to develop those habits, and so long to learn enough about horses to even have a point of view.

We seldom question the first things we learn about horses or equitation but we have yet to call those ideas our own.  Later, we search out trainers and instructors, mentors, gurus, leaders and experts, and readily adopt their points of view, calling them our own.  Eventually, the time comes to evaluate, with the courage to question and the wisdom to reassess our beliefs.

"Know thyself"

“Know thyself”

The thinking rider can — and should — challenge himself to welcoming new perspectives and new techniques.  If you do, you’re among good company.

Philippe Karl, for instance.  New copies of his book Long Reining:  The Saumur Method are now being sold on Amazon for $413.22, and used copies are being offered from $125 to $900.  Why such high prices?  I have it on good authority that the reason is that Philippe Karl changed his mind about long reining.  He won’t authorize a reprint of the book because he no longer believes in this method of training, despite the fact that he is an expert on it.

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Stoic

16 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by in Horse Care, Inspiration

≈ 4 Comments

Zeno of Citium, founder of the Stoic school of philosophy, taught in Athens c. 300 BC

It’s common to hear people talk about how horses are stoic.  Less common is people talking about how other people’s horses are stoic and their horses are not.

Are they right?  Who am I to say?

Of course, that hasn’t stopped me yet.

Increasingly, I believe that all horses are stoic, and the ones who seem not to be stoic may be just as stoic as — or even more stoic than — the ones we think of as stoic.

I had a horse that I thought wasn’t stoic.  In fact, I thought he was a hot house flower, and I called him that.  True, there were things he wasn’t stoic about, like raindrops or a touch on the neck that was a little too soft, or, when he was younger, anything but a goat hair brush on his body.

It took me too long to realize that he had ulcers (I’m older and wiser now).  Once I realized he had them, I treated him for years and in a variety of ways, until he was finally retired at the age of 12 due to his incorrigible nature (which I now believe was attributable more to chronic pain than to Native Dancer inbreeding or mistreatment, although they likely played a part).

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Inspiration from Frankel

19 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by in Inspiration, Racing

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Frankel (winning as always) as a two year old

He’s the world’s top-ranked racehorse.  He has won every one of his races (all 13 of them).  His career earnings approach 3 million British pounds ($4.85 million) — and will get there if he wins his next race.

But that’s not all.  There’s one more thing that makes Frankel an inspiration. It may, in fact, be the biggest thing.

He’s helped his trainer Henry Cecil, who was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2006, feel “20 years’ better.”  And it’s launched Cecil to the top as a trainer, after 43 years in the business.

He says, “I am so lucky to have been allocated Frankel to train.  He has been an inspiration and a challenge, which I needed so badly.  Through my illness, I feel that the help from my wife Jane, and the determination to be there for Frankel has helped me so much to get through the season.”

I think anyone who has found it difficult to take care of a horse…to train a horse…to rehabilitate a horse, especially during trying personal circumstances, can identify with what Cecil is saying.  As Cecil says, “being there” for a horse has rewards untold and often unrealized until long after the difficult days have passed.

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How to feel better

10 Wednesday Oct 2012

Posted by in Inspiration

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It’s been a busy, strenuous and, on occasion, slightly overwhelming fall so far for me.  How about you?

If you’re answering in the affirmative, I have help for you, courtesy of my niece Samantha.  If you’ve been a long-time reader of my blog, you may remember her advice in Piece of toast.

She’s back, with more practical advice, which she emailed me the other day:

“Think nice thoughts like these nice thoughts,” she told me:

Ponies eating

Ponies trotting

Ponies cantering

Ponies walking

Ponies tolting (Icelandics!)

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Another reason to love Johnny Depp

25 Friday May 2012

Posted by in Inspiration

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As if there weren’t enough reasons to love Johnny Depp, there’s now another. He’s a true horseman.

On the set of The Lone Ranger (in which Johnny will star as Tonto), he suffered an accident on horseback, and was dragged for 25 yards.  Did he blame the horse?  Far from it.  In fact, he thanked the horse for saving his life.  As he said,

“I’m lucky to be here.  I’ve done a number of films on horseback and I’ve taken a couple of spills but this was a violent one.  I had a good relationship with the horse, which was named Scout, and when I look at the tape I can see that Scout saved my life…in the end he jumped over me and clipped me with his back legs.”

Not everyone would say that a horse saved his life after being dragged for 25 yards.  But then, not everyone is a horseman.

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Inspiration from the Century Club

12 Saturday May 2012

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The Dressage Foundation’s Century Club just welcomed its 100th member. How perfect is that?

For those unfamiliar with the Century Club, it honors horse-and-rider pairs competing at dressage, who have a combined age of 100 years.

Of course, if you do the math, the burden of achievement does fall on the human, but it gives you something to aspire to (yes, you have another thing to aspire to).

You can cheat, of course, by buying an older horse.  And for horses — especially older schoolmasters or mistresses — how perfect is that?

If that’s not in your plan, but you still want to make it to the Century Club ranks and you’re not too green yourself, have you considered an an eleven-to-fourteen-year-old horse…or a ten-year track veteran?  Given how tough track life is and how far young horses are pushed these days, if you find a horse fitting those criteria that’s sound of mind and body, there’s a good chance that he’ll be able to be a wonderful comrade for a long time.  If you’re bargain-hunting, the prices go way down as you go further out the bell curve (schoolmasters notwithstanding) and dare I say it — how perfect is that?

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Inspiration from Bryan Clay

11 Friday May 2012

Posted by in Inspiration

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A few days ago, Forbes published “How to Compete and Win in Business – Lessons from the World’s Greatest Athlete.”

I had to check it out…not because I’m interested in competing and winning in business, but because I’m inspired most by those who have achieved something extraordinary.

And who better to inspire than Bryan Clay, who won Olympic gold in 2008 in the decathlon, achieving the title “The World’s Greatest Athlete?”  If you are competing and you want greater success (even if your only competitor is yourself), here’s his advice (and mine):

1.  “It’s all about the process.” According to the article in Forbes, Bryan Clay’s focus is not in being excellent; his focus is in striving.  In other words, it’s not how well you do, it’s how hard you try to do well.

2.  “Execute.”  In other words, doing is more important than thinking about doing.  Baba Ram Dass said, “Be Here Now.”  Nike said, “Just do it.”  Same idea.  Anyone who’s ever overthought while horse training knows that feel is more important than whatever is going on in your mind.  You just have to ride and be present in the moment.

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Hands on horses

02 Wednesday May 2012

Posted by in Inspiration, Racing

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Lucky Kentucky Derby hopeful I’ll Have Another.  That’s because he’s got a great buddy — Larry “Thumper” Jones, who knows what it’s like to be a star athlete and have aches and pains.

Thumper won the Memorial Cup while playing for the Canadian New Westminster junior hockey team.  And then he broke his back slipping over a broken hockey stick, had surgery and followed it with rehabilitation that didn’t work.  Chiropractic work did.

It was that experience which inspired Thumper to forge a new career marrying two things that meant a lot to him — chiropractic and horses.  For the last 30 years, he’s been bringing his healing hands to horses.

Which is exactly what he’s doing at Churchill Downs this week, helping I’ll Have Another prepare for the big contest this Saturday.  It’s a pretty even contest so far, but if you think that range of motion might be the deciding factor in who gets to wear the blanket of roses, you might want to place your bets on I’ll Have Another.

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Hearts for horses at my alma mater

20 Friday Apr 2012

Posted by in Inspiration

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The Spring 2012 issue of the Baldwin Echoes — the alumnae magazine of The Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania — arrived in yesterday’s mail.

I’m glad I don’t have to wear those blue tunics and bloomers anymore.  But I did love Baldwin — an all girls’ school that taught me to believe that anything was possible in my life.  Inspiration is still the name of the game at Baldwin, according to the school’s mission statement, a portion of which follows:

“The Baldwin School…develops talented girls into confident young women with vision, global understanding, and the competency to make significant and enduring contributions to the world…forming women capable of leading their generation while living balanced lives.”

Even though I’m no longer a young woman, I still think all of that is within reach — even the balanced life part.  If I’m delusional, so be it.  Because this marvelous mission statement also says that “Baldwin aspires to cultivate in its students the desire to remain learners throughout their lives, the compassion to extend themselves to others, and the strength of character to act on their beliefs.”  (Note that there is no requirement that the beliefs be rational.)

More interesting to you, I’m sure, than the mission statement of my alma mater is the fact that one of my fellow Baldwin alums — Helen Runeyon Hills of the Class of ’46 — recently wrote a book called Still Riding at 80. Delusional?  Not according to Helen, who is herself still riding at the age of 80.

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Keep calm and carry on

30 Friday Mar 2012

Posted by in Inspiration, Training

≈ 11 Comments

Regular readers of the comments on my blog probably feel like they know the woman who goes by the name “Elaine” the way they know their other barn friends.  They’re also familiar with her current horse Dini, whom she often mentions, and who you can see below.  (If you’ve been missing Elaine’s comments, you should check them out, since she’s shared some great stories here on the blog.)

Prince Houdini, otherwise known as Dini...or the Prince

Elaine is a friend and a student, and Dini is a horse I had in training before I broke my back.  Dini’s had the winter off, and Elaine has big plans for him this spring.   We just talked about bringing him back into shape again with March-ing! and long-lining.  Bravo to Elaine, she’s going to be doing the work herself. I’m there to support her.

Imagine my surprise when I opened the latest copy of Dressage Today, and read a letter from Elaine about her and her beloved Dini.  She hadn’t told me she’d written it, but she knew I’d see the letter if it went to press.  That’s Elaine.  She’s forthright and speaks her mind (as I do) but she’s a strategist. She’s had to be, with her current horse, whose thrown her a series of curve balls that would make most horsewomen retire their boots.

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