Well, I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving. I know I did. The trance didn't settle in like usual though. I guess it was the kids and me in the hot tub that took care of that. It is hard to be in a trance when someone is pouring water over your head and you have 3 living creatures splish, splashing around you.
The after glow, when everyone had gone and it was just Sharon and I was refreshing too. We have been watching quite a few hallmark movies, those sentimental holiday shows that cleanse your tear duct system.
I have also made some breakthroughs on horseback. I finally caught on to the need to have a correct seat. Now I thought I always had a correct seat, no complaints from my wife anyhow, but such is not the case. I finally, got it a few days ago and it made me have a clearer connection with Raven when I am in the saddle. This worked itself out recently. I would sit in the saddle and try to find that place where my butt was sitting so that my lower back wasn't bowed in our out but just right where it was most comfortable. Then I would ask her to soften her face with my rein and leg and I could feel her back round up under the saddle, Like she was flexing her backbone upwards into my seat. It is subtle, almost unnoticeable unless you are looking for that feel. Then I would try to maintain that feel when I had her at a walk, then a trot. Well that helped me to feel where her feet were. NO! not the end of her legs for you smart alecks. I wanted to know when she was picking up her feet. That would be the best time to ask her to move a foot over or speed up or slow down or back up. So if I timed it just right I could ask her to move those feet where I wanted just by my seat and leg. But in order to do that I had to have my own seat correct. Kind of reminds me of the the Scripture (Matthew 7)that talks about trying to take the speck out of another persons eye when I have a log in my own eye. I cannot see correctly to help the other person deal with their problems that are effecting me. The same is true in horsemanship. If I don't have a correct seat posture first, then I am not going to be able to communicate clearly with the horse to cue her to move forward, back up or move a shoulder over or leg yield, etc. So in the past my problems with getting Raven to do those movements were not hers, but mine. I was out of position and impeding her ability to read my cue as well as to move in the direction I wanted. Try this, stand up and put your weight on your right foot. Now without shifting your weight to your left foot, pick up your right foot. You can't do it can you? You'd have to hop. Well that is what it is like to ask a horse to move the right foot to the left if my weight is on that foot. The horse cannot do it. Not only do I need to shift the weight off that right foot, but she has to shift her weight off of it too. Then it moves easily.
Now if I could only do this with my wife it would make hers and my life easier. I found it doesn't pay to get mad about it and try to muscle her (the horse, or her) to my way of thinking. I have to soften the feel and get in time with her movements. Then it all goes easier. I think I mentioned in an earlier blog that I am reading a book titled "there are not problem horses, only problem riders." Well there ought to be a book for us husbands with a similar title, "there are no problem wives, only problem husbands." but I don't know if that would be a best seller. However, I do know, now lets be honest, you husbands, most (the wife would probably say all) of the problems in our marriages are caused by us. I don't know how I got on marriage, do you. Anyway, back to horses, It is a more pleasant dance and you get a more harmonious outcome if you go soft and slow when working with horses. It probably works with wives too.
God bless have a great day and be soft!