HorseSynergy.ORG
Update 7/5/2010
It has been years since this site was created and I must apologize... I've been busy with the girls working on my horsemanship and loving every minute of it. We have all come so far that it amazes me when I read what I have written.
Ellie has now been in several large parades, team sortings; two man, three man, and four man, barrel racing, pole bending, and extreme cowboy race. She loves all of them and has done really well. We tried the Performance Horse Series once and are meaning to get back to it. The rider needs to learn better what she needs to do and we will soon be tackling this new challenge.
Shiloh has recently been diagnosed with Cushings...something I think we have suspected she had but wasn't ready to accept and deal with. She did her first parade on June 11, 2010 and was ridden by Xavier in the Kamehameha Day Parade representing the Island of Maui. She was amazing and you would never have known or guessed what we have achieved with her. She loaded magnificently, she calmly waited for hours before the parade began, and she walked the parade with no exposed nervousness. None of that jiggy jiggy trot that some think is the parade trot but really a horse ready to bolt at any moment. She also just did the Kailua 4th of July Parade and didn't freak at the bomb like explosion someone set off, the two easy up tents that flipped over and flew, or the many balloons or balls that were floating around. It is amazing what a little patience and committment will do for a horse.
We hope to continue riding, learning, and enjoying both Shiloh and Ellie for a long time more....
Happy Trails
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I'm relatively new to the horse world and have always wanted to find a website where I could share and learn from others here in Hawaii.
I've searched the web and have come across many websites that experiences are shared through blogging but most often then not I still sit and shake my head and wonder what the heck they are talking about.
I'm hoping that maybe this website will encourage others to share their experiences and insights into their relationships with their horses and trainers. Using, of course, plain English no mumble jumble training talk. Keep it simple is a motto I love to live by. No one here to impress that's for sure.
Through years of trial and error I finally feel like I'm moving in the right direction with my girls.
Shiloh was the first horse that came to me and when I saw her I fell in love instantly. She wanted to be loved and cared for and when she met me she saw SUCKER on my forehead. Doesn't matter, because of her I've learned so much and am better for it. I'll tell the story later.
Ellie was the horse my husband fell in love with at Koa Ridge where we had put Shiloh out to pasture for a few months to be a horse. Ellie wasn't even green broke and being green ourselves we didn't realize what we were getting into.
My favorite saying for choices I've made that sums up the last five years is, "GREEN ON GREEN, MAKES BLACK AND BLUE." What exactly does this mean? Well, when a person is new to the horse world they are considered Green. When a horse hasn't been ridden much and has very little training they are considered Green. When you put the two together you often end up with a lot of bruises...i.e. black and blues.
Trainers were needed and hard to come by. There are many individuals that call themselves trainers and what I've come to learn is that there are trainers out there who are in reality people who will exercise your horse for you at a trainers rate. There are trainers out there who will train the horse and not the rider. Others, will train the rider and have no clue how to train the horse. Sometimes you come across a person who doesn't call themselves a trainer but in reality they are.
Figuring out whose who is a learning process and the only way to really find the trainer that works for you takes a person with an open mind, the willingness to watch for themselves, and to believe only half of what they hear until they see it for themselves. Everyone has an opinion about everyone in the horse world. Depending on the day and what really happened you may hear something good on one day and bad on another. We as horse owners need to be willing to take the time to check things out and stay open minded. It is very easy to be swayed by people that we feel know more then we do and this in the end may be to our detriment. How do I know this? By experience. I'll blog about it later... long story.
Please feel free to share your experiences good and bad. We all can learn from one another. The more I learn the more I feel like I have to learn. I'm working on getting a forum up and running where we can do this, myforum.horsesynergy.org is where it is supposed to be.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you out and about with your horse.
Gayle
Synergy: Comes from the Greek word synergia, meaning joint work and cooperative action.
Synergy is when the result is greater than the sum of the parts. Synergy is created when things work in concert together to create an outcome that is in some way of more value than the total of what the individual inputs is.
HorseSynergy.Org was created with the hope that all of our individual experiences will come together to create a bigger and better horse experience for us all.
There are three parts the human, the horse, and the trainer. When these three things come together and they work towards the same goal... synergy is created and amazing things can happen.
Trust is also an important factor when working with horses and trainers. If there is a trust issue between any of the players, owner-horse, owner-trainer, or horse-trainer the results will be limiting for horse and rider.
We need to remember to communicate, listen, and unless you are deathly afraid of what is being asked of you, be quiet.
When asked to do something with your horse and you trust the trainer, instead of making excuses, try it.
If we don't understand what is being asked of you speak up and ask for more clarification. I'm a visual person and sometimes I need the trainer to show me how to and I ask him to do so. I've learned that If you don't believe your horse can do what the trainer is asking you to achieve... ask the trainer to get on and show you that it can be done. Then do it.
We as horse owners often put our own fears and previous owners hang ups on our horses. How many times have I explained that my horse Shiloh just can't do something only to have a trainer get on and show me that she can.
The trick is learning what it was that the trainer did and then getting on and doing it myself while the trainer is there to help me do it. Don't you hate getting home and trying to do what you learned at a clinic with your horse and seeing the trainer do it only to find out that no matter how hard you try you can't. YIKES. Been there done that. Good money wasted.
Some times in life we are fortunate to meet people who are willing to share what they have painstakingly learned. I almost missed the opportunity and fortunately there was a wiser person around me to encourage me to step outside of my comfort zone and ask for help. I was so lucky to have found Francis Lau who was able to ride and train my horse AND he was able to watch and communicate to me, the rider, what I needed to do in order to get my horse to do what I wanted.
Words cannot express how thankful I am to him and how much I miss his words of wisdom, his faint smile when I was trying my darndest to do what he was asking and not quite succeeding, and most of all the twinkle in his eyes when he knew I was catching on.
I tried to hang onto every word and file it in my memory bank. Unfortunately, my brain was on overload. I can only hope that when I ride he is whispering in my ears directions so I can continue to become a better rider.
We lost Francis after a courageous battle with stomach cancer within months of being diagnosed. I was lucky to have had a few great months with him riding and learning. A few more months hanging out with him on the porch at Hamms Flats in Waimanalo. I won't forget him and all that he taught me. The picture above is one of the first days he put me and Ellie on cows. What fun we had. No clue as to what I was doing but because he was such an awesome horseman he made me feel like I was doing great.
My husband Mike came one day to watch us play wish the cows. He had the insight to catch Francis riding Zoom at first with his reins then without. His quite rhythmic riding skills amaze me and to see him riding Zoom with no reins, breathtaking. These photos were taken in May 2007. We lost Francis in March of 2008.
