Time for me to stop training and start riding

You spend hours training your horse, then you go somewhere and well,,,, train your horse.  :-)  Me?  My mare did awesome the other day.  Sure she is not perfect LOL, but after sleeping on how she did, I made the comment that it was time.  You ask time for what?  Time for me to start working on Me.  I need to get quiet, supportive and hold up my side of the partnership.  Basically trainers warm up their horses with a basic plan (like stretching before doing a sprint race), depending on the horse they may include a light reminder about an item or two.  During the race, they where in the moment riding their race.  After the race a few came back in and did some light reminder training before leaving.  I noticed a real focus, the pros where riding their race probably from the moment they got up that morning.  As they warmed up, waited their turn, and rode their race they where focusing on Riding Their Race.

Its time, time for me to be in the moment and Ride My Race.

Sweet Feed

Sweet Feed for my horses is for hiding the vitamins and supplements.  Since finding a really great herbal person it also hides herbs.  Do you think I can find high molasses content sweet feed? nope, the manufactures are all cutting back on the sweets because we as consumes are saying we want to feed lots of sweet feed without lots of sweet.  First I noticed doubling the amount of sweet feed to get the horses to eat the additives, so after some thought, went and purchased some molasses.  Now the horses and I am happy again.  Sometimes you have to adjust when manufactures adjust what they offer.

Sharing and Learning

Have a friend who is a barrel racer in Alaska. After another winter in Colorado, was sharing with her about some changes I made in my riding. The fun and interesting item that came up, is that some really nice barrel racers in Colorado mentioned I should go to the horn sooner and stay on the horn longer. Me I was like well there is this and that reason for not. So after a winter of working on learning to go to the horn, I shared with my friend about going to the horn sooner. And you just know she had the same reaction I had. :-) It made me feel better :-)

Be open to learning, its okay to take your time thinking a new item thru before implementing the new way of doing things.

Should top riders bring their top horses?

In Barrel Racing you get all sorts. Some are complainers, its not fair. Me? Bring Game ON :-) Was talking to a very nice competitor and she mentioned that she was not riding her rodeo horse, because people would complain. Ouch.

There are so few events where its $1,000 or more added and open to all comers. This year there are just 3 such events in my area.

One way of thinking about these events is, this is my opportunity to compete against the best. This is how I choose to look at it.

So Complainers go complain somewhere else. When I am ready to compete maybe I will offer to pay her entry, just so I can really see how good I am. Winning means nothing if the competition doesn't show up.

What you give comes back even better

Don't know about you but watched the movie "Pay it forward". It is a great movie. Do get your hankie ready before watching. The other day got an email asking if I would do something, I emailed back sure, then a storm came in and I sat on my ass. After the storm let up I got off my ass and got the item in the mail. Sent an email letting them know the item was on the way. Then I get this really great email not only saying Thanks, but offering a free item. WOW. So I tried to remember have I mentioned the person here? Nope. So here goes, this gal is amazing. If you are looking for how to improve your mental conditioning, Ideal Performance State, go check this person out. http://barbraschulte.com.

More Articles on Slaughter

More and More lately I am reading more rounded articles about horse slaughter

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748703808704576062064022541024.html

Here is one such article. I have always been for humane treatment of livestock. To me that means a well funded, rotating people, and different groups helping to make sure slaughter plants are well run. It seems to me that fees and taxes should go up, so that the departments and groups that help with these issues can be well funded.

We owe the horse, the wildlife, and yes people, to properly manage resources for all.