The Horse Fix
The Horse Fix
The Art of Collection: Horses, Thoughts, and Navigating Life
Hello everyone. You're listening to the Horse Fix, where you can get that horse fix, perhaps fix your horse and maybe even help yourself along the way. I'm Dr Sandra Holt and I'm coming to you from my studio here in Longview Texas. Sandra Holt and I'm coming to you from my studio here in Longview Texas. It has been a minute since the last podcast and, oh, my apologies everyone. I have been really busy and I've been procrastinating. I can't believe it's been since January since the last one, so please forgive me. Know that I've made a promise to myself to do more because I really love doing them and I'm hoping that you love listening to them as well. I do want to say thank you to all of you who, no matter when I do a podcast, you're in there listening. I love the fact that there are still people all around the world that can get my podcast and do, in fact, listen and ask questions and respond, so thank you for that.
Speaker 1:I'm going to dedicate this podcast to my Uncle Mel. Uncle Mel passed away earlier this week. He was a terrific man. He laughed at his own jokes. A terrific man. He laughed at his own jokes. He listened to. You had no question in your mind whether he was tuned into you when you were talking to him. He was brilliant. He was a provider, a good husband, a good father and a great uncle. I would want more people to be like Uncle Mel in this world kind and gentle, generous and loving. At any rate, uncle Mel, I already miss you If you're listening to this. Thank you for what you've given me through my life.
Speaker 1:So today's podcast is going to be about collection Collection of things, collection of thoughts, collection of the horse and what all of those mean to us individually. So let's get started. As you know, it is September. Weather-wise, it's still quite warm here in Texas. I grew up in Michigan and it was even warm in Michigan. Usually in the beginning of September We'd start school and, of course, we insisted on wearing our new school clothes that were made of wool. So we'd go to school and be very hot that day, but we had our new clothes on, so it was all good. At any rate, the weather's starting to get to be awesome riding weather Just perfect to ride your horse or to play golf or to garden. I love the outdoors in the fall.
Speaker 1:Today's episode is going to be about collection, and I think I mentioned that and I think I mentioned that. We're going to talk about how it affects us and what we can do in the way of collecting our thoughts or editing out a collection that we might have gone overboard on things-wise, and the collection of the horse, of course, let me start with a little story. Of course, let me start with a little story. Have you ever tried to sweep feathers? Now, I'm talking about those little down fluffy feathers that come in pillows and things like that. Well, it's not easy to collect them, to gather them all together with a broom. I know this because it happened to me the other day. I decided I was going to take the cover off of my pillows on my sofa and replace them with some newer covers. Well, I unzipped the cover and I didn't realize that I was also unzipping the pillow itself and suddenly there was an explosion ofed feathers that came into the air, into my face, my hair, the floor, the sofa, all over the place. See, I had the fan on the overhead fan and so they were just, and I had it on high because it was warm and they just went everywhere. So I turned the fan off, of course, and they started to settle down. I thought you know, I've got a mess here to clean up. So I grabbed the broom and I start sweeping. You can imagine the harder I swept, the more they stirred up and the worse it got and the harder it got to collect them all together and to clean up the mess. So you know, life's kind of like that sometimes, isn't it? We just feel like our life one day might just end up being all kinds of down feathers flying in the air and annoying us, causing problems, and we can't seem to get a hold of them. That's the other thing. If you try and catch feathers, especially those little fluffy down ones, it's impossible. Yes, I do know that too. So I learned from that little scenario that the cliche work smart instead of hard applied to that. The harder I worked with these feathers, the harder I swept, the worse they got. So I had to come up with a different plan in order to make things settle down a little bit. So then, not only did I need to collect all the feathers together, gather them together, I had to begin a collection of thoughts and put in order in my thinking how I was going to take care of all these feathers. Collecting our thoughts can be pretty daunting at times, depending on the circumstance, of course, and depending on what we're thinking about, for instance, when we're riding our horses and we're trying to have some communication with them so that they can begin to have some thoughtfulness. And then, of course, there's the collection of the horse. The collection of the horse is the entire podcast and we are going to touch on that a little bit, but not 100%. For you non-horse people out there, collecting a horse is gathering up his body parts, so to speak, having him lift his back and withers and soften his pole and soften his ribcage and reach underneath himself and lighten up his front end. That's what collection is all about. It's a balance, so to speak. So that's a completely different type of collection, and you know the collection of things Well.
Speaker 1:At the moment I'm helping a good friend of mine. Actually, it's my husband's ex-wife, so it's my stepdaughter's mother. Well, we have become good friends and we call each other wife-in-law, so I'm over at wife-in-law's house helping her with a move. She moved from Henderson to Longview. It's been quite the project and she helped me pack and move from Aubrey to Longview. So I promised her that I would help her, and so my part of the job is to unpack her. Her daughter helped her pack and now I'm helping her unpack and put things away. Well, let me tell you and I know she'll be listening to this podcast Sorry, carolyn, but here it goes she has a huge collection of everything.
Speaker 1:I mean everything. She has a huge collection of china, not just one set, but a collection of several sets. She has a huge collection of crystal, not just some crystal, but a lot of crystal, different types of crystal, waterford, etc. She has a huge collection of paper towels. She has a huge collection of safety pins. She has a huge collection of family portraits. She has a huge collection of beanie babies. I'm telling you you name it and she has a huge collection of it. And her house isn't exactly huge. It's a nice decent size, but her collections definitely overpower her house. So it's been quite the project for me to help her get things organized and get them where they belong. Collections are good to a point, Carolyn. So let's, in the days and weeks to come, I think we'll be editing a little bit of her collections, as much as she can bear. Anyway, she's sentimental and she loves her collections and many of us do, so we've got a little challenge on our hands.
Speaker 1:It turns out, as I'm beginning to find out, that many East Texas women have collections, collections of all kinds of things, including ex -husbands. I love these East Texas women and I'm hoping to do some more podcasts about them and with them, particularly with Carolyn. We'll see, so I digress, but it was worth saying, all kidding aside. What collection is? I've mentioned it before it's a gathering of things. Even the collection of a horse that's kind of where the term came from it's gathering of his body and pulling it all together, organizing it. And the reason we want our horses collected is for their own balance and their longevity. The more you can collect your horse and have it underneath himself, the better off he'll be long-term with soundness of his legs and the easier it'll be to ride. If you're performing in the show, it's much easier for the horse and for the rider if he's collected to do the certain maneuvers that you have to do.
Speaker 1:But what about the bad collections? And what I'm talking about there mostly is the collection of bad habits or the collection of bad thoughts. You know they say that you can't control your very first thought that enters your mind for that day or that moment. But you can control the thoughts after that. So, for example, if I wake up in the morning and my first thought is, oh, it's going to be a horrible day, well, the thoughts that I collect after that are up to me, and so I'm going to change that thought. Of course I'm going to say no, it's not, it's going to be a great day. And here's why, first of all, I woke up. Secondly, I'm surrounded by love. I am surrounded by the things and the people and the precious memories that I have. So, you know, you change your thought process and you change that collection of thoughts so that they end up being something that will carry you through the day and you'll have a pleasant day instead of your original thought of having a bad one.
Speaker 1:There's also the collection of bad habits. One bad habit will lead into another bad habit and, before you know it, your collection of bad habits has kind of turned your life into a negative circumstance. I can think of a young man who is working toward launching out of his house and becoming his own person. The collection of bad habits that he might have, like sleeping in, not getting to the job on time, staying up all night, playing video games, etc. You know, the collection of bad habits there will not lead him to success In those types of collections. We need to definitely change them and start collecting good habits. So you basically replace the bad habits with good habits and there's the collection of success and the collection of failure. When we have success, it gives us the momentum and the drive to go further and to have more successes.
Speaker 1:You don't have to lean on the huge successes to carry yourself forward. Start hunting the small successes, for instance, my doing this podcast today. You know I've been procrastinating and I've been allowing myself to have excuses for not doing this, even though I love it. Well, today I'm successful because I have done this. It's a small thing in the scheme of life, but I'm doing a podcast and so I'm going to count that success today, even if I have no others, but I will. Throughout the day. I'm going to count this one is up to your thinking and up to your interpretation of what success is, but what I'm saying is collect those successes, stack them up and use them to get yourself going the next day.
Speaker 1:Now, then, we can't talk about success without talking about failure. What about collecting those failures? You may think I'm going to say to dismiss them, to forget about your failures, but I'm not. I'm going to tell you to collect those failures, review them, analyze them, set them out on the table and look at them and say what did I learn from those failures? For me personally, the failures that I have had, the biggest ones, have been my biggest turning point. So I'm saying it's necessary to have failures and it's necessary to collect them through life, because without failures there would be no self-development, no self-growth. So then, that is my collection of collections, and I hope that by listening to this, it may help you to discover what your own collections are and how valuable they are to you and how, wife-in-law, you might want to edit them a little bit. At any rate, enough said Okay. Now I'm going to go on to the question-answer part of the podcast. Go on to the question answer part of the podcast.
Speaker 1:I picked a letter that has to do with collecting horses, since that would be suiting for this podcast. This lady that wrote in via email said she was a bit confused about her horse and collection. So she writes this Dear Dr Holt. Dear Dr Holt, I am a 60-year-old woman that just started back showing in Western Pleasure. I used to show as a pre-team in open shows and 4-H. Now I am having a lot of fun, but I never seem to place.
Speaker 1:At the last show I went to the judge and asked how I could improve. He said that my horse is not collected. I am very confused by this, because my horse keeps its head down through the whole class. He's very steady and consistent, no matter what gate we are in. I don't see how the judge would think we were not collected. Can you shed some light on this and tell me what I can do to fix it? Sincerely, carrie Whitefield, chicago, illinois. Hi, carrie, thanks for your letter. You're from Chicago and that's my old stomping grounds, so to speak, and it's fun to hear from a fellow Midwesterner.
Speaker 1:First of all, let me say that you're not alone in your confusion about collection and I'm glad that you wrote this letter because I think it will help a lot of other people as well. So you mentioned that you're 60, and back when you learned how to ride and to show, your definition of collection was keeping the horse's head down. Well, back in the day there was much to do and a lot of focus on keeping the horse's head down and steady, and that was interpreted as a horse being collected, but it really wasn't true. The horse was not collected. The horse simply had vertical flexion, which you do need for collection. But that's only a small part of a horse being collected. I think that collection is one of the most misunderstood aspects of the training program of horses. I believe that we're really talking about a horse being balanced and having self-carriage.
Speaker 1:In the past people thought that cranking on the horse's face would translate into changing the horse's body into a collected state. But really just yanking on the horse's face is pretty meaningless. You need to teach your horse that when you apply vertical flexion and you put pressure on their face flexion and you put pressure on their face, they need to gather up their position with their legs, their feet, their hindquarters, their ribcage, their withers. How do we do that? I'm going to give you some exercises here in a second. But basically you need to create softness and you need to get your horse to lift its back under your seat. You want them to put a change to their body. You don't want them to just put their chin into their chest and not just give you their face, but you want them to change their stride. You want them to engage their hindquarters and you want them to be soft under your seat. Always remember that when you're applying rein pressure, you also must apply leg pressure. This will get your horse to lift its body and lower its head and then release when he does that and then do it again when he falls apart. It's important to always use your legs when you use your rein. Having said that, when I'm talking about these exercises coming up, remember that it is leg and rein. It's not just rein. His leg in rain, it's not just rain.
Speaker 1:So, carrie, next time you ride your horse, I want you to really concentrate on feeling what he's doing and how he's moving under your seat. Try to stay off of the reins. In other words, don't hang onto the reins, Don't try and hold them in any position, but get him to drive his back end, his hindquarters, up into your hands. Think of it like that. Think of it like he's actually riding uphill. That'll keep him from dumping over and being strung out. But I want you to feel it like I said. I want you to, if you're safe, contain yourself in a smaller arena and, every so often, close your eyes for a couple of seconds, see if you can feel the horse's movement. Is he lifting up into your seat or is he hollowing out, strung out and pulling himself along rather than driving himself forward? You may discover that he is pulling himself and driving himself forward, and he can do that with his head down, which may be what he is doing in the show pen.
Speaker 1:So let's fix that. This is called the horse fix, after all. So what I want you to do is do a couple of drills. What I want you to do is do a couple of drills, and one of them is to walk and trot around cones. Now I want you to set cones out randomly in the arena and go from one to the other, but circle one several times before you go to the next one. And at the trot, I want you to circle 10 meters, far enough away from the cone, but keep it equal, and then slowly spiral in so that you're real close to that cone.
Speaker 1:Now, as you get closer, the horse's tendency will probably be to dump over, will probably be to dump over, to dive in on that inside shoulder. So I want you to be very aware of that. And when he starts to do that, I want you to do two things. The first thing is to immediately turn your horse. Let's say you're starting to the left and you're going around and that left shoulder starts to dive in as you get closer to the cone in the smaller circle. Well, I want you to immediately go to your right and do a little circle there with no cone. Just do a nice small circle right there and then go back over to your left and do a circle over around that cone. Now, if he continues to dive in which he probably will in the beginning, I want you to lift that inside shoulder with your left hand and your left ring. Lift that shoulder, put more weight in your right stirrup and help him to balance around that cone. At the same time, help him to bend around your leg and around that comb. So now you've got a horse that has lifted his shoulder around the corner, around the comb, and is balanced and is now starting to drive underneath himself.
Speaker 1:Once you feel that the horse is nice and soft and he's not dumping into that cone and he's actually being balanced, go to the next cone, Change your direction, go now to the right and repeat the same process. Do this a lot and you'll find that your circles will start to get softer and will start to get more balanced. If he is not balanced, you'll feel the shift of his rear quarters. Basically, you'll lose his rear quarters to the outside. So rather than arcing around that cone to the outside, so rather than arcing around that cone, you'll find that you're kind of pivoting around that cone, with the front feet being the pivot point, and so the hindquarters is swinging out. And when you feel that you need to bend your horse around, now how you bend your horse around your horse around, Now how you bend your horse around Put your inside leg forward at the girth and put your outside leg back behind the girth. Now what you're doing is you're pushing the hind quarters in and you're holding the front quarters up and out, so that you're creating an arc that's going to help your horse balance, and balance is all about self-carriage.
Speaker 1:Now the next thing I want you to do is I want you to walk, trot and lope down the fence line and start at the walk. Walk down the fence line, ask for a stop, then turn your horse in toward the fence. So if you're loping, or if you're walking down the fence line with your shoulder at the fence, your right shoulder at the fence, so you're going left, you're going to stop, you're going to pivot to the right and then you're going to immediately continue that same speed, that same gait, down the fence line and stop and do it again. So you're going to do this at a walk, you're going to do this at a trot, and then you're going to do it at a lope. Do this at a walk, you're going to do this at a trot, and then you're going to do it at a lope. What that's going to do is help you to gather your horse up so that he drives forward with his back legs, moving underneath himself and rounding out his body and moving forward. Don't worry about the speed, don't worry about his head at this time or his neck at this time. You're focusing on the hindquarters at this point.
Speaker 1:So we're kind of taking different segments and elements of training and we're going to put them all together so that your horse begins to learn to do this by himself. So, in other words, carrie, rather than loping around asking for his face and ignoring the rest of his body, rather than doing that, you're tending to every piece of him and you're collecting all those pieces up into a nice package where he's rounded, soft and fluid and he's going to be more comfortable. And you're going to be more comfortable. You'll be able to do a lot more maneuvers, you'll be able to go around the arena with collection. You're going to feel the difference. Trust me on this. That's just a couple of exercises and I didn't want to overwhelm you by giving you any more. After you have worked on these two exercises and start feeling the difference in your horse, these two exercises, and start feeling the difference in your horse, contact me and we'll go on to the next level. I think you will find that next time you go on the show pen, you're going to get a different response from the judge.
Speaker 1:So, folks, that's collection in a nutshell. Folks, that's collection in a nutshell. And you know, like working with the horse, gather up yourself, bring your collection of who you are into you and become soft, become fluid. And become soft, become fluid, become easy, because collection is all about ease when it comes to the horse. So become easy within yourself. I talked about my wife-in-law and she has developed a good model about not letting life take charge of her, but her taking charge of life and collecting herself into a good frame of mind. So I'm going to leave you with that that, at the end of the day, collect your thoughts, collect your self-worth, collect who you are, Pull it all together, gather it up, package yourself into what you want to be and go on with yourself. Or, as my wife-in-law, carolyn would say, just go about your bad self. Okay, that's it for me today. I'm going to see you soon, or at least you're going to hear me soon, and until next time, may all your blues be ribbons Bye-bye.