Posts tagged horsemanship

This is a story and short bio I wrote a little over a year ago…you can now read it and several other encouraging short stories written by ladies all over the world in “Tough times don’t last ~ Tough women do” Now available on www.teafortheheart.com!

(Copyright © 2011 by A Cup of Tea for the Heart, LLC. All rights reserved.)

About five years ago I met one of the loves of my life— Breezy, a bay six-year-old Quarter Horse mare.She was nothing but a trail horse at the time and quite frankly not much to look at. Her coat wasn’t particularly shiny, she wasn’t all that strong and there had been a time in her life when she had been mistreated, and as a result she had  some trust issues … but none  of this mattered to me. In  fact,  at  the  time  I  didn’t  even  notice  how  unattractive she was physically. See, Breezy may have been “just a trail horse” but  when  I rode  her for the  first time, she and I  had  an  instant  bond that  even  my professional  trainers were amazed at. Horse crazy, starry-eyed, and with a passion for training horses, I was able to look right past her dull, shaggy hair, and  I saw something special in Breezy.  I wanted to help her become the best she could be.

The following fall we started making payments on Breezy  and  with  that,  I  started setting  goals  for her  and for both  of us as a team. With the help of my trainer, I was going to bring out Breezy’s inner barrel racer!

Just like in most things, there are many views on how to go  about training a barrel horse. I wanted a sure way, not  a fast  way or an  easy way,  but  a sure way.  I wanted to set her up for long-term success. Thankfully, I was blessed to know a very good trainer and friend to guide me along the way. So began the long process of building  a successful  barrel  horse!  It  started with  getting  her as healthy as possible—adding supplements to her feed, having the appropriate health professionals work on her, and exercising her every day. The next step was getting her  as “broke”  as possible … meaning,  making  sure she was a master at responding to all of the very basic cues I’d give her while on and off her back. Little did Breezy know, with each ride she was one step closer to becoming an equine athlete.

Once Breezy was in top physical condition  and well broke, it was time for the skill drills! Skill drills are exercises to practice different components of the barrel pattern before trying to master the entire pattern all at once. At a glance, barrel racing is simply 4 straight lines and  3 turns, but when the timer is counting down to the hundredth of each second, every tiny detail of those lines and circles count! Rather than trying to shove all the information for the entire pattern into both my horse’s and my head at  once, we  did  skill  drills.  And  skill  drills  we  did! There was a drill that  taught us how to line up for the first barrel turn, another drill taught us how to leave a barrel turn, yet another drill that taught us how to quickly pick up speed and then quickly slow down again for another tight turn. The list goes on. Some of the drills came naturally, and we mastered them in little time. Other drills took weeks and weeks before Breezy understood and we did them  once correctly. Always, the more  calm, trusting, and focused on me that Breezy was, the quicker we were able to move  on.  With each ride, Breezy  and  I became closer and a better working team. Over time, Breezy learned that she could totally trust me and that if she simply tried what I asked, there  would be a reward. With each of these drills I was teaching Breezy  something, a small piece of the big pattern that was to come. Of course, she was learning these small components along the way without any idea that  they’d  all  be  fitting  together someday. I  purposely kept Breezy from seeing the big picture of the full pattern until she had mastered all of the pieces (including trust) first.

Where am I going with this anyway? The analogy didn’t really  dawn  on  me  until  this  year,  but  I  think  God  has a few  skill  drills  up  His  sleeve!  I  have  often  found  myself in a situation that seemed like it had no point other than frustration, only to find out later it had  a lesson to learn or reminder in it.I’m sure you’ve had  many  of these experiences as well. Sometimes it’s just a little thing you learn about yourself; sometimes it’s a huge  lesson about life. I like to think this means God is training us the sure way. He’s setting us up for long-term success! Even recently I’ve been in situations full of frustration and heartache that I still have  yet to understand what  I’m supposed to learn from  them, but  here’s the exciting  thing  about  that—it means God  isn’t  done with  me  yet!  It  means God  sees past all the dirt, horse hair, and more importantly—the sin that  I’m constantly covered in. He’s looking into my heart and He is seeing something special. God is sending all these ‘skill drills’ my way to see how I handle them,  for me to learn life skills, and most of all for me to learn to trust Him  completely  so that  He can  train  me  to be  the  best I can be. How exciting! No matter how confusing and tough the situation is, it gives me such a peace knowing God is my trainer!  Just like  I kept  Breezy  from seeing  the  barrel pattern until she was ready, God is keeping me from being able  to  see His  life  plan  for me  until  I’m  ready.  If  I  keep calm, trusting, and focused on Him through all of the skill drills, with God as my trainer … how can  I go wrong?!

So what happened? Today, Breezy is a successful barrel horse, and she continues to stay consistent and move forward.  Not  only  that,  but  she’s  gorgeous!  I  constantly get comments on her beauty, her shiny coat, long soft mane and tail, and beautiful head. She’s not always the fastest horse in the arena but she’s a crowd favorite wherever we go.

Breezy is a constant reminder to me. Occasionally she’ll  think  she now  has barrel  racing  mastered—I  can just see it in her eyes when she’s thinking, Kelci, I could win this race by myself. I don’t need your help! Well she’s probably right, but her attitude isn’t very nice. Since we do have to work as a team, if she goes into the arena with that  attitude, we aren’t going to succeed. It’s those days that I see Breezy as a good  reminder to check my attitude. I’m afraid all too often  I find I have  the same disrespectful attitude: God, I can handle this situation by myself. I don’t need your help this time! Wow. How dare  I?!  There  is  no way with that  attitude I’m going to succeed in the  ‘arena of life.’ Now, when Breezy is willing, trusting, and runs her heart out for me at a race, she’s a perfect example of the complete  trust and  willingness  I  should  have  in  and  for the Lord. Her heart and determination are an inspiration to me.  I pray  that  I run the  race  of life determined and  with my whole heart in it for the Lord!

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge Him,

and He will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:5

Kelci L. Goad

I’m nineteen years old and  blessed with strong Christian parents, three brothers, one  ‘sister-in-love’  and  two  horses. Homeschooling  all  the way through high school has been one  of the  biggest blessings in my life thus far. I was able to discover and  explore my passion for training horses and  training people to train horses in much more  detail because of the  flexible schedule of studying from home. Along with training and competing on my own  horse, I had  several horse-related jobs through my high school years, including everything from mucking out  stalls to being a training apprentice my senior year with one  of the  leading professional trainers and  barrel racers in the Northwest. Now with a dream to turn  my passion  into  a career, I’m  going  to continue  my education studying equine business. I can’t wait to introduce more  people both young  and  old to the  wonderful world of horses!

This story is from Tough Times Don’t Last ~ Tough Women Do, now available on www.teafortheheart.com.

Copyright © 2011 by A Cup of Tea for the Heart, LLC. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in
any way by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise without the
prior permission of the authors except as provided by USA copyright law.

All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New
International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.
Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

 I was talking with my friend about riding this week. There was mention of hauling to a different arena to ride. I don’t remember exactly what she said next but she mentioned something about “riding together”. The conversation went on for a couple of minutes when all of the sudden I realized she and I were talking about two totally different things. We back-tracked in our conversation and figured out the root of the confusion. For some reason, when she said riding together I thought “hauling/driving together”…of course, she meant riding our horses.

Communication confusion ever happen to you?

A few hours later I had managed to wander from homework to watching some horsemanship videos. (Shocker, right?) Specifically, I was bouncing back and forth between Chris Cox, Clinton Anderson, Dan James, and Jonathan Field. I heard some of these guys say something I’ve heard them say a thousand times, something I know I can improve on but something I’m very aware of. However, after my conversation earlier with my friend I had a break-through from the perspective of teaching horsemanship…or, at least a good analogy to stick in my toolkit. Jonathan Field said: “When you are having problems, go back and find the weaker place in the communication” Clinton Anderson said: “If you run into trouble, it means you’ve found a hole in your communication and you’ve got some work to do”.

You’ve probably figured out the analogy already…it’s really not that ground-breaking. But hey, I was excited!

When you get confused in a conversation, it’s not looked at as a very mature or reasonable thing to do to throw your hands in the air and say “I give up!”.

Think about this –

Billy: Good morning!

Bob: Mornin’

Billy: What’s wrong?

Bob: Nothing…

Billy: Then why did you say “mornin’?

Bob: Ugh…I give up! This friendship just isn’t going to work.

Ok, so that was lame. But you get the idea. All it would have taken was Bob saying “oh, I meant mornin’ as in good morning!” To settle the confusion and to go about the normal day.

Likewise, it’s not seen as a very reasonable and mature thing to do to chew someone out for being confused. Again, think with me –

Billy: Good morning!

Bob: Mornin’

Billy: What’s wrong?

Bob: NOTHING IS WRONG! UGH, WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU THINK SOMETHING IS WRONG? LISTEN MISTER, GET OFF MY CASE. ALL I WAS DOING WAS GREETING YOU AND THEN YOU ARE ALL OVER ME LIKE A CRAZY PERSON. YOU NEVER LISTEN BUT YOU BETTER START LISTENING BECAUSE IF NOT I’M ABOUT TO MAKE YOU LISTEN!

Laugh all you want but these are the types of conversations I see going on between horse and rider all the time. And when you think about it, it’s ridiculous. Take a step back, and see what you can do to make your communication more clear.

When your barrel horse is running past the barrel…don’t go straight to the harder bit, back up in the conversation. Make sure you’ve got rate at a walk, trot, and lope before you expect it to be crystal clear at a run.

When your halter/showmanship horse doesn’t have a perfect side pass when you snap your finger, back up in the conversation. Make sure you can get a perfect side pass with your hand before expecting it with a snap.

And so on… :)

Keeping me in the moment. -

A couple of days ago I heard someone say something like “Horses, especially young ones - are really good at keeping you in the moment”.  Of course, it got my writing wheels spinning. When riding a young horse, one cannot afford to allow anything outside of that ride to distract. It’s key to stay calm, cool and collected, yet completely tuned in on every move the horse makes until you have two feet safely on the ground again. If your phone rings, ignore it. Or better yet, turn it on silent before you get on the horse. If the wind blows a Wal-Mart bag across the pen, ignore it. If the horse spooks at the bag, your focus should still remain on the horse, not on the bag…one of you focusing on the bag is already one to many. If there is something going on in your life that is affecting you emotionally, block out the situation. Don’t allow your mind to drift. Focus solely and completely on the horse and what you want the horse to do, where you want the horse to go.  If you can’t keep this focus, staying in the moment with your horse – either be prepared to eat a lot of dirt or know that colt starting is definitely not for you. ;-p

You can see here one of the many reasons I feel that “life is best viewed through the ears of a horse”. I can take a good life lesson from colt starting. Staying in the moment both emotionally and physically to get the job done, whatever it may be. Not allowing myself to be distracted by outside circumstances but focusing solely on where I am now and where I want to go next.

(Kelci L. Goad)

“Starting a colt is like playing an instrument; if you lose your rhythm it doesn’t sound very pretty. ” -Chris Cox

“If you have one eye on yesterday, and one eye on tomorrow, you’re going to be cockeyed today.”  ~Author Unknown

There are those who mistakenly take my outlook on life and horsemanship as being happy or excited about messing up or making a mistake. To me, positive thinking is not about creating a fairytale land where everything is always rainbows and sunshine and the Prince always rides in a perfectly groomed, perfectly mannered horse sweeping up the Princess to be with perfectly curled hair and too much eye make-up. Nor is it about knocking all three barrels over at a barrel race but coming out with a smile on your face saying “wow, that felt sooo good!”. No. Positive thinking involves recognizing mistakes, mess ups, and hard circumstances yet not allowing yourself or your attitude to be defined by these things.

As far as competition goes, positive thinking is about keeping your mind in a state to think clearly…in order that you can do what it takes to fix the mistake and come back better the next day. It’s not about never feeling anger or frustration, for there is nothing wrong with these emotions. It is about not allowing yourself to be controlled and consumed by the anger or frustration. Because it’s in those moments where you will do something to your horse you will regret. Allowing yourself to be controlled by anger, frustration and even disappointment, throws the very definition of horsemanship out the window. If it’s true horsemanship you are after, the only emotions that belong in the saddle are humor, patience, love, and respect. In my opinion, it is when you are able to achieve this…that you will be well on your way to becoming a true horseman or horsewoman.

(Kelci L. Goad)

“You can’t expect to prevent negative feelings altogether. And you can’t expect to experience positive feelings all the time. The Law of Emotional Choice directs us to acknowledge our feelings but also to refuse to get stuck in the negative ones.” -Greg Anderson

It’s no secret that barrel racing (and almost any sport, really) is 90% mental. A good instructor and trainer will tell you above all else, you’ve got to have your mind right. If you’ve done your homework (which not so ironically fits in to that mental category) and your head is truly focused on what you need to do, 99.9% of the time you’ll do it! Because of this, those who are serious about the sport and success will actually take the time to train their brain as well as train their bodies. Training our minds includes things like reading books and watching videos on equestrian phycology and training philosophy, visualizing the perfect ride and making a point only think through what we need to do, not what we need to not do. It’s not an uncommon sight to see a girl sitting on her horse in the corner of the warm up arena not just thinking, but purposefully thinking. Thinking about exactly what she is going to do when her name is called 5 runners from now. It’s pretty easy to watch a warm up pen full of riders and pick out the ones that are going for the gold and the ones who are just there to have fun.

There are those who ride around at a walk in groups of four, just chattin’ it up with their friends and they may or may not hear when the announcer calls their name….but the kicker is, they don’t really care! If they don’t get to race that night because they were chatting, it’s okay with them…they are just there to have a good time. However that goodtime happens is cool with them. If and when these people do run, they will certainly have a crowd cheering them on. But at the end of the weekend, they are broke and exhausted but have nothing to show for it. Granted, they do have some memories.

Then there is that girl with her eyes closed, sitting alone in the corner of the arena 5 people before her run. The guy doing rollbacks along the fence to remind both the horse and himself to shift their weight. The girl flexing her horse and making sure her horse is in-tune with her. These people are not rude when greeted by other riders, but they will smile, say a few encouraging words of good luck and then go back to focusing. And it is these riders that barrel racers of all levels look to for advise and instruction. It’s these barrel racers that create a crowd by the gate to watch them run…not because they called everyone over and said “hey watch me I’m awesome!” but because the second the announcer says their name, the warm up pen becomes silent. The girl and her horse trot out of the dark corner so focused on the pocket at the first barrel that she barely even hears her friend say those encouraging words of confidence “make a run!” and everyone knows, this is going to be a run worth watching. These riders may be exhausted at the end of the weekend, but more often than not they are rich and have a pretty gold buckle to show for it.

So, if it is so incredibly important to have your mind right in order to have a successful 16 second run, I have to wonder…is this also true for this race we call life? If we put so much time in to preparing our minds for a barrel race why wouldn’t we understand the importance of preparing our minds to meet Christ? If we spend time purposefully thinking why would we not spend time purposefully praying? If we are careful about who we haul with to the race why would we not be careful about who we hang out with on a regular basis? If we spend time reading training philosophy books why would we not spend even more time reading the Bible? If we make such an effort not to think about the things we need to do rather than the things we need to not do in our barrel run, why wouldn’t we do the same in life?

I have to ask myself, in this life – am I running for the gold or am I just here to have a good time? Will I be ready and waiting when God calls my name, or will I be too busy chatting to notice. I hope and pray I am the girl ready and waiting. The girl focused on what needs to be done but still aware enough to give a smile and encouraging words to everyone she meets. The girl who people are drawn to for advise not because she makes a big deal of it, but because people see a rare quality in her. The girl people rush to the entry gate to see because everyone knows, this will be a life worth watching.

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.

Watch your words, for they become actions.

Watch your actions, for they become habits.

Watch your habits, for they become character.

Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny. — Author Unknown

So watch your thoughts….

Last semester I took a course on Equine Business Management. In the first unit we were asked to define what success meant to us within our equine endevours because that would be the driving force in our business plan. Of course, regardless of what success meant to us we had to come up with a solid plan finacially and legally, but what does success look like to me? Is it the money? (ha, if you are in the horse business for the money you are confused ;-p) Is it the horses themselves? Is it my own personal success in the show ring? Well, lucky for me I had already experienced a small glimps of what success in my equine endevours will look like.

During the summer of ‘09 I experience what success is to me. I was watching one of my first students compete in her county 4-H showmanship class - a little 8 year old girl who, 4 months before would have literally been shaking in her boots and possibly crying from nerves. But not this time. She walked out with a smile on her face and a winning attitude in heart and mind. My heart was pounding…I was more nervous for her than I have ever been for myself. The pattern wasn’t perfect, but it was very good for an 8 year old. As she stood in the lineup waiting for the placings I wanted so badly to hear her name called for a blue ribbon, and I wanted desperately to run out in to the arena, give her a hug and tell her how proud I was of her! The announcer called the white ribbons, the red ribbons, the blue ribbons, and started in to the placings…I was scared, thinking they had skipped her name. When she was the last one standing in the arena they called her name. Grand Champion. When I met her in the warm up pen she jumped into my arms squealing with delight. That summer I won Grand myself multiple times, I was the #1 girl on our state team and I won the 1st place year-end buckle for youth NBHA in my district….but I’ve never felt such success as I did when that little girl’s name was called. As good as it feels to win a blue and purple ribbon or a buckle; my success will be defined by my students. By their growth and development in their riding, partnership with their horse, and in their ability to keep a winning attitude. While other things will be important to my business, my students success is above all else.