Pursuing The Passion “don’t give up”

    We just held our annual “Women Over 35” Confidence Clinic. I think it is the fourth one we have done and we always hold it over Memorial Weekend. I have to say that, by far, this particular clinic was one of the best clinics we have ever hosted in all of our years of doing them.
    This year we included Anke Johnson, a life skills coach and excellent horsewomen, as part of the clinic experience, and it seemed like everything clicked into place. Anke has the same desire and passion that I have, which is to see people stay safe, be relaxed and enjoy their horse experience.
    Many of the women that come to this clinic are either new to the horse industry or coming back into it and though they have a passion for horses they also find that they have fears, confidence issues and a lack of knowledge of how the horse thinks and reacts. The goal with our Confidence Clinics is to help our participants understand their horse, realize how their horse thinks and learns, understand how our emotions effect the horse and what steps they need to be doing to achieve the respect of the horse and overcome any fear or confidence issues. It’s really kind of a tall order for a two day clinic, but I saw many participants grow by leaps and bounds at this years clinic. I learned a few things too, but find that is often the case with any clinic I am doing.
    The combination of information that we were able to provide by working as a team with the participants was, I thought, above the norm. Anke and I were on the same page from the start and she really helped facilitate reaching in and getting to the emotional aspect of working with horses and all the anxieties and areas of lack of confidence that arise. Anke was also able to help me work with the participants at a much deeper level that I had achieved in the past.
We worked with a number of individuals on just learning how to breath and relax when anx-ieties arose, and on giving yourself permission to work at your own pace and not what others think you should be doing. There is a fine line there, between making excuses and pushing ahead into the next challenge, but you just have to become aware of that line and use it to your benefit.
    We taught a number of training and desensitizing techniques on respect , control, and how to recognize behaviors, both horse and human. Often, confidence issues on the riders part are based on a lack of knowledge and experience on how to recognize what is happening and how to handle it. We misread the horse and think it is stubborn or naughty, when all along the horse is just looking to it’s owner to provide leadership. Great strides can be achieved when we learn to understand the mentality of the horse, the herd mentality. Recognizing behavior patterns, both the riders and the horses, for what they are, is the very, very first step and sometimes that step can be the hardest. We need to learn that it is okay if “we don’t know what it is that we don’t know” as long as we are willing to work at filling in the education gaps. At times, even when the issue is recognized, and we have the knowledge to correct it, we don’t know that we can break the training techniques down into smaller steps and take each item step by step, so we try to do to much all at once and end up not having the success we desire. Learning how to break techniques down into bits and pieces is often essential to our success.
    I have often talked about how we are always training our horses. What is easy for me to recognize, because of the fact that I work with horses from sunup to sundown and have for most of my life, is not necessarily going to come naturally or easily to an individual that has not had that opportunity. We have to become aware of what it is we are doing when we are around our horses. Just having a horse goes far beyond just going to the barn and riding, but if we can become educated and get the knowledge we need to learn to control what could essentially be a 1000 pound killing machine, we can probably handle just about anything else that life can through at us. Most things in life come down to learning the right techniques to deal with the situations that arise and horses seem to be great facilitators in this process, whether it is about the horse or about life in general. This might be what the appeal and passion for the horse is all about.
    Not every trainer can facilitate the positive things I saw happen this weekend and I realized that It often takes the right individual or combination of individuals to help us work with fear and confidence issues. So I would tell someone reading this - “don’t give up” - there is help if you are willing to seek it and get educated. If this is something you have an incredibly strong desire to accomplish then stick with it, but get the help you need and deserve to have.

About Dennis Auslam.
Dennis has been a trainer for over 29 years, working with many different breeds and disciplines. He grew up with horses and has worked with some of the best trainers in the industry. His passion is horses and people and he loves helping people learn how to work with their horses, progress in their riding abilities and make that connection with their horse.
You will find Dennis at various horse related events in 2011. He also does numerous clinics and demos, concentrating on Confidence Building for the horse and the rider. For information regarding his clinics please visit his web site at
www.redwoodstables.com.
Interested in hosting a clinic? Call 507-525-6691 or email us at
redwoodstables@mvtvwireless.com