VIEW POINT - a collection of words and photos: (drag your mouse over each pic for details)

From the eye of the coach to the eye of the camera, we are all striving to create that perfect picture.

A picture that reflects our common goal:

"A partnership of deep and mutual understanding, athletic grace, happiness and good health."

Whether it’s time spent together in the stable or in the saddle it is always worth the effort when these goals are integral to the journey we choose to make with our horses.

My twenty plus years of teaching, riding, training, and caring for horses seems insignificant when you think back on the deep history of horses and humans working together. I’ve learned and shared many lessons over my short time and trust there are many more to come.

I am humbled by the gift our horses show every day to tolerate, trust and work for us. Through our errors, our egos and our efforts we need to reflect often on the miracle of what we are able to do with these animals!

I never tire of watching a horse move freely outside, in an arena or under saddle. I believe, if we learn to look carefully at how every horse moves, how they carry themselves and how they carry us, we can learn to make their jobs easier and their self carriage greater.

We can bring out their natural brilliance through thoughtful and progressive training and schooling.

We need to study their behavior, their subtle mannerisms, their level of understanding or confusion, their ways of communicating, their abilities and their limitations.

Every horse is unique and every horse is the same.

Every horse has a job and every horse has a gift to give.

We need to discover, in each horse we meet, that key ingredient that makes them who they are.

They come to us as balanced athletes, willing to learn and eager to perform. It is only ever by our errors in training, nutrition, riding, ill fitting tack or some other misfortune that we restrict their ability to give us their all... and then, if we are not humble, we blame that same horse for being resistant, difficult or just plain bad!

They did not ask to be there but yet they join us willingly as we gallop over fences, wade through rivers, trot down the center line to halt at X, and stand on trailers as they hurtle down the highway.

Respecting the fact that these horses we work with can also be dangerous and unpredictable it is never wise to take them for granted.

This is where the careful and often challenging balance begins. A balance that respects the horse while also recognizing that when things go wrong, they can go VERY wrong and sometimes our horses need to be corrected.

They need to clearly understand right from wrong.

Immediately.

We are not doing our horse any favor by accepting their undesirable actions, by making excuses for them or by deciding that we will correct the problem later. They need to know the error NOW, and they equally need to be rewarded the moment the desired behavior occurs.

Brilliantly Rewarded!

In the wild, a mischievous member of the herd is immediately corrected - their survival often depends on it. They accept clear rules willingly.

Waiting until a problem becomes a habit is often the root cause of so many horses receiving negative labels.

The objective must be to really know your horse, know yourself, know what is suitable for your horse, know your own abilities and limitations, carefully plan your lessons, get into the habit of working ‘with’ your horse, not ‘against’ him or her and being just as ready to reward as you are to correct.

This is where working with the right coach will not just give you the tools to win ribbons but give you the ability to train, ride, be safe and grow a great partnership in the process to possibly winning ribbons, if that is your goal!

...I once had a client at my barn comment that, "Roz knows what a horse is going to do before the horse even knows what he’s going to do!" This is only because I study horses. It’s not a gift, it’s a commitment.

I don’t believe that a weekend workshop with a training guru demonstrating training techniques to 200+ people can give you that perspective. These are very gifted horsemen and horsewomen who, in this scenario, can simply demonstrate and provide a running commentary to prove that horses are trainable!

You do not learn to train by watching, you learn to train by doing and by having an experienced coach at your side through it all. A coach that knows you, understands and cares for your horse and is not interested in producing cookie-cutter robots to suit their own needs.

But I, just like any other coach, can only teach a rider what the rider is willing and able to learn.

I put everything I can into every lesson. I always want to leave the ring at the end of a lesson or a training session with a horse who is better, mentally and physically, than the horse we had at the start of the session. And I want the rider to truly understand what was accomplished, why, how and where it will take us.

I feel this is well worth the effort and I enjoy the results every day with my riders.

Thank you all for giving your all!