Ride Every Stride | Horsemanship and Personal Growth with Van Hargis

Ride Every Stride | Horsemanship and Personal Growth with Van Hargis

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Ride Every Stride | Horsemanship and Personal Growth with Van Hargis episodes

  • Mom Will Tell You But The Horse Will Teach You - RES024

    I’m often asked how I know when the time is right to address certain horse behaviors. It makes me think back to one of my favorite quotes: “Mom will tell you but the horse will teach you.” This episode is all about the horse and the lessons they have to teach. To know when to address a certain behavior it’s always smart to have a plan for your training session. When the horse’s behavior deviates from that plan, that’s when you know it’s time to switch gears. Say you want to head out and do some trail riding, but the horse gets spooked by a wheelbarrow before making it out of the barn. This is the horse telling you what it needs to work on. Once you resolve whatever issue arises you can get back on track with your original plan. Evaluating your horse is critical to understanding what limitations and hardships will arise in training. Look at the end goal you have in mind for the horse, and then start from the very beginning and work your way forward.

    ​Key Takeaways:

    Circumstances can teach you better than being told.

    Look at the things you want your horse to be able to do. When horse behaviors interfere with those goals take the time to correct them before moving forward.

    Physical limitations may make it hard for your horse to perform in the ways you want it to. Many issues can be overcome with patience and practice, but it makes it easier if your horse is built for the riding goals you have in mind.

    Get trainers involved in the buying process. This will help you find a horse that is right for your needs and prevent the frustration of pushing a horse into a specific mold that doesn’t quite fit its physique.

    Have the discipline to map out the steps to get your horse to perform to your expectations. Examine and analyze their forward movement, control of forward movement, and stopping of forward movement. The horse will show you how specific your training needs to be in al three of these pillars of riding.

    Be tolerant. Most people tolerate bad horse behavior until something goes wrong. Then the trainer overreacts and the horse escalates that reaction.

    Examine your horse’s bloodlines and see how the horse is built. This will help tell you if your long term goals are practical and healthy for your horse.

    What do you think?

    We want to hear your questions, comments, and suggestions. Share them in the comments section below, reach out to us on the Van Hargis Horsemanship Facebook page, or email me! We want your suggestions for topics we can address in future episodes, so if there’s a particular area where you’re struggling, or just curious, let us know!

    We’d Love to Have Your Help Spreading the Word

    If you enjoy this podcast and think others would like it too, please share it with your friends and consider rating and reviewing Ride Every Stride in iTunes. It helps make the show more visible, so more people can find it, and the feedback lets us know if we’re on the right track. Thank you–your support is so appreciated.

    Learn More About My Co-Host

    My co-host, Laura McClellan, is a wife, mom to five, and attorney who also hosts The Productive Woman, a podcast about productivity for busy women.  Check it out!

    Next Time on Ride Every Stride

    We’ll be sharing more practical tips for better horsemanship (and humanship). If you don’t want to miss it, be sure to subscribe in iTunes or on Stitcher.

    Thank you for listening. Until next time . . . remember to Ride Every Stride!

    Van

     

    Van Hargis Horsemanship

    30 min
  • Horse and Rider Safety Is The Ultimate Prize – RES023
    In 43 years of riding I’ve won plenty of awards, trophies, and belt buckles. But my proudest accomplishment is the safety record I maintained in 42 of those years. This episode covers the two injuries I’ve sustained during that period and the lessons they taught me.
    When I was nine I was kicked in the face by a horse. As an only child, my closest companions were the dogs and horses I was raised with. Crawling between their legs and climbing up bare horse backs was how I played with them. I learned a hard lesson in startling the horse that kicked me. The time it took to rebuild my cheek and jaw bones let me reflect on my relationship with these animals. It led to an awareness and understanding of my responsibility to keep both myself and the horses I ride safe. Actively evaluating every stride and behavior let me ride safely and confidently for the next 42 years. However, sometimes there is little or nothing that can be done to prevent an accident—which is a lesson I learned recently when a young horse rolled over on me and broke my pelvis. I don’t mean to dredge up any anxiety that might cause you to be afraid to ride these animals. I want to help you cultivate an awareness that will strengthen the bonds between you and the horses you ride.
    Key Takeaways
    The responsibility for getting hurt lies solely with you. Horses react. They are quick and fast moving. Nine times out of ten a mistake will result in the rider getting hurt, not the horse.
    Every stride you take should be an evaluation. Stay mentally engaged and observant of your horse’s behavior. It’s the key that will help you sense dangerous situations as they arise.
    You can get hurt no matter how much of an expert you are. Some accidents are clearly preventable, others are not. Consistently practicing safety and maintaining an awareness of the horse, and its strength, is the best path to keeping yourself out of harm’s way.
    After recovering from an accident it’s okay to take things slow. You don’t have to jump straight into the saddle. Go spend time with the horse in its pasture. Work your way back to leading the animal to the tack room. Have a grooming session and throw a saddle pad on its back, but don’t be afraid to call it quits for the day at that point. Just keep working towards your goal and take things one step at a time.
    Don’t let negative thoughts about what could happen give you anxiety. Horses are living, breathing creatures. Being tense and nervous around them can spread your worry to the animal. Focus on the things you can control. Build your confidence up little by little and reflect on it before pushing yourself and the horse further.
    What do you think?
    We want to hear your questions, comments, and suggestions. Share them in the comments section below, reach out to us on the Van Hargis Horsemanship Facebook page, or email me! We want your suggestions for topics we can address in future episodes, so if there’s a particular area where you’re struggling, or just curious, let us know!
    We’d Love to Have Your Help Spreading the Word
    If you enjoy this podcast and think others would like it too, please share it with your friends and consider rating and reviewing Ride Every Stride in iTunes. It helps make the show more visible, so more people can find it, and the feedback lets us know if we’re on the right track. Thank you–your support is so appreciated.
    Learn More About My Co-Host
    My co-host, Laura McClellan, is a wife, mom to five, and attorney who also hosts The Productive Woman, a podcast about productivity for busy women. Check it out!
    Next Time on Ride Every Stride
    35 min
  • Where Are You Going? – RES022
    It’s Good to Be Back!
    I’d like to send a big thank you out to all of you who encouraged Laura and me to cut our microphones back on during the break. Your support and encouragement has helped us shake off the dust on Ride Every Stride, and we’re ready to dive back in.
    Ride Every Stride
    If there was a single message I wanted to get across in Ride Every Stride, it would be this: be present. It is so important to be in the moment and take things one step at a time. While you need to have a destination in mind, something aim for, you also have to accept the fact that your journey never ends—even after you meet your goals. Everyone’s journey with horsemanship ends up different than they imagined. Obstacles arise. Injuries happen. And maybe most important, you keep learning, which can change the route on your journey. It’s important to be honest with yourself and to stay away from self-destructive thoughts when your journey hits bumps in the road. While you may have not had a perfect ride in relation to your goal, you may have had a perfect ride for the moment. It’s all about making progress. Learning how to celebrate progress and reward yourself along the way is a cornerstone of finding a fulfilling relationship with yourself and the horses you ride.
    Key Takeaways:
    When facing new situations and tough obstacles, remember other times that you were scared or anxious and managed to persevere. Take that feeling with you into the arena and into the saddle to keep your journey moving forward.
    Meeting your goals becomes more satisfying when you open yourself up and accept your journey for what it is, and not how you imagined it would be.
    Acknowledge your successes and milestones along the way, and celebrate them. Take time to reflect on these moments, evaluate them, and use that knowledge to progress and raise the bar for yourself, and your animals.
    While some in the industry might advertise that they have the ultimate horse training secret—a magic pill if you will—I find that notion to be misleading. The truth is, there is no secret. Horses aren’t binary. There isn’t a textbook, foolproof method that applies to every animal (or human).
    Ask yourself if your thoughts about your horsemanship are productive. Are you trying to learn from your mistakes, or are you just beating yourself up over them?
    No one ever has a clear path. Maybe you’ve had to borrow saddles. Maybe you’ve had to sleep in the back of your truck, or faced an injury that left you grounded. Success comes from keeping your eyes planted on your goals in these moments, and accepting the change in your paths.
    A horse isn’t worried about yesterday or anxious about tomorrow. It survives in the moment. Horses don’t lose sleep over whether or not they won a gold medal. They aren’t comparing themselves and their performance to any other animal. Let that presence from them humble you, and keep you in the here and now.
    Understanding the horse’s strengths, weaknesses, and limitations is key, but it’s just as important to understand your own limitations as well.
    What do you think?
    We want to hear your questions, comments, and suggestions. Share them in the comments section below, reach out to us on the Van Hargis Horsemanship Facebook page, or email me! We want your suggestions for topics we can address in future episodes, so if there’s a particular area where you’re struggling, or just curious, let us know!
    We’d Love to Have Your Help Spreading the Word
    If you enjoy this podcast and think others would like it too, please share it with your friends and consider rating and reviewing Ride Every Stride in iTunes. It helps make the show more visible,
    52 min
  • Fear, Trust, & Confidence – RES017
    If fear interferes with your achievement of your horse-related goals, you're not alone. In this episode we begin a conversation about overcoming fear through developing relationships of trust, which leads to confidence. These are concepts that apply both in horsemanship and in life.
    35 min
  • Which Leg Cue Should I Use? – RES016
    After a brief update on my condition following an incident on a young horse, this episode is our response to a common question about which leg cues to use to get the desired response from a horse.
    36 min
  • One Wrinkle or Two? More on Bits – RES015
    Following up on our conversation in episode 14 about bits, we're going to talk about which bit to choose, how to adjust it (should you have one wrinkle in the corner of the horse's mouth? two wrinkles? . . . ), the types of headstalls and reins, and more.
    35 min

About Ride Every Stride | Horsemanship and Personal Growth with Van Hargis

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Welcome to Ride Every Stride with Van Hargis, a podcast about horsemanship . . . and more. Our goal is to educate, motivate, inspire, and entertain you through an exploration of everything…