Tea Time with Elsa

Chatting about: How much freedom can your horse handle…

In this episode I talk about the idea that some horses can handle freedom better than others. A horse’s ability to handle freedom is dependent on multiple factors such as their emotional maturity, the environment they live in, the quality of the decisions they make in their ability to keep them safe and gain them friends, their ability to cope with stress, and the associations they have with their own decision making skills. We talk about making decisions for our horses based on their capacity for freedom and how we can help set horses up to develop their decision making skills and emotional maturity to find safety, comfort and enjoyment.

Originally aired on: September 9th, 2022

Chatting about: Underprepared or over-prepared…

In this episode I talk about the feelings and dynamics of being underprepared versus over-prepared on a spectrum. We talk about the effects the level of preparedness we feel we have has on our stress levels as well as what we can do with horses we don’t know when we enter situations unprepared to maintain a level of confidence and comfort in ourselves.

Originally aired on: July 28th, 2022

Chatting about: Right and wrong…

In this episode I talk about the controversy of deciding what is right and wrong for our horses. We all have our own opinions of what is right and wrong and one person's opinion may differ from another person’s and that is okay. We can all only do the best that we can, with what we know and what we have and we can weigh up the pros and cons and understand all of the risks involved in our choices. More often than not, that really is the most that we can do in any one moment. From there we can analyze the choices we made in the moment and see how they feel to us and how they made the relationship feel.

Originally aired on: July 12th, 2022

Chatting about: Sharing food with horses...

In this episode I talk about the dynamics of bringing food into the relationship with our horses. Freedom Based Training® is a slow process and sometimes we want to speed the process up, whether it’s to reach personal goals or for the health and safety of the horse. Whatever the reason may be, we get to decide the kind of pressure we apply to speed up the progress. With the example of my donkey friends Elektra and Eli, I talk about how we can use food resources with good tact, feel and timing that is attuned to the horse’s needs to successfully help us speed up their progress.

Originally aired on: July 8th, 2022

Chatting about: What is patience…

In this episode I talk about patience not being the primary reason for my ability to do the slowest training in the world. Patience is managing ourselves to progress slower than we would like to, or expect to. When we find a deep level of curiosity and interest in the smaller details, we have less of a need for patience to manage us or to Tame our inner Wild. It means we can find enjoyment and excitement in every small detail and every step along the way. This makes it less about the destination and the outcome, and more about the learning and the journey and enables us to enjoy and find peace exactly where we are.

Originally aired on: June 28th, 2022

Chatting about: Needs and wants…

In this episode I talk about meeting the needs for safety of our horses as paramount, followed by meeting their wants and desires. The less horses and humans feel our needs are met, the more the stress rises. The more the stress rises the more self oriented we become and the less capacity we have for the feelings, wants and needs of others. The more self oriented we become, the harder it is for others to build relationships with us. When we can help our horses meet their needs to the best of our ability, we set ourselves and the horses up for success for learning and developing the relationship.

Originally aired on: June 23rd, 2022 

Chatting about: Fun…

In this episode I talk about taking the pressure off the success of the training and the intensity of the learning and just having fun with our horses. While we aim to reinforce and develop the thinking moments in both us and our horses, there is a lot of value in having moments of fun and play with our horses. A lot of people say that the only way to learn is to be uncomfortable and get out of your comfort zone. I disagree with this statement. In states of high curiosity, enjoyment and interest, while stress levels are still low enough that we are comfortable, there is so much space for learning.

Originally aired on: June 17th, 2022

Chatting about: Another way to think about the relationship bank account…

In this episode I talk about the analogy of the “relationship bank account” in relation to working with our horses. The idea is that the amount of trust our horse has for us is never stagnant. Whatever we do with them is either building trust, depositing money in the bank account, or it’s costing trust, withdrawing money from the bank account. I talk about the analogy in depth to help us get a better understanding about the dynamics of trust between us and our horses and how we can tell whether we are depositing trust or withdrawing trust.

Originally aired on: June 7th, 2022

Chatting about: Combining or alternating training methods…

In this episode I talk about the benefits of alternating training methods rather than combining them as well as what fundamental components allow us to successfully combine or alternate Freedom Based Training® principles with other training methods. We talk about the dynamics of freedom and how important that element is when doing Freedom Based Training®, as well as how we can understand the reasons behind the feel and timing that allows us to continue to work with the FBT principles successfully, using other training methods with less freedom.

Originally aired on: June 3rd, 2022 

Chatting about: Hormones in horses…

In this episode I talk about working with horses through the ups and downs of their hormone cycles. We often only see the negative sides of the higher stress parts of the hormone cycles but when we look at the bigger picture we can see the contrasts and positives they can create. We talk about the contrasts of feelings, emotions, stress and intensities that happen in hormonal cycles and how we can make the most of the ebbs and flows of each part of the horses life and continue to develop our horses social cooperation and emotional intelligence even in times of higher stress and self protective, inward looking inclinations.

Originally aired on: May 24th, 2022