The Whoa Podcast about Horses and Horsemanship

Today is our 31st wedding anniversary.  Yes, we got married on Valentine's Day.  We have a great relationship.  I can barely form a thought, yet when I suggested we start a podcast, she said "Let's go for it."  That's why I love her.

We usually try to get our trailer serviced at the beginning of the year.  It's sits more during the winter months and we want it ready to go when the weather gets nice and the days are longer. 

Since the clouds were threatening we thought it best to have a groundwork day.  We took the opportunity to re-visit some of the exercises from the Natural Horsemanship playday a few weeks ago.  While the sprinkles came and went, it never rained hard enough to chase us inside and it was a nice, long workout.

Remember to subscribe to us on iTunes, find us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter. 

We would love to have you participate in our podcast experiment.  If there is a subject or experience YOU want to talk about, email us at [email protected] and we'll arrange a time to record your episode for broadcast.  We're hanging it out there folks, and we'll need your support and participation if we're going to succeed.  If you like what you are hearing please consider sharing YOUR experiences.

Never give a boy an electronic toy.  We took the portable digital recorder with us on our ride on Sunday.  There were some technical challenges that we failed to overcome like the noise of the mic hitting the saddle bag and the problem of hearing me more than Ranae.  We don't rehearse these shows, folks.  What you hear is essentially what we are doing.  They are loosely scripted.  If we go off and lope for ten minutes, we did edit that down to the first 15 seconds or so and the last 15 seconds.

All this is a work in progress.  This episode was an experiment.  It will give you a little idea of what our rides are like and we hope you'll come ride with us. 

Remember, you can find us on iTunes, Facebook, and Twitter!  If you're part of the Downunder Horsemanship Family, look for us on the No Worries Club Site.

Thanks for listening,

John & Ranae

On today's show we tell you about Saturday's ride, what we worked on, and the surprises we encountered on the trail.  We tell you about what's coming up on the Downunder Horsemanship Calendar.  Finally, we have a new feature called "Conversations Around the Barn".  Last week our ferrier, Sean McRoberts, came out to trim our horses.  I asked him if I could roll tape while he worked and he said "sure".  Here's the first installment.  You'll hear the sounds of the nippers and the rasp along with birds chirping, dogs barking, and me doing nothing.  You just don't get this kind of "quality" stuff on other podcasts....

On Sunday Ranae and I attended a Natural Horsemanship Playday held by a local trainer. There were a lot of obstacles and exercises to perform. There was a nice area to do some riding. We let you know how the horses did. We tell you about the experience and what we learned.

Get out and spend some time with your horses!Remember, you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and find us on Facebook.Thanks for listening.

On today's podcast we finish our conversation with Frank Knight.  He tells us what he does with his horses and what he is looking forward to doing. 

We also have another installment of Problems Our Horses No Longer Have as I tell you how Jessie and I got over her fear of the clippers.

Please check us out on Facebook and Twitter under DUH Podcast.

Thanks for listening!

John & Ranae

On today's show we interview No Worries Club member Frank Knight. Frank is a Christian Cowboy poet and is using the Method as he works through the Fundamentals Series with two horses.

We split this interview into two parts. Today in Part One, Frank reads his ode to Downunder Fundamentals. Poetry is much more powerful when you hear it and hearing it from the person who wrote it is even more powerful. Frank nails this reading for us and we think you'll likely replay it a couple of times. We're sure you will enjoy it as much as we did.

Ranae and I also work through the Drawing to a Stop from the trot. Both of us are finding it difficult to describe these exercises over the podcast. We hope to improve on our powers of communication.

Remember to look for us on Facebook under DUH Podcast.

Things you'll discover on today's podcast:  I'm no Larry King when it comes to interviewing people.  We did get a chance to speak with No Worries Club Member, Kris Norris from North Carolina before she heads out to the first Walkabout Tour of 2012 in Perry, GA.  We talk about her experiences with the Downunder Horsemanship Method and how it has helped her horses.  For our first interview we think the sound came out okay.  We still need to tweak the knobs a bit.

We also, talk about giving your horse a job to do on the trail and how we converted the kids basketball game of H-O-R-S-E to accomplish the task  Ranae had some time to Spring Clean her saddle.  We'll tell you our technique and what she found on her saddle when she gave it a deep cleaning.

If you want to see the video we made of our H-O-R-S-E game check out http://youtube.com/johnnharrer

I hate to beg but, please friend us on Facebook.  It's pitiful we only have 6 "likes".  Look here: ">https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/DUH-Podcast-for-Horse-Owners/312652785443941">

No rain in California means it's beautiful weather to ride.  We kick off the weekend focusing on Leads and Serpentines.   First, we watch the DVD lessons.  (Our horses hate it when we do that.)  Then we head out for the ride and help each other try to get the exercises to an acceptable level.  The Serpentine Exercise is a supple-ing exercise and our problems with it demonstrated how much more work our horses need doing this kind of exercise.

The Leads Exercise is just plain fun to do because we get to lope.  Hope you get a chance to ride this weekend.

John & Ranae

We're looking at the stats and the good news is you are finding us.  We don't know exactly how, but we certainly appreciate it.  Thank you. 

In Episode Four we try and transform this thing into a regular show.  We've added some production elements in the hopes it will be easier listening.  We've added a feature called "Problems We Used to Have" and you'll get an update on Ranae's trailering problem.  There's Downunder Horsemanship News with an update from the latest No Worries Club Journal, and you'll get health update, along with a question from the mailbag.

As always, your feedback is important.  You can contact us at [email protected]

Well, we had been talking about how good our horses were behaving.  They must have been listening because, just when you think you have this stuff figured out, they throw you a curve ball. 

As with any horse there are going to be days they just don't want to work.  This episode tells you how we handled it.