Damn Good Stuff

The Best of the West - find it all at Burns Saddlery.

This video interview of my son Braydan was filmed at our booth at the Reno Rodeo by horsetweet.com "The Twitter for Horse Lovers". It looks like another fun site for equine enthusiast's. Check it out and check us out at shows across the west, like NFR and many others year round.

Funny Friday

A Scotsman, American, and an Irishman are in a bar.
They are having a good time and all agree that the bar is a nice place.
Then the Scotsman says, "Aye, this is a nice bar, but where I come from, back in Glasgow, there's a better one.
At MacDougal's, you buy a drink, you buy another drink, and MacDougal himself will buy your third drink!"
The others agree that sounds like a good place.
Then the American says, "Yeah,that's a nice bar, but where I come from, there's a better one. Over in Brooklyn, there's this place, Vinny's. At Vinny's, you buy a drink, Vinny buys you a drink.
You buy another drink, Vinny buys you another drink."Everyone agrees that sounds like a great bar.
Then the Irishman says, "You think that's great?
Where I come from in Dublin, there's this place called Murphy's.
At Murphy's, they buy you your first drink, they buy you your second drink, they buy you your third drink, and then, they take you in the back and get you laid!""Wow!" say the other two. "That's fantastic! Did that actually happen to you?"
"No," replies the Irish guy, "but it happened to me sister!"

Certainly takes on a different meaning if your male or female:-)

Have a Fun Weekend,

Danna

Zen Horse

Training Tip of the Week:
By Clinton Anderson
Respect and the Hula-Hoop Space

Respect is broken up into two categories, a safety category and a learning category. When I refer to the safety category of respect I’m talking about the personal hula hoop space. The personal hula hoop space is a four foot circle that surrounds you and serves as your safety zone. Whenever I’m working with a horse, I always imagine that there’s a four foot circle drawn around me—almost like an invisible electric fence. Unless I invite the horse into my personal hula hoop space, he should keep a respectful safe distance from me.

Think about all the times people get hurt by horses. The horse bites them, kicks them, strikes them, runs over the top of them, etc. Each time a person gets hurt, the horse is always inside their personal hula hoop space. You can’t be injured if the horse is kept outside of that four foot circle. Think about this—a horse can’t bite you if he is four feet away from you. He can’t kick you if his hind leg doesn’t get any closer than four feet to you.

Keep in mind that a disrespectful horse isn’t the only type of horse that will hurt you, because a fearful horse will hurt you just as fast. Have you ever noticed that when you’re leading a nervous or frightened horse that when something scares him he tries to jump on top of you? He pushes into you and invades your personal hula hoop space. He tries to jump in your top pocket doesn’t he? He’s looking to you for safety, but unfortunately, you’re a lot more fragile and smaller than he is. And eventually, you will get hurt. A fearful horse will hurt you just as fast as a disrespectful one will. I don’t care if my horse has a heart attack and gets scared; I just want him to do it outside of my personal hula hoop space.

The first part of respect is to teach the horse that you are fragile and that he needs to be careful around you. When a horse kicks another horse in the belly what does that horse do? He grunts, walks away, and starts eating grass again like nothing ever happened. It doesn’t really bother him. But, if we get kicked in the ribs by a horse, we’re in the hospital for a week with seven broken ribs. It’s the same kick, but it means a lot more to us because we’re smaller creatures. We’re 140 to 200 pounds and horses are 1000 to 1200 pounds. They’re a lot bigger than us. The safety part of respect is to say, “Listen, take care of me. I’m pretty fragile, so you can’t be biting me and kicking me or playing rough around me.” When a thousand pound animal tries to play with us we come out on the wron! g end of the deal.

Happy Trails,

Big Barrel Race this weekend at the Blackhawk Arena, hope to see you there!

Danna

Tipsy Tuesday

"You are the way you are because that's the way you want to be. If you really wanted to be any different, you would be in the process of changing right now."— Fred Smith: The founder of Federal Express


I saw this quote and thought, this is so true. When we finally get so sick of the life story we keep writing over and over, then and only then will we re-write the story with different thoughts, dreams and desires. They say a habit is 30 million times stronger than a desire, so I decided to start daily habits of directing my mind to my desires. It takes 30 days to formulate a habit, so keep going. We can choose strenghting or weaking habits, my goal is to replace a weaking habit with a strengthening habit everyday. So instead of drinking coffee, my new habit is water or green tea. I replaced drinking sodas with a glass of red wine. Twice a day I take my vitamin supplements, I miss very rarely, I don't leave the house without making my bed, I never use to make it

Funny Friday

Bill Gates is hanging out with the chairman of General Motors. "If automotive technology had
kept pace with computer technology over the past few decades," boasts Gates, "you would now
be driving a V-32 instead of a V-8, and it would have a top speed of 10,000 miles per hour.

Or, you could have an economy car that weighs 30 pounds and gets a thousand miles to a gallon of gas. In either case, the sticker price of a new car would be less than $50.""Sure," says the GM chairman. "But would you really want to drive a car that crashes four times a day?"

Have a Wonderful Holiday Weekend!!!

Danna

Zen Horse

Training Tip of the Week:

Correct Your Horse's Sorry Attitude at the Feed Bin with the Outback Exercise

By Clinton Anderson

Horses by nature are programmed to be dominant around food. If horses in the wild don't fight for their fair share of food, they'll die. It's the survival of the fittest; the strongest, most dominant animals survive and the weaker animals die. It's your job to get your horse respectful towards you and establish yourself as the leader whether food is involved or not. Every time you go to feed your horse and he pins his ears at you or gets pushy and disrespectful, and you dump the feed and run out of his space, you're encouraging his behavior.

One of the best exercises to do with a horse that develops bad behavior at feeding time is backing. Most of these horses will pin their ears and try to force you out of their space by running you off. Well, backing is the complete opposite of that, instead of the horse running forward toward you, he has to back away from you. It's best to work with your horse in a round pen where you'll have room to move his feet and stay in a safe position. I don't recommend correcting his behavior in a stall until you've gotten the situation under control in the round pen first because the small space makes it easy for you to get hurt.

Place a bucket of grain on the ground in the middle of the round pen. Then use the Outback Exercise to back the horse away from you and the bucket of grain.
Ideally, you should just have to wiggle the lead rope to back the horse away, but if he's really disrespectful, you'll have to wave the Handy Stick in front of his chest or even tap his chest to get him to back out of your space and away from the grain. Then draw the horse back up to you by combing the rope with your hands. Don't let the horse come up to you unless he has a pleasant expression on his face.
He shouldn't have his ears flattened against his head or be barring his teeth like he wants to kill you to get to the grain. If he comes up to you aggressively, immediately back him out of your space again. Of course, a horse that has been disrespectful for a long time isn't going to automatically change his attitude and smile and prick his ears at you when you back him away from the feed. However, if you keep working at it, his behavior will get better. In the beginning, you're just looking for small changes. By practicing backing your horse away from the feed and then bringing him back, over and over again, he will learn to focus on you and not focus on the feed.

Happy Trails,

Danna

Rave Reviews and Recipes

Old Age, I decided, is a gift I am now, probably for the first time in my life, the person I have always wanted to be.
Oh, not my body!
I sometime despair over my body, the wrinkles, the baggy eyes, and the sagging butt.
And often I am taken a back by that old person that lives in my mirror (who looks like my father!), but I don't agonize over those things for long..

I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly.
As I've aged, I've become more kind to myself, and less critical of myself.
I've become my own friend.
I don't chide myself for eating that extra chocolate, or for not making my bed,
I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant.
I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.
Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 AM and sleep until noon ? I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60 & 70's, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love .. I will.
I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set.
They, too, will get old.
I know I am sometimes forgetful.. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten.
And I eventually remember the important things.
Sure, over the years my heart has been broken.
How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody's beloved pet gets hit by a car?
But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion.
A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.
I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face.
So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver
As you get older, it is easier to be positive.
You care less about what other people think.
I don't question myself anymore..
I've even earned the right to be wrong.
So, to answer your question, I like being old.
It has set me free.
I like the person I have become.
I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be.
And I shall eat chocolate every single day. (If I feel like it)

My friend Deb sent me this, will be riding the Sierra Nevada's together next month, adding more memories and lines to our faces.

Happy Trails,

Danna