HawkRidge Farm LLC

09/07/2022

I'm thankful for mentors that demanded more of me.

They made me aware of my energy, my body, my movements. They guided me to a path of deep personal work, one that I'm still walking and will always be.

They told me that the things I wanted out of my horsemanship were beyond techniques, exercises and equipment. They told me the things I wanted out of my horsemanship resided within me. Covered up with layers of bias, trauma, ego and many more uncomfortable things that I would have to face head on in order to be able to offer my horses my best.

I walk into barns daily where people are buzzing about. They're quick, frazzled, fussing...jerky and abrupt in their movements. Carrying around life's baggage and slopping it all over their horses. Full of tension and insecurity. Hopping from method to method, technique to technique...totally unaware of the root cause of their horsemanship struggles. It's them, it's us, it's me...it's SELF.

You can buy the programs, get the lessons, go to the clinics, pay for the training but until you are willing to take a long hard look in the mirror...you're only going to get so far. If you're a serious student of the horse, I don't think you can avoid it.

You'll be confronted with your own uncomfortable truths at some point...the question is, what will you do about them?

- Terra

07/29/2022

Not to be outdone by his “big sister” Ollie, too, tried to pose for the camera. 😅

On the left, Herzenlied HRF “Song,” our keeper filly by Herzendieb out of EMC DeCastiglione (DeNiro/Happy Hour - Hohenstein). On the right, this year’s c**t, Saint Oliver HRF ”Ollie” (Sternlicht/EM Royal Princess OBX - Royal Prince).

07/25/2022

So… long overdue post about our c**t born this year!

Introducing Saint Oliver HRF. He is by Sternlicht out of our Elite Mare, Royal Princess OBX (Royal Prince/Brimming-Banter).

After a bit of a rough start to life Saint Oliver has certainly lived up to his name! He is a Saint!

Once we get our stuff together here at HawkRidge we will be getting video of this fantastic young man as he is available!

03/17/2022

Someone put the current state of the farm into words!

GLOP

“Glop” noun, as in, “My horse rolled in the glop.”
“Gloppy” adjective, as in “My paddocks are a gloppy mess.”

Glop is a new word that is a combination of, but not limited to, such words as grime, goo, goop, slime, and slop.

Glop is 4 parts wet manure, 5 parts mud, 3 parts slime of an unknown nature, 2 parts last year’s leaf mold, 2 parts some other disgusting substance.

My farm, currently, is under a severe glop watch. My horses roll in glop. The glop dries on their bodies in thick sheets that can best be loosened by a garden rake. We wade in glop. We haul hay carts through acres of glop.

It will be observed that glop and glitz are not related terms. Neither is glop a close relative of glamor. The horses in the big shows are not gloppy. Most of the famous riders of the sleek horses at the major venues rarely deal with glop.

Glop is a hidden reality of the joys of springtime that many never get to experience in a close, intimate and personal fashion.

02/04/2022

So your horse is lazy/ evades effort/ doesn’t give you “100%” (whatever that means?)? Thank your lucky stars 🌟🌟🌟

At least once a week I hear a rider moaning about a horse not putting the effort in or trying to get out of working properly. And it’s absolutely true, that’s exactly what’s going on but that’s a good thing! And here’s why...

Your job as a rider and trainer of horses is to make the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard, that’s all. It’s that simple. Every time you interact with a horse you are training him whether you realise it or not.

Be careful of making a moral judgement on the horse’s perceived lack of motivation to do a job you decided he ought to do for you. You are the partner with the bigger, more complex brain in this pairing, don’t add meaning to a situation that’s not really there.

And it’s your responsibility to bring the horse along with you, you are leading the dance. It's why I think of that the FEI objective of the "happy athlete" would be better phrased as the "content athlete".

Your horse’s job is to consistently look for the easiest way out! That’s how a horse is trainable. He is looking for the loophole in your aids. When the horse understands the aids, he knows where the easy way out is. We need the horse to be seeking this place of lower pressure and higher comfort. Horses like feeling safe, being able to rest and having company.

Most of the time when training dressage we are using “negative reinforcement” techniques which sound a whole lot nastier than they actually are. Simply put, we teach an aid or behaviour by marking it as correct to the horse by REMOVING or stopping pressure, that’s why it’s called negative reinforcement. The negative is not a moral judgement on the technique, in fact techniques that rely on punishment are called “Positive Punishment”!

Now back to the effort piece - If your horse was genuinely putting 100% effort in, I can pretty confidently say 99.9% riders wouldn’t be happy riding your horse. The horses that are routinely putting 100% effort in are top racehorses and the best broncs, both on high adrenaline and performing like their lives depend on it. Horses usually give high effort when they are in high anxiety, that's how a prey animal is hardwired.

Most of us want a horse performing in a relaxed, content state of mind, at a certain lower agreed level of effort. Be careful what you wish for and be grateful for the tolerance our equine partners show us every day!