Chunking

I was chunking before chunking was cool.

Chunking is an instructional design practice that breaks content into small, focused, and easily-repeated chunks. I started chunking in 1999 with “The Horse Show Minute,” my daily radio feature and the heart of my second book, Horse Smarts for the Busy Rider. In 2009, we began chunking on TV by embedding two-minute, standalone features in our shows. So far you’ve seen “Trail Tips,” a how-to series for trail riders, “Nutrition Nuggets,” an overview of horse nutrition, and “Ask the Expert,” a series on custom diet formulation for different types of horses.  A new chunking chapter begins in November when we roll out two new embedded series using this super learning format. The first brings back Dr. Judy Reynolds to debunk horsekeeping myths. The second takes on hoof care with anti-lameness crusader, Gene Ovnicek.

For some strange reason, talking about “chunking” always makes me hungry …

Trailering

Recently I had David Bodin, “the horse trailer guru,” on my radio show and it reminded me of a mishap in my trailering past. I suspect that you’ve done something similar if you’ve done much trailering. Usually this involves backing or cutting a corner too closely. Mine was something quite different but you’ll have to listen to the interview to hear the ugly details. Unless of course you were one of the 500+ people who saw me do this at a Clinton Anderson tour stop in Phoenix around 2004.

Aside from its entertainment value, the interview offers some great tips that were new to me. For example, did you know that you need to recalibrate your brake controller (that little box sitting under the dash of your truck) whenever your trailer load changes? I didn’t. David offers a quick and easy way of doing it and explains clearly what happens when you don’t. What came out of all this for me is a better way of thinking about my horse trailer. Instead of being an extension of my truck, the trailer is really a separate vehicle attached to it. I need to think about its brakes, lights, electrical system, tires, wheels, bearings, battery, body, and fluids just like I do those of my truck.

I’m a big believer in getting a ramp with your horse trailer but it’s not because I feel it makes loading horses easier. There are pros and cons to a ramp for that purpose. No, my fondness of a ramp is that it allows me to use the trailer for other things. Both of my trailers are designed such that everything in the horse compartment can be removed easily, leaving a big open box. I can haul my garden tractor to the repair shop or help a friend move furniture. The ramp is handy in both cases.

One of our trailers is a living quarters model. The front part is like a travel trailer or motor home with bed, dinette, fridge, stove, sink, toilet, shower and storage. The back part is for the horses, although we often clean it out and use it as a big work room when we’re on the road. Horse people know that an LQ trailer makes for very comfortable accommodations but they are foreign at most RV parks. Often when I call to reserve a space, an incredulous voice over the phone asks, “You’re going to sleep in your horse trailer?”

Listen to the interview with David Bodin

Paying it Forward

A few months ago I was looking for content for my TV show when a press release caught my eye. It came from friend and marketing guru, Julie Bryant. Not every compelling story makes a good TV episode, but this one seemed to have the necessary elements and the added advantage of being convenient to shoot. So, one fine summer's day I found myself face to face with a pair of equine veterinarians, Keith Latson, a Calfornia orthopedist specializing in race horses, and Rob Franklin, a Texas internist specializing in cutting horses.

I knew there were multiple topics we could explore. One was how probiotics - living microorganisms – can aid in the digestive health of equids and how the good doctors had designed a particularly effective probiotic as the flagship product in their fledgling company, FullBucketHealth.   I can tease educational content out of any product feature so we were off to a good start.

However, I soon realized that Latson and Franklin were more interested in talking about the Equitarian Initiative, a humanitarian program sponsored by the American Association of Equine Practitioners.  Veterinarians and lay people travel to underdeveloped regions to treat working horses and donkeys and educate their owners. The equitarian's motto is “Help a horse. Help a family.”  All right! This was just the kind of human interest story I could sink my teeth into, and Julie had mentioned there were photos available from the doctors’ work in Mexico.  The interview was turning out better than I expected.  But the best was yet to come. 

You see, this was really all about paying it forward. At the height of their professional careers, these two thirty-something family men were on fire with the spirit of giving back. The most recent beneficiaries had been dirt-poor Mexicans whose horses and donkeys – animals with neglected and deformed feet, open saddle sores, and malnourishment – were key to survival for entire families. Already, the docs were planning a similar trip to Guatemala on the same sort of mission, leaving in their wake patched-up animals, a bit of education and hope for the locals, and training for other equitarians learning the ropes.

Latson and Franklin were incredibly generous with their time and expertise but they found a way to have even greater impact. Remember the probiotic? Instead of pocketing the profits, the vets had created a program called Care+Care. Buy a bucket of their product and they donate another bucket to a needy horse or donkey somewhere in the world. Wow.

We talked for the better part of an hour. As the interview began to wind down, Rob said that they would be taking their young families with them on the Guatemala trip and he let slip what was, for me, the most telling statement of the day.  “We want to show our kids the importance of giving back.”  And there it was, the real heart of this story. Paying it forward to these guys means more than just giving of their time and money to help others. It means instilling the same animating values in their children, helping them to understand the role of good works in making a better world and a more rewarding life. Paying it forward with young eyes watching sets the stage for carrying the best of human nature forward to future generations. Now that is a compelling message.

TV episode “Mission to Mexico”

Radio interview on probiotics with Keith Latson, D.V.M. and Rob Franklin, D.V.M.

FullBucketHealth.com

Slow down your molecules

Every now and then, I come across a term or phrase that is so right I just have to pass it on. This one comes from our dear friend, Karen Scholl, who has helped Diana and me immensely on our horsemanship journey.

Horses mirror us in many ways. When we are tense or anxious, our horses often pick that up and reflect it right back at us, which can set in motion a vicious cycle of escalating tension. We can break the cycle by deliberately calming ourselves. But simply saying, “relax” or “calm down” or even “breathe” to ourselves or to students often doesn’t cut it.  Karen found a more provocative, visual way to get the idea across. “Slow down your molecules,” she would say. For me, this creates a vivid mental picture that I can work with. I see my tension as molecules whirring about in my body, bumping into one another, and I can visualize slowing those molecules down and creating order among them. This is very similar to the effect of Transcendental Meditation, which I practiced regularly at one time in my life. Both are ways of settling your mind, which is the first step in settling your body and settling your horse.

So give it a try the next time you need to calm yourself. Slow down those molecules! I’m betting it will work for you just like it works for me.

Learn more about Karen’s work at www.KarenScholl.com.

Clarity

I consider clarity to be an essential quality of a horseman. Without clarity, I’m expecting my horse to guess what I want. It’s unfair to her, increases the likelihood of conflict, and decreases the chance I’ll get the results I’m after. On the other hand, when I communicate with absolute clarity, the sky is the limit. Most horses are very willing creatures when they know what we want.

Clarity is not so difficult to achieve, really. It’s a matter of developing a good habit. Sports psychologists tell us that creating a vivid mental picture of a successful outcome increases the chance that it will occur, whether the outcome is making a free throw or sidepassing your horse.  The more vivid the picture, the better this works.

Note that creating this vivid mental picture occurs before the performance. This means that taking a moment and focusing my brain on exactly what I’m about to ask my horse to do can pay big dividends.

Why does this work? To be honest, I don’t know. I think it’s entirely possible that under the right conditions, there can be a telepathic connection between a horse and a human. Maybe it’s just that when we have such a clear sense of what we want, our body language projects that. We know how well horses read body language.

Let’s go back to the sidepassing as an example. Before asking my horse to do this, I conjure up a very detailed picture in my mind. I see more than one lateral pair of legs crossing in front of the other. I see the left legs crossing over the right. I see the hairs on the legs, the texture of the hooves, the grains of sand on the arena floor. This is a lot of mental energy focused on one picture. Maybe my horse picks that up.

The other good thing about clarity through mental imagery is that it makes it easier to recognize a try and reward it. And as we all know, it is the reward that produces a learning effect.

For me, clarity is another part of the journey. It’s a way of aligning thought, action, and expectation. I’ll continue working on it and report how it goes. I know my horse appreciates the effort.

Forage is First

If you’ve been following my TV show this season, you’ve seen Dr. Judy Reynolds of ADM Alliance Nutrition offer specific feeding recommendations for a wide range of horses. All recommendations have the same form: Feed your horse lots of forage and tweak as needed. But what does this mean, exactly? First, forage can be living grass and other plants in a pasture or it can be the same thing cut and baled to become hay. In hay form, the forage first feeding philosophy favors grass hay because of its exceptionally high fiber content, although alfalfa hay can be supplemented in moderate amounts.

Now, what about the tweaking part? This always reflects the reality of the particular horse’s situation. What is his current body condition? How old is he? How does he live? How is he used?  He may just need a daily dose of vitamins and minerals not present in adequate quantities in the forage part of the diet. But he may also need more energy than he can get from the forage.  How these varying needs are met – the products and byproducts combined to produce the desired effect – is where the state of the art in equine nutrition lives today. The most important development in recent times is the move away from cereal grains such as corn, oats, and barley, once staples in equine feeds. Recently I sat down with Dr. Reynolds to explore exactly why she designed the ADM feeds as she did. This episode has received great response. Enjoy!

Watch TV episode “Forage-based Horse Feed”

Ponying to Improve Riding

The horseman’s journey plays out in two dimensions, the mental and the physical. I normally help folks with the mental dimension, with understanding the nature of the horse and how they can use that nature to reach their goals in safe, effective, and moral ways. There’s lots of meat there and I can talk for days about that. On the other hand, the main suggestion I have for success in the physical dimension is incredibly simple: Ride more. That’s it. Just get on a horse and ride. Anytime, anywhere, for any purpose, and on any horse.  While you’re at it, forget the old saw, “Practice doesn’t make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect.”  This just begs the brain to get in the way. I find that most people who want to improve their riding are not seeking perfection; they’re seeking greater enjoyment of their riding.

One activity I’ve found that is practical, fun, and perfect for getting your brain out of the way is leading (ponying) one horse while riding another. I did a fair amount of this a few years back with our baby, Sarah. She had a lot of energy, which took a lot of my attention. Sometimes she got out in front of us on the trail. Candy and I would canter along behind her for minutes on end like a skier following a ski boat. What I remember most fondly about that experience is how free I felt, unencumbered by any worry about riding correctly. Yet my riding improved. Lately, I’ve been doing something similar when I walk our mares in the neighborhood.  We keep the speed down to a walk or trot and I vary which horse I ride. Oh yes, I’m doing it bareback, which has dramatically improved my confidence about riding without a saddle. Before ponying, my brain had me firmly convinced that I didn’t belong on a horse’s bare back. Sometimes thinking is overrated.

photo of Marty Marten by Jennifer Denniston for Western Horseman