Horsemanship from the Heart™

It's been a while since i've updated this page! lol Since we mostly use our Rock'n Star Ranch page (which I will post a link to in the comments below), I haven't used this page a lot but I thought I would post a link to our Clinics & Workshops schedule for 2021! It's looking like our COVID-19 travel restrictions will be lifted by the time of our first event and we may even be able to support a limited number of auditors!! Please contact me via my personal fb page (Christa Miremadi), email or through the ranch page listed below for more information!

Clinics & Workshops | rocknstar Being dedicated to educating horse owners, the Rock'n Star Ranch hosts a number of educational events each year between May and Oct.  The clinicians we host have been hand picked to be sure that the opportunities we offer are creating a consistent experience for those who attend.  We offer overnig...

Because I know he won't do it himself... I thought I would share this super exciting, way cool piece of news with you all! Pinto Rock'nStar has finally done it!!! After close to 20 years of working for Silver Star Stables, first in Richmond BC, then in Aldergrove and now owning/running Rock'n Star Ranch with me in Pritchard BC and after over a decade of training "problem horses" and starting dozens of youngsters (I couldn't even begin to estimate how many horses he's interacted with in all that time), he's put together a collection of experiences/stories, many of which were gathered while picking s**t (😉), that have all played an influential roll in his growing interest and eventual obsession with understanding the equine mind. This engaging, evocative, hilarious and sometimes suspenseful journey of a man, once "newby stable-boy", now an experienced, seasoned horseman will keep you thinking, inspire you to reflect on your own experiences and offer you a new perspective on old ideas. I am so proud of Pinto for finally putting this out there and letting himself be vulnerable enough to share some of his most intimate moments of growth with you all and soooooo excited to finally be able to say "Pinto has written a book called A S**t Picker's Guide to Training Horses" rather than "he's working on a book called A S**t Picker's Guide to Training Horses." This book is available through Amazon.ca both in color and black and white as well as digitally. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did!! :D

A S**t Picker's Guide to Training Horses: A Spatial Odyssey A S**t Picker's Guide to Training Horses: A Spatial Odyssey

Just a little humor for your morning😊 For those who are worried that using the flag works off of scaring our horses, it's all in how you use it and of course timing. When it's used with awareness and consideration for what your horse is learning, it can actually help to develop a whole lot of confidence! This horse inspires me everyday. What a goof!!

Smoke Desensitizes Himself Smoke picked up my flag today and proceeded to first, try to round pen me and when that didn't work he went on to desensitize himself;) This c**t is so cool!...

❤️ So much yes!!! ❤️. To me, caring about my horse and being careful to put their experience above a desired outcome is so important. Sharing my understanding of reading a horses emotional experiences does more to benefit the horse than anything else I could teach, so long as the human cares.

One of the things I have been guilty of when it comes to talking about horses, horse behaviour and how horses operate is to use anthropomorphic language. That is, I often talk about horses as if they have human qualities. I know this offends some people who take a scientific approach to their understanding of horse functioning, but there are very good reasons why I choose to do this.

Every trainer or instructor or clinician comes across people whose primary focus is to have a horse problem fixed. It doesn’t matter how it gets fixed, but it needs fixing. In fact, an owner’s perception of who is the most effective person to cure their horse problem is often the key factor at the top of their list when it comes to deciding where to go for help.

All professional horse people strongly believe that their way with horses is the best and most effective approach. It’s the only reason we do what we do. If we knew there was a better way, we would do that. In fact, we trust in our knowledge and ability so much that often we think of other people as being ignorant. We are confident that we follow the one true path and all others are worshipping false gods. It’s an easy stance to take because it justifies to ourselves what we do and keeps our self-esteem rock solid.

In an effort to turn the ‘ignorant’ people towards the true light that we represent, we preach. We lay out the facts as we see them. We offer an explanation as logically as possible as to why we are right and everyone else is wrong. We ride or handle their horse to demonstrate how much better their horse could be if only they listened and learned from us. When we help people make a change we count that as a win for the good guys. But when people reject what we have to teach them, we think of them as a lost cause and their horses as poor victims of their ignorance. It’s not a confidence trick. We really believe in what we do and want to help everybody know what we know. Most professionals are not trying to scam anybody.

I think there are two reasons why people are ignorant. The first is that they just don’t know any better. They have not been exposed to better ideas and practices. That’s where the professional does their best to teach new ideas and ways of thinking about new practices. This is what all professional trainers and teachers do. Some are better teachers than others, but all of them work to impart new knowledge to their students.

The second cause of ‘ignorance’ is that people don’t care. They get by with what they have working between them and their horses and don’t wish to make the effort to do better. Everything they do now fulfills their needs. It usually takes a catastrophic event that causes them to go looking for new knowledge and a better way.

An example of this maybe the person who has a horse that is terribly shut down. Life for a horse that is shut down is full of futility. Their inability to find comfort no matter what they do can cause a horse to stop trying and spend its time going through the motions like a robot. Often these horses are very un-reactive and people feel safe riding them because they don’t shy or run off or get very upset when something stressful happens. Even though people realize that a horse in a shut down state is emotionally catatonic and traumatized, they prefer to not care because they feel safer riding such a horse than one that is more awake and reactive.

It’s with owners that don’t care that most teachers fail. If an owner’s personal ambitions are more important than their horse’s welfare (physical or emotional), nothing will change until the care-factor towards their horse improves. It’s the nature of people.

It’s my view, one of the primary responsibilities of a trainer or teacher is to help their student care more about the emotional welfare of their horses. It’s not enough to instruct on what to do and how to do it. Every teacher has to make the task of teaching to care about a horse’s welfare as important as showing what and how to do things.

By helping students to care more about their horse, they sharpen people’s observational skills. Owners notice changes in their horse’s blinking or the asymmetry of the tail or where their horse’s thoughts have drifted. When people see more of what their horse is experiencing and feeling about the training, they start to look for ways that address the emotional concerns of a horse and not simply how to instill obedience. Without that care-factor, it is nearly impossible to have anything but a master/slave relationship with a horse.

This is where I believe anthropomorphism can play a useful role as a teaching tool. Describing a horse’s emotions and motivations in terms that people understand helps them relate more easily to their horse’s experience. Instead of seeing a naughty horse, they empathize with it as a troubled horse. Instead of looking at a horse as being born bad, they more easily see their own role in creating their horse’s unwanted behaviour. People change how they see the struggles with their horse. The horse is no longer the villain, but the victim.

So back to the ‘ignorant’ horse owner. When a teacher helps an owner be more thoughtful towards their horse, the methods for training reveal themselves. A teach no longer has to sell their ideas to the student because the horse immediately does that for them. The horse unravels the confusion between choosing different methods and ideas by showing how they feel. The only thing the owner has to do is care about how the horse feels.

Of course, there are so many different approaches to working with horses that not everybody can be right, no matter how earnest they are or how much genuine integrity they possess. It’s hard for a person to discern what is right among all the noise. That’s when you have to let the horse do the choosing. But you have to care about your horse’s choices. You need to be aware of your horse’s emotional responses and they have to matter to you. Learning how to do this should be one of the important reasons for choosing the right trainer or teacher. Don’t just choose the person who can make your horse do stuff. Make sure they teach you to care about the little things.

Photo: Tom Dorrance was one of the most vocal defenders of the horse’s emotional welfare in our time.

Somehow, in all the moving craziness, I forgot to share Dec's Saddle Up magazine! So, better late than never, here it is😊 I hope you enjoy this one. Picking up the Slack.. Pg 8 + 9. Kalin, you MIGHT be the star of this one😜 Enjoy!

Saddle Up December 2018 Issuu is a digital publishing platform that makes it simple to publish magazines, catalogs, newspapers, books, and more online. Easily share your publications and get them in front of Issuu’s millions of monthly readers. Title: Saddle Up December 2018, Author: Saddle Up magazine, Name: Saddle Up D...