Along for the Ride Symposium in Review

Brandon and I at the Hoover Dam! The only picture we took from our weekend in Las Vegas.

Last weekend, Brandon and I were fortunate enough to spend a weekend in Las Vegas learning from some of the best trainers in the industry: Andrea Fappani, Shawn Flarida, and Nick Dowers. We had no idea what to expect when we booked the trip but we knew it would be great!

The trainers and event producers did not disappoint! We took pages upon pages of notes, were encouraged, and gained confidence in our training. I wanted to share a few of our favorite takeaways that are easy to apply no matter what discipline you are in! All of the knowledge shared by the trainers is so applicable to trail riding, reining, cow horse, mustang competitions, and so much more!

Our mare Missy is extremely expressive in her eyes and ears if you just look closely.

Intention: When we are riding and training, we need to be so intentional about paying attention to our horses. The direction of their ears, where they are looking, and if they give more than you asked for are all indicators of how mentally with us our horses are. For ourselves, we need to be paying attention the whole time we are on the horses back so we can read their body language, release the pressure at the right time, and make sure we are giving the correct cues.

Liven up without tightening up: This is a concept that Nick Dowers talked about several times as he started two colts. As we start horses, they need to be able to handle life coming at them from the ground before we get on their backs. This is a great way to build a horse's confidence from the ground up. Along with this, Nick talked about paying attention to the horses cadence, mental state, and balance for signs of how relaxed a horse is.

Meet stiffness with feel: Rather than pulling harder or bracing ourselves, we need to stay soft to help our horse find softness.

More pressure doesn't make them smarter, it just makes them more resistant: This is another Nick Dowers quote.

Make everything you do count.

Brandon heads to the barn nearly every morning before his office job and is back every evening to continue working with his horses, improving his skills, and helping the horse! Missy, the horse pictured here, came to us with some bad experiences getting saddled. We are working on restarting here to give her confidence and purpose.

Look for 1% better everyday: This is something Shawn Flarida emphasized. Our horses will be 100% better in 100 days if we focus on this.

Reward the horse when the thought is textbook, not when execution is textbook.

Don't get after a horse for doing the wrong thing; help them find the right thing. If they make a recovery, they are liable to make another recovery, but if you punish the bad behavior, they will probably repeat it. Nick Dowers talked about this as he worked with the colts on day 2. We have to give the horse an opportunity to make a mistake so they have a chance to think about it and chose to do the right thing. This is what Nick calls a recovery.

Above are some of my favorite notes from the weekend, but this does not nearly encapsulate all that was covered! In the last couple of days at home, we have worked on:

- Body Control: All three trainers emphasized how important it is to have the horse's mind and body. Body control is essential to help a horse stay balanced with performing maneuvers, on the trail, working cattle, or doing any job.

- Releasing when it's earned, but a couple more times until we get a little extra.

- Staying slow and smooth with our hands. Placing our hands where we want our horse to go as Shawn Flarida and Andrea Fappani talked about.

- Improving our horse 1% through intentional and focused riding. Previously, I found myself drifting a bit without a lot of direction. Now, I set my goals and we are going after them!

Our two horses: Missy in the front and Booger (Boon Me a Lil Gin) in the back. These two have made leaps and bounds of progress in the last two days with the knowledge we learned and the things we were reminded of at the Along for the Ride Symposium!

My favorite part of the entire symposium was witnessing these three incredibly talented trainers, along with some special guests they had, learning from each other! The questions they asked were phenomenal and it was so fun to see them learn from one another. Horsemanship is a fun thing because it's always evolving. There is always something new to learn!

I highly recommend following these three trainers and putting yourself in a learning situation as much as possible! Thank you to Nick Dowers, Shawn Flarida, Andrea Fappani, and Jim "Too Tall" Essick plus their teams for all their hard work and for bringing all of this information to other trainers and riders!

I would love to hear what you've been learning about with horses lately!

xo,

Sara

*These notes and paraphrases are just that: paraphrases. This blog is written based on my interpretation and understanding of the knowledge the trainers shared*