Bluebird Lane Blog – Earlier Posts

by Lori Albrough

When it comes to making a change for the positive, a lot of times we can get all fired up initially, only to come up against internal blocks or blindspots later. Or we can begin to allow external factors to drag us back down into negativity. The important thing to know about this type of work, is that you decide to do it daily.

Becoming Complaint-Free is both a practice and a process. There is no arrival. That may seem faintly discouraging, until you flip it on its head. That means there is no failure, either. We do this work because of who we are becoming in the process, not because of where we end up. So if you slip up, forgive yourself and move on. Just know that every time you succeed in not complaining, you are training yourself to look for solutions within, and to find your own power.

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by Lori Albrough

One of the biggest challenges of riding a good half halt is getting the timing right. This is especially true if you are riding on your own and don’t have someone there to remind you to release immediately after the half halt.

We all know that the release is every bit as important as every other part of the half halt, but sometimes when we’re alone and not getting the feeling, we can suddenly realize “OMG, I’m holding too much and not letting go.” Only by letting go do we allow the half halt to do its magic. If you are getting a heavy, leaning, or pulling feeling in your hand, ask yourself honestly, am I releasing quickly enough?

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by Lori Albrough

When training a horse, setting goals and having a plan is important. I definitely do that. But, it can’t be the most important thing. As Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” He said this in the context of preparing for battle, but it holds just as true in the context of preparing to make progress with your horse.

Horses being horses, things are not necessarily going to proceed 100% according to your plan every time you get out into the training area. You need to stay flexible in your approach when the horse doesn’t seem to remember what you thought he already knew, and therefore you can’t move on to introducing new material. The most important thing is to be totally in the moment with the horse and listening to what he is telling you when you ask him questions.

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by Lori Albrough

Last month we talked about some stretches to loosen the chest muscles to help you improve your posture on the horse. Shoulders that are rounded forward and downward are often being pulled in by tight chest muscles. Once you have loosened up your chest muscles, you can start to strengthen the muscles of your back that support both good posture and good riding.

Three back exercises I like to use are the Bent Over Forward Raise, Bent Over Reverse Fly, and the Bent Over Row. These work the mid-back muscles and the muscles along the spine. Today I will talk about the first exercise, but first, in order to perform them properly we need to master the correct training posture.

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by Lori Albrough

Everyone is asking “What breed of horse was that featured on ABC’s The Bachelor?” Yes, it was a Fjord horse!

In the episode where they go to Lindzi’s parents horse farm in Ocala, FL, the couple goes for a carriage drive pulled by a Fjord gelding called Devon.

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by Lori Albrough

A while back I was in this seven week program on creativity, and on day one they started off by presenting us with a challenge. It was a contract to sign, and the contract said that for the forty-nine day duration, we would commit to totally giving up the following:

Complaining, Criticizing, Gossiping, and Whining.

Whoa! Stop and think about that for a moment.

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by Lori Albrough

I remember way back in January 2005, Dressage Today magazine had an article called “Closing the Gap” with the tagline: When will “North-American bred” have the same cachet as “Imported from Europe”. The article was geared towards sporthorse breeding and training, and quoted Scott Hassler who said:

“Our good horses are not given the chance to compete against Europe’s good horses because of the training. It’s that simple. We need to get our young horses ridden better.”  In particular, Hassler says, “Our young horses are not ridden in a way that is safe, competent, or marketable. We see them in a very strung out frame. They don’t canter for the first time for six or eight months.”

That last sentence is the one I want to focus on. I believe that once your horse starts his formal under-saddle training, whether that is at three years or four years old, he needs to be taught to canter from the beginning.

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by Lori Albrough

Training straightness in your horse is important. So important, in fact, that “Straightness” rates it’s very own place on the training scale, right up there at the tippy-top underneath “Collection”. So it’s both a very advanced concept, and at the same time, very fundamental.

If we are not aware of, and working towards correcting, our horse’s intrinsic crookedness from the very beginning, we are in effect training his imbalances, reinforcing his crookedness, and making it more firmly entrenched.

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