Being a popular and appreciative boarder at your barn ultimately benefits both you and your horse — your word will be better regarded, your disgruntlements better addressed, and you and your horse will be valued members of the barn community.

Vibrant Life Beyond 20 - Recently, I spent time with a horse named Sparky who is estimated to be over 40 years old. Understandably, you may be visualizing a tottering shell of a being, held together by medication and hay cubes, but this could not be further from the truth. Sparky is a sound, vital, cheeky, engaged fellow and the leader of the pack, although his teeth no longer work well for chewing hay. Out of curiosity, I studied his lifestyle, diet, way of being, and exercise routine with hopes of gleaning some insight to help me support my more “mature” equine clients as well as my own mare Diva, who turned 22 years old this past May.

The mammalian nervous system is an incredible thing, with its complex functionality, and all the ways it regulates our systems, adapts to change, restores itself, and even mirrors the nervous systems of those around us. If any year was going to introduce us to the limits and resourcefulness of our unique nervous system, 2020 would be it. In this one year, every one of us has found out exactly how we cope with global uncertainty, massive change, potential scarcity of resources, and possible threats to the health of ourselves and our family and friends. Our nervous system is an integral part of how we cope with stress and change, working behind the scenes to recalibrate, reorganize and bring us into new ways of being in a healthy or not-so-healthy state.

Integrating sport psychology training into our daily lives - Ten years ago, I was moving up a level in three-day eventing and fell off during cross-country at my first two events. They were simple falls and luckily neither I nor my horse were injured, yet something still felt seriously wrong. After my second fall, I struggled to see a distance to even the simplest cross-pole. My confidence plummeted and my horse started stopping. I felt as if I had forgotten how to ride overnight and the frustration and embarrassment were completely overwhelming. I am forever grateful that it occurred to me to reach out to a sport psychology coach for help because, after several sessions I finally understood what was happening and felt equipped to solve the problem. It was an “aha” moment for me because it opened my eyes to a whole new side of competitive sport that I had not been considering: the mental game.