My Newest Saddle

Good day!

Man, did I have a blast riding yesterday—like a kid at Christmas! I’ve always been an equipment junkie—in every sport that I’ve done, I’ve discovered the virtues of using the best equipment you can get (you should see our collection of skis!). So it was with a great deal of excitement and anticipation that I finally got to ride in the brand new prototype saddle that I designed, made by the exceptional craftsmen at Circle Y Saddles.

After nearly a half-century of riding (more than 30 years professionally), I have a pretty good idea of what I want in a saddle. For me, functionality is paramount; but comfort and aesthetics follow closely as important qualities. I have been working with the designers at Circle Y over the past year to develop a line of signature saddles—saddles of my design that I am willing to put my name on—and riding in the new prototype for my performance/trail was the culmination of this venture. I was so thrilled with the saddle that it almost brought tears to my eyes!

This saddle, which at this point remains un-named, is the third saddle in a line of five saddles that will be in my signature series that will be coming on the market soon. The line includes a high-performance saddle for riders doing more demanding disciplines like cutting, working cow and ranch roping; an arena performance saddle for reining and “dry work”; the performance/trail saddle for those riders who spend time both training in the arena and out on the trail; a trail saddle and a gaited-horse trail saddle. With these five saddles, we have something to fit the vast majority of western riders.

All my saddles have unique qualities that I felt were important and with the help of the design team at Circle Y, all of my ideas were incorporated into the saddles. First and foremost, they offer a balanced ride, putting you in the best position for good balance, fluid riding and effective use of the aids for better communication and control. The stirrups hang right under the seat and the cut-away under you leg gives you a very close contact with your horse (not to mention lightens the saddle significantly). The stirrups are ergonomically adjusted so that your foot and leg is in the correct position for cueing and for comfort—reducing knee and ankle pain and putting your leg close to the horse. We eliminated the fleece underneath the saddle to give a close contact and the gel inserts between the bars of the tree and the horse’s back give the horse a great fit and more comfort. Except for the high-performance model, all my saddles have the revolutionary Flex2 tree, which again gives a closer contact feel, fits the horse better and makes for a more comfortable ride for you and your horse. And one of the best features of the Flex2 saddles is how light-weight they are. This is an important issue for me—I got no interest in hucking heavy saddles up onto my horse’s back if I don’t have to.

The performance/trail saddle also feature a unique rigging (how the cinch attaches to the saddle). It is double-rigged, allowing for a better fit in the middle of the horse’s back and less pressure-points at the shoulders and withers. What makes the rigging more unique is that the cut-away under your leg means the double-rigging looks more like two Js rather than like two Us. This helps diminish the bulk under your leg; again, for a closer contact feel and greater comfort. Between the double rigging and the Flex2 tree, it gives a superior fit, even for hard-to-fit horses like mine.

Each saddle in my line will also have a customized saddle pad—made to match the saddle. The pads are made from wool felt, with a contoured shape to protect your horse’s withers, matching leather at the wear points and cut to perfectly match the outline of the saddle; it is a perfect compliment to the saddle. Even with all the high-tech materials on the market today, it’s hard to beat wool felt for saddle pads. Although getting the pad will add a little to the cost of the saddle, in my opinion it is money well-spent, in terms of functionality, comfort and aesthetics.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve also developed more interest in comfort when it comes to saddles. When I first sat down in my performance/trail saddle yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised at the cushiness of the seat—a feel I could definitely get accustomed to—especially on those days when I sit in the saddle all day while teaching. With extra padding and a memory foam liner, the seat gives exceptional comfort but still gives a good feel of the horse. I was a little worried that I wouldn’t have the same ability to cue my horse with my seat, with all that padding, but Dually very quickly put my fears to rest. He worked as well—or maybe even better—than normal, shifting his balance with the slightest rocking of weight on my seat bones. We even practiced canter pirouettes, in addition to the regular routine of spins, roll back and slide stops.

Amazingly, these saddles have a broken-in feel, right out of the box. Because of the high quality materials that Circle Y uses and the “Softee®” leather in the seat jockeys and fenders, the shock absorbing skirt and the pre-twisted stirrups, you could ride in this saddle all day the very first time with exceptional comfort. I am very happy with the beautiful 3-D looking tooling and conchos, as well as the contrasting colors of the seat and the saddle strings. Certainly, it is a beautiful saddle and one I am proud to have my name on.

I still have to test-ride the two proto-type trail saddles to complete the collection. But they look great and based on what I felt with the performance/trail, I am quite sure I’ll be happy with them. Both the trail saddles are designed with strictly trail riding in mind (and with the special needs of the gaited horse’s shape) but will also give the rider good balance and position.

The biggest remaining task, before we can get these saddles on the market, is to name them. While I am clear on each saddle’s purpose and type, coming up with good names seems like a daunting task, so I may need some help from you. Please let me know if you have any ideas for names or even for a theme in the names.

I am on my way to Ohio this weekend for a big clinic—then off to Sacramento next weekend. I can’t wait to get home and ride my horse again. My biggest dilemma now will be which saddle to use! I know, I am spoiled.

Enjoy the ride,

Julie

For training tips from Julie, visit the Training Library at http://juliegoodnight.com/q&a.php and check out her online store--full of training tools and DVDs-- at http://juliegoodnight.com/products.html

The Release is Everything to Your Horse

Greetings!

It’s been my observation through the years that few non-pro riders understand the power of the release—it’s meaning to the horse and the critical aspect of the timing. Horses always work for the release of pressure—both physical and mental. And whatever your horses is doing at the moment you release the pressure, is what you have just trained him to do—right or wrong.

In this week’s episode of Horse Master, I work with a young horse that is displaying a lot of resistant and fearful behavior, which has been trained into her by an owner that had been releasing her at the wrong time.

You’ll see at the beginning of the show that whenever the owner approached her with a “scary thing”, which is this case was simply a leather show halter, the horse pulled-back in resistance, then the owner took the halter away. From the horse’s point of view, she was doing the right thing by throwing her head up in the air and backing up, because every time she did that, the owner rewarded her by taking the halter away. This is what I refer to as anti-training—training the horse to give the wrong response. It happens all the time. Have you seen it?

I see this type of problem all the time—releasing at the wrong time and not releasing at the right time. For instance, I see people that have a lazy nonresponsive horse give the horse a command, say to trot, and the horse ignores them, so they stop asking (releasing the pressure), so the horse is rewarded for his lack of response. He thinks he did the right thing.

Or, the horse that is being ridden with heavy contact tries to find the release and eventually guesses right and breaks at the poll, lowers his head and rounds his frame, but the pressure never goes away so he thinks that is not the right response and starts trying other tactics to get a release. Unfortunately when he throws his head or roots the reins, he gives himself a momentary release, so he thinks that’s the right answer.

You have a 3-second window of opportunity in which to release a horse (or apply a correction) in order for him to make an association between his actions and the release (or correction). After 3 seconds, it’s not possible for him to make the association and the sooner in the 3 seconds that the release or correction occurs, the more likely the horse is to make the right association. Research has shown that the optimal time is one-half of one second. You have to be really good to have that kind of split-second timing. Timing is everything in training; it’s hard to have good timing if you have to think through the proper response.

Maybe you’ve had a horse that has inadvertently been trained the wrong thing? Even a very well-trained horse can become confused in his training from the rider not releasing him. Or worse, he loses his incentive to respond and perform if the release never comes. Have you witnessed the power of the release?

And don’t forget, we have to release the mental pressure we put on horses too. They feel mental pressure just as keenly as physical pressure and they can respond either offensively or defensively to pressure, moving away from pressure or into pressure. Here’s an article from the Training Library of my website that explains all the types of pressure and how and why the horse responds. http://juliegoodnight.com/questionsNew.php?id=163 Let me know if you read anything enlightening there.

BTW- we had a great weekend at C Lazy U! We met some new friends, caught up with some old ones, did a lot of good cow work with our horses and even survived the weekend without gaining weight. I actually lost two pounds! Putting me very close to reaching my first 5-pound challenge.

Enjoy the ride!

Julie

For training tips from Julie, visit the Training Library at http://juliegoodnight.com/q&a.php and check out her online store--full of training tools and DVDs-- at http://juliegoodnight.com/products.html

5-Pound Challenge Update

Greetings!

We are two weeks into our challenge and I have been so pleased with all the great responses we have gotten from readers and they just keep coming! Cheryl and I (one of my challenge partners) have stepped up our walk up “butt hill” every morning and as we huff our way up the mountain, we have been mulling over your comments and ideas.

I was most impressed to have our humble little challenge joined by someone who had just celebrated the loss of 100#. Wow. Here I am whining about trying to lose 5 pounds and you have achieved an unimaginable milestone. And yes, I have spoken with several other riders who have lost 50-100# about how that affected their riding. All have reported to me that they had to re-learn balance on the horse; and some have commented they had to re-learn how to use their aids (seat and legs) because they could now feel their seat bones. I suppose as your body changes in shape, your center of gravity changes as well. I am not sure of the mechanics of drastic weight-loss as it relates to riding, but it is interesting to me. I’d love to hear from you about exactly how weight-loss (in any increment) has affected your riding.

Many of your comments have included personal tips for dieting and ideas about rewards. Cheryl and I have been mulling over these ideas as we walk up the hill. For some, it is not a challenge for weight loss as much as a challenge to get more fit. Take Cheryl for instance; she’s a waif. She really cannot afford to lose 5 whole pounds since she had already lost 2# before our weigh-in where she tipped the scales at a whopping 113. But she wants to be more fit—so how do you quantify a fitness challenge? And, it has lead me to ponder this question: is it easier to lose 5# if you have only 5# to lose or if you have 100# to lose? I’ve thought about this a lot over the past two weeks and have come to the conclusion that they are equally hard, but for different reasons. What do you think?

For me, I am holding steady at a loss of three pounds—only two to go! But this weekend we are headed into dangerous waters and I am really worried I will be set back in my challenge. Rich and I are headed up to Granby, Colorado, with Dually and Diggs, to the C Lazy U Guest Ranch www.clazyu.com , where we will attend a three day Versatility Ranch Horse clinic and competition www.nvrha.org . The ranch is a 5-star resort, complete with gourmet full-course meals in copious proportions. I am really good at not buying high-calorie food and can maintain some semblance of self-discipline at home and when traveling—but put it right in front of me and my determination dwindles.

Rich and I have discussed our strategy to try and overcome the temptations of the weekend, with a little in-put from my challenge buddies, and we have decided on a multi-pronged approach. First, we are going to not eat potatoes and bread; that should help a lot but it is a hard push for me since I could live on bread alone (as long as I had butter). Secondly, we are going to remind ourselves to slow down and only eat until we’re full—not until we hate ourselves and fell sick. I personally subscribe to the theory of wearing tight pants to dinner so that there’s not too much room to over-stuff. We decided not drinking was unrealistic since this is a hugely social event but I am going to forego my beloved martini for a wine spritzer (which I won’t consume much of since I don’t really like wine). Plus I will take my regular walk every morning. If I can survive the weekend without gaining any weight, I’ll consider it a success!

Anyone have ideas for maintaining a healthy weight when you are vacationing or partying? Do in-between-meal snacks help you eat less when you sit down to the dinner table? And if so, what’s your favorite healthy snack?

I hope those of you that have signed-in on our challenge are having some success. Please let me know how it goes.

Enjoy the holiday weekend!

Julie

For training tips from Julie, visit the Training Library at http://juliegoodnight.com/q&a.php and check out her online store--full of training tools and DVDs-- at http://juliegoodnight.com/products.html

When Whoa Means Go--Working with Off the Track Thoroughbreds

These days, seems like I am seeing more and more rescue horses in my clinics and on the TV show. I guess it is a sign of our times and a trend that will only be increasing in the coming years. We’ve also had quite a few OTTBs (horse slang for Off The Track Thoroughbred) apply to be on the TV show and this week’s show features one such horse and rider. Be sure to watch "Back Stretch to Backyard, 208" this Wednesday at 5:30 EST on RFD-TV with airings again on Thursday night and Saturday night.

Andrea bought her TB gelding after he had been turned out to pasture for a couple years following his 8- year stint on the track. She was hoping to make a family horse out of him, for her kids and husband to accompany her on occasional rides. But from what I could see, he was a long way from that. He wouldn’t stand still at all and would start kicking randomly when you tried to make him—typical of a race horse. They are prone to having tempers and standing still is just not something that is required of race horses very often because they do best when they are moving. Often, race horses are saddled, mounted and dismounted while in motion. So that was one problem that needed addressing before he qualified as a “husband horse."

When being ridden, Andrea’s horse would keep his head very high and launch impulsively into a trot whenever he wanted and in her effort to make him walk, she ended up programming the horse to “jig” (a bouncy, prancing trot that is quite uncomfortable to ride). Many people have this problem with OTTBs—as do many owners of pleasure horses as well. It’s a question that comes up a lot, “How do I stop my horse from jigging?” (Hint: See the Training Library tab at the top of www.juliegoodnight.com for more tips and Q&As.)

While any horse can be inadvertently taught to jig by their riders, race horses are particularly prone to this problem and as with many “horse problems”, the issue is actually the rider. On the track, horses are galloped on very heavy contact and when you want them to stop, you loosen the reins. So, they have learned that loose reins mean stop and tight reins mean go. Believe it or not, most horses have inadvertently learned this, although to a lesser degree, because when you hold the reins tight, horses tend to be poised for action and when you are not going to ask anything of them, you’ll usually loosen the reins and sit very casually.

The problem that Andrea was having with her OTTB was that she was so sure that he was going to take off at any moment, that she held the reins tight and was perched forward, ready for action. To any horse, this can become a cue for them to get jazzed up and jiggy. This is almost always the cause of jigging and the solution is to stop the horse abruptly when he trots, but then drop the reins and ride on a loose rein. Pick them up again for correction if he breaks, but don’t hang onto the reins or he’ll be poised for action and begin jigging. For race horses, this is because how they are ridding on the track, but almost any horse, when faced with unyielding and meaningless pressure on the mouth, will become antsy and even begin to “run through the bridle” (the more you pull, the faster he goes).

Many times it is hard to know which came first, the chicken or the egg. Is the horse jigging because the reins are too tight or are the reins too tight because the horse is jigging? It really doesn’t matter—horses and riders develop this kind of co-dependency all the time. I see it at every clinic I do; sometimes with the ground work and sometimes in the mounted work. If you micro-manage your horse too much he becomes dependent on you to constantly tell him to slow down, speed up, or whatever, instead of trusting him to do his job correctly. If you try to prevent him from making mistakes (like breaking gait), he will never learn from making a mistake and then getting corrected for it. The same could be said for children—you’ve got to let them make decisions, right or wrong, and learn what the consequences of their actions are.

In this episode with Andrea, she did a great job of breaking the co-dependent cycle and with the exercises I showed her, the horse make tremendous progress in just one day. Do you have a tendency toward co-dependency with your horse? Do you ever get the feeling that the horse is cueing you instead of the other way around? Or that he is controlling your actions? I find that most people don’t recognize the co-dependency, even when it’s there.

And what is it about OTTBs that people like so much anyway? Is it that they are cheap and readily available if you live near a race track? Or maybe that the need is so great and people want to do the right thing and give a home to an unwanted horse? I’d love to hear from you if you have an OTTB.

Having grown up riding OTTBs converted to hunter/jumpers and after riding on the race track through college (it’s a great college job), I have a great deal of appreciation for the breed, but they tend to be a lot of horse for the average rider and probably not a good choice for a novice. What’s your opinion?

Enjoy the ride!

Julie

A clip of Andrea's episode:

Clips from other OTTB shows:

For training tips from Julie, visit the Training Library at http://juliegoodnight.com/q&a.php and check out her online store--full of training tools and DVDs-- at http://juliegoodnight.com/products.html

Introducing The Bit Experiment: Helping a Horse Learn to Relax and Collect

One of the most common questions I get and one of the most common issues I address at clinics is, what is the right bit for my horse? Many, if not most training “issues” are in someway connected to the horse’s mouth. When a horse is resisting the rider’s hands (as evidenced by his hollowed framed and seeming inability to round and collect) or evading the bit with typical antics (head tossing, star-gazing, rooting, putting tongue out/over/above the bit) there are three things that can be wrong: the horse may be uncomfortable from the bit; the horse may have never been trained to respond properly to bit pressure, or the rider’s lack of skill. Often, I find that all three issues are contributing to the horse’s discomfort and resulting poor performance.

Bits are so often the problem that I carry 5-6 bridles with me to clinics—with the Myler bits that I know will help a horse be more comfortable and which will address a variety of common problems that I see, be it a lack of control or other behavioral problems. It’s really satisfying to me to change something as simple as the bit and see an immediate improvement in a horse—often accompanied by an ecstatic rider with a huge grin on her face, as you’ll see in this video.

While it helps for me to be able to see the horse and rider in action, to diagnose what bit the horse needs and see what training and rider-skill issues there are, there is help available to anyone who may be struggling with bit/control issues. The Myler Bit site is an online resource that through a series of questions, can suggest a Myler bit that may help your situation. The Myler brothers, Ron, Dale and Bob, are passionate about making horses more comfortable in bits and have dedicated their life’s work toward this goal. From them and others, I have learned so much about bits over the past 20 years – it is a very deep subject and one with many misconceptions about what is mild or harsh, what is good or bad, and what the right bit is for any given horse.

Any sage horseman knows that a bit will never fix a training problem—only training will. But the bit may either make the training highly productive or a sad failure. Surprisingly, many horses I see on the road are struggling with the bit in the above mentioned ways, simply from confusion on how to respond and what gets them the release of pressure. Often young horses, at the start of their career, have a bit jammed in their mouth and immediately start being ridden, without any training on how the horse should respond to bit pressure. Through a combination of the rider’s forceful hands and the horse’s willingness to try and do the right thing, the horse’s riding career begins. It’s like a child being advanced to 5^th or 6^th grade with no knowledge of how to read. It leads to a confused an concerned horse who resists any pressure at all from the rider’s hands, even though he may go about trying to do his job to the best of his ability (as well as he can do with his head up in the air or while he is trying to protect his mouth).

An older horse that has spent years being ridden in a resistant, hollowed frame, has wrongly developed the muscles in his neck, his back and abdomen and, equally problematic, he has developed incorrect muscle memory and has engrained inappropriate responses to cues. The horse has learned that the wrong thing gets him a release of pressure from the bit on the tongue: when he tosses his head, there is a momentary release of pressure as his head comes back down; when he star-gazes, the bit rests on the corners of his lips, not his tongue; when he roots the reins, he finds a release as his chin comes back; and by sucking his tongue up in his throat, putting it over the bit or sticking it out of his mouth, the pressure on his tongue is released.

Whether young or old, show or pleasure, many horses would benefit from systematic training and/or reconditioning that my bitting system offers. It will teach a horse where to find the release and the correct response to specific cues from the rider to give to pressure both laterally and vertically and round his frame. It will train or retrain his muscle memory and develop the musculature along his top-line and abdomen so that he can comfortably lift his back and hold himself in a collected frame without relying on constant contact from the rider.

Even when the bit is right for the horse and the horse has been properly trained, the rider has a huge amount of culpability in how well the horse can perform. If the rider’s hands are constantly and relentlessly applying pressure to the horse’s mouth, even a well-trained and responsive horse will get confused and begin acting defensively to protect his mouth. The rider must first learn to balance on the horse without holding on or balancing on the reins. And most importantly, the rider must learn to release the pressure on the horse’s mouth when he gives the right response. So often, riders hang on the horse’s mouth, with constant and meaningless pressure—if a release never comes, any horse will eventually reach his boiling point and begin evasion antics or acting out with bad behavior like running through the bridle or worse. After all, horses are programmed to run away from things that make them uncomfortable.

The Bit Experiment:

With attention to all three of the things that can go wrong, the wrong bit, the horse’s training and the rider’s skill, we have started a little experiment of our own with Cari and her horse, Lakota, whose career as a therapeutic riding horse has left him in a bad frame (literally). Since Lakota’s issues are moderate and Cari’s riding skill is good, our focus is on putting him in the right bit and reconditioning him both mentally and physically. We’ll check in with Cari and Lakota weekly and will have a video to show you of their progress. In this first video, you’ll see Lakota’s initial resistance to the old bit (his hollowed frame, his attempts to round, but his failure to be able to hold a frame), and his drastic improvement when we switch him to the Myler Combination bit, which takes some of the pressure off the mouth and puts it on the face, jaw and poll.

Notes from Cari:

The response Lakota had to this bit literally brought me to tears. I have been trying to get him to relax and give for years. Because he is an ex-therapy horse, he has never had the opportunity to consistently give to pressure and have a release as a reward. He was so relaxed in this bit, and dare I say, he had spring in his step. It was the best ride we've had since I have owned him. He was using his body correctly and it was a very dramatic give to the pressure, so it was easy for me to follow suit and give him the release he needed. We first lunged to give him a chance to get used to the new bit, and it did not seem like it was hard for him to get used to. He adapted nicely. We rode walk/trot only and after a few times around a circle, he figured out the pressure on his nose meant he should drop his head and in turn, he got a release. VERY nice! He tries so hard and was very pleased with himself for figuring it out (he told me so).

Then, after watching my training video, Bit Basics, Cari will start a systematic reconditioning program with Lakota using the Goodnight bitting system—and we’ll document the progress here. It’ll take 3-4 weeks to start seeing the muscle development, but Cari will notice a drastic improvement with each day’s progress. And she’ll be sharing her experience with us, here on the blog.

Is your horse troubled with bit anxiety? Do you have periodic bouts of feeling out of control? Are his gaits rough and rushed, with his body tense and giraffe-like? If so, hopefully you’ll find some answers here that will help both you and your horse enjoy the ride more.

Stay tuned for more fun!

Julie

PS- I am thrilled by the response to the 5-pound challenge and the variety of thought-provoking comments. We’ll keep checking in with everyone on that front too—I promise! I have some progress to report already; how about you?

For training tips from Julie, visit the Training Library at http://juliegoodnight.com/q&a.php and check out her online store--full of training tools and DVDs-- at http://juliegoodnight.com/products.html

The 5-Pound Challenge

Good day!

Inspired by your comments, and by the response from my friends, I want to extend my five-pound challenge to everyone—at least everyone interested in getting fit and shedding a few pounds (or more). As long as dieting/exercising are approved by your physician, why not give it a try?

Getting in better shape builds your confidence—you can’t help but feel better about yourself when you workout. It feels so good when you stop! Making an effort to get in better shape is something I talk a lot about in my seminars for people that are fearful of horses and it is part of the over-all plan for building more confidence. It’s an added bonus that being in better shape makes you healthier and able to ride better. By starting on a fitness and/or diet plan, you’ll not only feel better about yourself, you’ll also appreciate your greater strength when it comes to the physical exertion that horses entail. And hey, if those jeans aren’t quite so tight, it’ll be a lot easier to mount!

In case you want to join us, here’s the way the five-pound challenge works:

Find a friend (or friends) willing to take the challenge with you—or join our online friends who are joining me in the challenge, by signing in below (hit the comments link at the end of this entry).

1. Agree that you will lose five pounds over a certain period of time—we decided on one month, but it could be longer or maybe even have no time limit at all.
2. Then agree on what the prize will be when you reach that goal—it should be something you’ve been wanting for a while but haven’t yet treated yourself to. We decided on a manicure this time, but also considered massages, a new pair of shoes, a day at the lake, Sunday brunch at our favorite restaurant, a lesson/clinic with your favorite instructor, a day-ride with your friends.
3. Next have the weighing-in ceremony and document your starting weight—everyone on the same scale. Write it all down—starting weight and goal and everyone signs it. We followed our weighing-in ceremony with a rigorous hike up “butt hill”, kicking off our five-pound campaign.
4. Then go to work to lose the weight—keeping in close contact with your fellow challengers and spurring each other on. Sharing ideas, recipes, successes, agonies and defeats, with a hard eye on the goal.

Dieting need not be so hard—there’s lots of ways to make it easier. There has never been a shortage of faddish new diet plans, each with its own gimmick. But at the end of the day, any successful diet always boils down to two important factors: eat less and move more. The trick is to finding the right system for you—whether it’s a proven formula like South Beach or Atkins, or a customized formula to meet your personality, lifestyle and blood type.

A while ago, I heard a health tip on the radio that said that if you wanted to lose 5-10 pounds, all you had to do was 20% more—or less. Eat 20% fewer calories and/or exercise 20% more. I’ve thought a lot about that since our challenge began last week and have decided that this is a good plan for me. I was already jogging 25 minutes every morning on the treadmill, so to do 20% more, I only have to add five minutes. That fits my schedule and my tolerance level just fine. Maybe you can add more time at the barn—more vigorous grooming, cleaning stalls, doing more ground work, riding without stirrups. Can you think of fun ways to increase your exercise while enjoying your horses?

Cutting 20% of your calories shouldn’t be that hard either. Heck, I can probably do that by just drinking water! Most of us have things we can either substitute (i.e., no-fat mayo instead of real mayo) to lose calories or we can cut portions. I like this idea because I can still eat what I want—not depriving myself, but just eating less of it. I proudly set aside 20% of my French fries last night, but still enjoyed “burger night” at our favorite restaurant with friends (of course, Cheryl, my challenge-mate, out-did me by having her salmon burger on a salad—no fries or bun!).

Spring time is the perfect time to get in better shape for the riding season. Will you join our challenge? I am already scheming on what my ultimate reward to myself will be when I reach my ultimate weight-loss goal. Right now I am leaning toward all new under garments—and I’m talking the good stuff, not the Wal-Mart undies I’ve been wearing!

What would your five-pound reward to yourself be? What about the ten-pound mark and other mile-markers you meet? I talk a lot in my clinics about what motivates horses and how to find the right amount of pressure to motivate a horse—but we work the same way! If we can motivate ourselves by sharing successes and failures with friends, with reasonable goals and scrumptious rewards, by making it as easy and fun as possible, it’s a whole lot easier to do!

I hope you’ll sign-on. Please comment below to join the fun and share any ideas you have that make it fun and easy!

Enjoy the ride,

Julie

For training tips from Julie, visit the Training Library at http://juliegoodnight.com/q&a.php and check out her online store--full of training tools and DVDs-- at http://juliegoodnight.com/products.html

NOTE: this challenge reflects the authors’ experiences and is provided for general reference only. It is not intended to be a substitute for medical or psychological advice or counseling. Therefore, you should consult a physician regarding your individual physical needs before undertaking any diet, exercise, or fitness program.

QuarterFest

Greetings!

We had a great time in Murfreesboro last weekend for the inaugural QuarterFest 09; a fantastic tribute to the American Quarter Horse and the people who own them. There was certainly something for everyone; from great shopping to thrilling entertainers; from horse camping to riding trial obstacles; from reining to roping to mounted shooting; from colt-starting to learning advanced cues for collection and lateral movements. Kids could get a star, strip and a snip painted on their faces, then get on a trusted old steed and take a test ride. It was a power-packed program with some of the top performers in the industry in terms of entertainment and education. Click on the links from this page, http://www.aqha.com/ to see a slide show from the event.

Unfortunately, the torrential downpours and lightening that happened all day Friday put a bit of a damper on the whole weekend. It rained so hard on Friday that the steady rain all day Saturday seemed like an improvement. The hay rides were cancelled, but not the trail ride on Saturday—the hard-cores ride rain or shine! Some of the outdoor events were moved inside and although the weather kept some people away, everyone there had a wonderful weekend, myself included.

The evening performance was a top-rate production with Tommy and Karen Turvey and their wild act; Jerry Diaz, famous Charro and trick roper; Bob Avila giving reining and cow horse demos and other great acts. Meanwhile, during the day, Curt & Tammy Pate, Jeff Griffith and I all gave clinics each day—covering a wide range of topics and interests. QuarterFest will be an annual event and I’m sure, baring bad weather and tornadoes, more people will take advantage of this fabulous opportunity next year.

I am home three days this week; sadly only one to go. But I’ve already walked up “butt hill” twice this week and ridden my horse once. I signed on today to a five-pound challenge with my friends Cheryl and Lucy. We all got down to our skivvies and weighed in; now all we have to do is lose five pounds in the next month and we win the big prize (which we haven’t decided on yet). It’s fun to make a solemn pact with friends—makes dieting easier and more fun. There are only two ways to lose weight: eat less and move more. I think I’ll try them both. What works best for you?

Until next time, enjoy the ride!

Julie

For training tips from Julie, visit the Training Library at http://juliegoodnight.com/q&a.php and check out her online store--full of training tools and DVDs-- at http://juliegoodnight.com/products.html

Photo by Holly Clanahan, courtesy AQHA