Loftmar Stables

01/07/2025

Things your riding instructor wants you to know:
1. This sport is hard. You don't get to bypass the hard…..every good rider has gone through it. You make progress, then you don't, and then you make progress again. Your riding instructor can coach you through it, but they cannot make it easy.

2. You're going to ride horses you don't want to ride. If you're teachable, you will learn from every horse you ride. Each horse in the barn can teach you if you let them. IF YOU LET THEM. Which leads me to…

3. You MUST be teachable to succeed in this sport. You must be teachable to succeed at anything, but that is another conversation. Being teachable often means going back to basics time and time and time again. If you find basics boring, then your not looking at them as an opportunity to learn. Which brings me to…..

4. This sport is a COMMITMENT. Read that, then read it again. Every sport is a commitment, but in this sport your teammate weighs 1200 lbs and speaks a different language. Good riders don't get good by riding every once in awhile….they improve because they make riding a priority and give themsevles opportunity to practice.

5. EVERY RIDE IS AN OPPORTUNITY. Even the walk ones. Even the hard ones. Every. Single. Ride. Remember when you just wished someone would lead you around on a horse? Find the happiness in just being able to RIDE. If you make every ride about what your AREN'T doing, you take the fun out of the experience for yourself, your horse, and your instructor. Just enjoy the process. Which brings me to...

6. Riding should be fun. It is work. and work isn't always fun.....but if you (or your rider) are consistently choosing other activities or find yourself not looking forward to lessons, it's time to take a break. The horses already know you don't want to be here, and you set yourself up for failure if you are already dreading the lesson before you get here.

7. You'll learn more about horses from the ground than you ever will while riding. That's why ground lessons are important, too. If you're skipping ground lessons (or the part of your lesson that takes place on the ground), you're missing out on the most important parts of the lesson. You spend far more time on the ground with horses than you do in the saddle.

8. Ask questions and communicate. If you're wondering why your coach is having you ride a particular horse or do an exercise, ask them. Then listen to their answer and refer to #3 above.

9. We are human beings. We make decisions (some of them life and death ones) every day. We balance learning for students with workloads for horses and carry the bulk of this business on our shoulders. A little courtesy goes a long way.

Of all the sports your child will try through their school years, riding is one of 3 that they may continue regularly as adults (golf and skiing are the others). People who coach riding spend the better part of their free time and much of their disposable income trying to improve their own riding and caring for the horses who help teach your child. They love this sport and teaching others…..but they all have their limits. Not all good riders are good coaches, but all good coaches will tell you that the process to get good is not an easy one.

*thank you to whoever wrote this! Not my words, but certainly a shared sentiment!

04/27/2024

5 Things Your Horse Will Always Remember!

Horses have an exceptional level of awareness, meaning that they can understand situations much more deeply than other animals. They are so attentive that they can pick on other people's
emotions through body language, voice, or just the general vibe you give off. This type of awareness can lead to much more intense experiences for horses. Here are some experiences your horse will remember forever!

1. Places
Horses have quasi photographic memory.
meaning that they can remember places very clearly. It can be positive or negative, depending on the experience they had in a particular place. Imagine your horse witnessed a very traumatic event. Most likely he will never forget the place
or event and move away from that area. If your horse seems hesitating to go somewhere, listen to him, comfort him and trust him, he knows what he's doing!

2. People
As horses have an almost photographic
memory, it's no surprise that they remember people by their faces. Show them the picture of someone they know and they will probably react. Horses can even recognize people after years of being apart! But their memory goes far
beyond our general appearance. Horses can read our facial expressions and remember them for later, too.

As part of the study, horses were shown
pictures of people with happy or sad
expressions. After meeting these people in person (with neutral expressions), the horses reacted based on the original expression they had memorized in the photos. if you meet a horse for the first time, then you have to make a very good impression on him!

3. Emotions
Besides places and people, horses have an innate ability to recognize human emotions. Horses have a tendency to perceive body language, even the most subtle, which helps them determine a person's feelings. If we are feeling stressed, sad or angry, our physical
appearance tends to reflect this. Same goes when we feel happy or excited! Horses don't just read emotions, they also remember a person based on the last emotion they felt from their last interaction. This is a useful strategy for
horses to avoid any possible aggressive
encounters.

4. The other horses
Humans aren't the only ones who can leave an indelible imprint on a horsel Horses can remember and recognize other horses from their social network. Whether it takes a few years or
decades, one horse will never forget its
relationship with another. This doesn't mean as much they will pair up with each other if they ever get together. One horse will only react to another if the bond they had was particularly strong. If he knows a horse from a previous encounter, he may treat it differently than others.

Other important bonds between horses, like the one that unites a mare and her foal, are known to last a lifetime. As horses also remember smells, this can help a mare recognize her baby, even years after separation.

5. The words
Horses are able to understand words much deeper than we thought, but not in the traditional sense we give words. They
understand the words by tone, height and length of the voice. Words with fewer syllables tend to stick better to horses. They can tell when someone is insulting them and when someone is complimenting them. Don't underestimate
their intelligence, because there's a good chance they're listening very attentively to every word you utter.

Horses are incredibly gifted animals, and should be treated as as such! Having an idea of the memories horses hold with them forever will allow you to understand and communicate with them even more deeply. Whatever the experience, good or bad, you can be sure your horse has felt it fully. Do your best to give them a good memory, and they will surely do the same.

11/18/2023

10/01/2023

Recent studies conducted by the Institute of Heart-Math provide a clue to explain the two-way ′′healing′′ that occurs when we're close to horses.
According to researchers, the heart has an electromagnetic field larger than the brain: a magnetometer can measure the energy field of the heart that radiates from 2.4 meters to 3 meters around the human body.
While this is certainly significant, perhaps more impressive than the electromagnetic field projected by the heart of a horse is five times larger than that of a human being (imagine an electromagnetic sphere around the horse) and it can influence straight into our own heart rate.
Horses are also likely to have what science has identified as a "coherent′′ heart rate (heart rate pattern) that explains why we can feel better when we're close to them. Studies have found a coherent heart pattern or HRV to be a solid measure of well-being and consistent with emotional states of calm and joy-that is, we exhibit such patterns when we feel positive emotions.
A coherent heart pattern is indicative of a system that can recover and adapt to stressful situations very efficiently. Many times, we just need to be in the presence of horses to feel a sense of well-being and peace.
In fact, research shows that people experience many physiological benefits by interacting with horses, including lower blood pressure and heart rate, higher beta-endorphins (neurotransmitters acting as pain suppressors), decreased stress levels, decreased feelings of anger, hostility, tension and anxiety, better social working; and greater feelings of empowerment, confidence, patience and self-efficacy.

09/26/2021

I can not wait to read this from my favorite writer and friend!

I’m excited to announce that Believing In Horses Out West will be published in October! This standalone novel in the Believing In Horses series takes our heroine on adventure like she has nev…