Tag: equestrian

The hardest and best years of living and working with horses in Germany

Catherine Louise Birmingham2 Comments
Josef and Doris Freese

For a long time now I have been wanting a way to share with you all a very great man who is not overly well known but deserves the same focus and spotlight as everyone else.

A man who taught me not only the patient building blocks of a Dressage horse and rider but the encouragement and dedication it takes to be a teacher of horses and riders.

He always went above and beyond to teach me as much as he could during the time I worked as a part of the Freese team.
‘Geht nicht, Gibt’s nicht’ was the stable motto – There’s no such thing as I can’t.
He gave me confidence in my abilities and helped me believe in myself as a trainer. He saw me at my best and at my worst – in character and in riding. He never judged me or held me back.

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Riding – with or without a helmet?

Catherine Louise Birmingham12 Comments

ab5de5a9-1d8d-4b21-ba72-161974b9f07c-originalRiding is one of the only sports that develop areas of the brain that connect with intuition, awareness, instinct and feel. When you rely upon forms of interference within your own body as well as the horse’s body, you cut off this ability to intuit what is happening. You cut off the most powerful form of growth available to us with horses – awareness.

Today we have a never ending supply of tools that are not only taught to us by our trusted trainers but in many places they are the only option given to us either forcefully or with the use of ‘law’.
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Embracing Change

Catherine Louise BirminghamLeave a comment
charles darwin change

Although we understand the seasons changing we find it almost impossible to understand change happening within our own lives. Do you know why your horse is changing? Do you know what it is you are changing him into?

Many of us are afraid of change because we are comfortable with where we are and change requires stepping into the unknown and letting go of control.
Both are fear based and we only fear what we do not understand.

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Competition

Catherine Louise BirminghamLeave a comment
 

CompetitionCompetition, why do we do it?

Competition used to be understood as ‘everyone working together towards a common goal.’ This also included the best possible training to ensure longevity of horses in some of the most physically demanding forms of sport with horses. In most countries now, it is the mother of all judgment and seen by many as the sole purpose to riding, not for the respect and honor towards correct training for horses, but for the pleasure and approval of the crowds watching them.

Depending on a persons current state of awareness, competition will have its main purpose to bring judgment, analyzing and opinion together to form a goal of defining right and wrong, good and bad and creating an overall picture of the best subject at the expense of all the others. The lover of the addiction to winning is no better off than the addiction to a drug. Like a parasite it drains you by always desiring more to fill the emotional high of being successful, of being great and of being superior to others in order to define a sense of who they are. Continue reading “Competition” →