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How we talk to each other online
A couple of months ago I joined some Facebook equestrian groups. They are a great way of sharing knowledge and ideas as well as having a little fun. But, and this is a big but, I’ve recently noticed a concerning trend – the way that we talk to and about each other online. It was…
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John Maclean – A story of perseverence
In 1988 John Maclean was a semi professional football player in training for a triathalon when he was hit by an 8 tonne truck and paralysed. As an incomplete paraplegic John was determined to walk again. After much battling and hard work, he realised that his goal wasn’t achievable at that time. In an interview…
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My values as an equestrian
I recently listened to the #HorseHour podcast ‘Train your brain’ episode. In this episode host Amy Frost talked to performance coach Jenni Winter about how we can harness our brains to maximise performance with our horses. During this conversation, Jenni discussed the importance of our personal values and how this influences our goals. It got…
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Winning on a made horse
After a brilliant ride on Nonie yesterday afternoon I once again found myself musing an oft expressed sentiment in the horse world, ‘Winning on a made horse will never be as good as winning on a horse you’ve trained yourself’. I have to say this one really rubs me up the wrong way. Firstly, I…
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The Equestrians Guide to Motivation
What is motivation? When we enter the world of horses we are seized as Ralph Waldo Emmerson says ‘by a grand passion’. It is the thing that gets us up at all hours of the morning, that sees us mucking out stables, weeding paddocks all weekend long, cleaning tack, scrubbing horses, coming home at all…
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I’ll be a good rider when…
‘I’ll be a good rider when…’ This is a game I used to play a few years ago and it’s about as useful as its companion game ‘If only…’ At that time the script in my head was ‘I’ll be a good rider when I am competing at elementary level’. For quite some time,…
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Daring to Suck
Daring to suck… It’s a seemingly bizarre concept that resonated deeply with me. I was listening to one of my favourite podcast’s (check it out here http://summerinnanen.com/frr-37) when I stumbled across this idea. So what does ‘daring to suck’ actually mean? In a nutshell, it means giving something a go even if there is…