Where do I start?

Poke! Where ya been?

June was a blur, wasn’t it?

To kick off the month I had the pleasure of assisting Brandi Lyons and the Brandi Lyons Horse Training Crew at the Western States Horse Expo in Sacramento, CA. It was a ton of hard work, but so worth it and I left feeling ridiculously proud to be a Brandi Lyons Certified Trainer. I met many wonderful people during the expo, all from different walks of life, coming from varying locations, no two with the same experiences, goals or issues, yet after a quick conversation, almost all of them asked me the exact same question, “Where do I start?” My answer to each of them was also the same, “Congratulations; you already have!” How could so many different people, facing completely unique situations, all have taken the first step towards Leading the Change and not even know it?

The answer is relatively simple. It doesn’t matter what type of relationship you currently have with your horse, it doesn’t matter what discipline, or lack thereof, you choose, your experience level doesn’t matter either; the first step towards achieving your goals, whatever they may be, is deciding that you want something different than you have now. Simply put, the first step towards achieving your dreams is to decide to make a change to your current state. We call this, Leading the Change, and it all begins with the answer to one simple question...

Do you want more out of your relationship with your horse? Yes? Well then, let’s pop the bubbly because congratulations are in order! You too have just taken that all important first step on a very powerful journey. Great work ;)

“Okay, that’s nice Dana,” is what you’re thinking now; I know because that’s what every person I talked to at the Expo said to me, and next you’re going to ask, “so, HOW do I get more out of my relationship with my horse? What book/video/product/gimmick/quick fix do I need to buy to give me this relationship of my dreams? How much is it going to cost me?” Especially true at the Expo as I stood in front of an entire display of training products…

This folks, is where I’m going to ask you to slow down for a second, breathe, maybe even sit down, because I have some difficult news. There is no quick fix. There is no magic product. There is no amount of money that will give you want you really want, assuming of course, that you want a wonderful, meaningful, trusting relationship with your horse. All relationships take time to build, and all QUALITY relationships take work to maintain. Even if all you want is a well broke horse to go out on a trail ride with every so often, you still have to work to build a relationship with that horse. Even if you buy a horse that already has all the fancy buttons you could ever want built in, you still have to put in the time to form a relationship with your new partner. There are no workarounds, no alternatives, and no products that can do this for you; you simply have to put in the time.

The good news is that this is the fun part! Taking the time to build a great relationship with your horse is not only key to actually building that great relationship, it's also one of the best ways a horse lover could ever spend their time. At some point our society lost interest in anything that took time to accomplish and people started searching for a quick fix to all our problems. I believe that this started because people didn't know WHAT they should be spending their time working on to help them achieve their goals, and that’s where the No Limits Program comes into play.

Brandi’s fundamentals can help you fix almost any problem, and there are ‘No Limits’ to where her method’s can take you. One of the people I talked to at the Expo was looking for help leading their pushy horse from the barn to the pasture, and another was working to perfect Tempi changes (a dressage term for changing canter leads every stride). These were two totally different goals that both found help in the No Limits Program and it is one of the reasons why I’m so proud to be one of Brandi’s certified trainers. It doesn’t matter where you are in your equestrian journey, as long as you are willing to take the time to work on your relationship with your horse, you can achieve your dreams with the No Limit’s Program, and I get to help you do that! How cool is that? 

Next time I'll share more about what else happened for De Frates Horsemanship in June and we'll dig into how we figure out what you should spend your time working on to achieve your goals, but first, I want to know, what does your equestrian dream look like?

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