Positively Together
  • About me
    • Media
    • Gallery
    • Training philosophy
  • GOT DOGS?
  • GOT KIDS?
    • Youth classes
    • Your Pet's Got Talent!
  • GOT HORSES?
    • Join our herd!
    • Online courses & coaching
    • Clinic Dates
    • About lessons & clinics
    • Reviews
    • FAQ's for Clinic Hosts
  • Contact
  • Store
  • About me
    • Media
    • Gallery
    • Training philosophy
  • GOT DOGS?
  • GOT KIDS?
    • Youth classes
    • Your Pet's Got Talent!
  • GOT HORSES?
    • Join our herd!
    • Online courses & coaching
    • Clinic Dates
    • About lessons & clinics
    • Reviews
    • FAQ's for Clinic Hosts
  • Contact
  • Store

Bustin' on through that Comfort Zone:  Equidays Part 1

17/9/2017

4 Comments

 
If you haven't heard, I've been invited to be a clinician at Equidays, New Zealand's biggest equestrian festival.  This is pretty huge for me, and I'm super pumped to bring positive reinforcement training to Equidays in a really practical and accessible way.   My goal is to show the audience that this is something they can (and should!) all implement to some degree into their training programmes, no matter their chosen discipline or level of experience.  

But wait! There's more.  On the last night of Equidays there is a new night show, called Equidays Top Talent.  So the OTHER thing that's happened, is that Hokey Pokey and I have been selected as one of the finalists to perform on the night.  This involves a performance in the indoor arena, in front of grandstands full of people, complete with lights and music.  ("Woooah nelly!" thinks me, while lying awake at 3am. This is waaay outside my comfort zone!) I am by nature a teacher, not a performer.  However, I have discovered that I harbour a deeply stubborn streak that makes an appearance when I'm scared of something, insists that I won't give in and makes me dig my heels in and do it anyway.  Who knew.  But yeah, suffice to say this is not a small thing for me.  So as there's little to be gained by putting on a show of confident nonchalance, I will be blogging about the process between now and then.   That will hopefully help me to work through my feelings and also might provide some interesting reading or learning for you guys.

As I break through my comfort zones ("stretching" is for sissies! (just kidding)) I am, according to the wonderful Jane Pike from Confident Rider, "a Neural Highway Ninja".  Who am I to disagree with that?! She says, "Basically, all those neural networks in your body are connecting up new pathways, joining the dots together and building both your mental and physical muscles in ways that will allow you to get out there and repeat the same task much more ease-fully in the future. You getting out there and actually doing it- not thinking about it, talking about it, or drinking coffee about it- is the only way that you are going to make this happen. The only way."   (Yes ma'am).
Picture
The main reason I'm nervous is that this is all rather last minute and I have not had the chance to prepare Hokey by getting him out and about much.  He has hardly been in an indoor arena before, let alone a huge enclosed arena at night with packed grandstands, lighting and sound systems!  So I am not really abiding by the clicker trainers mantra of "set them up for success", by any stretch.  
However, it is what it is, and we're doing it, so I have to find a way to make it work as best I can.  

So over the upcoming weeks I will blog about my stress and butterflies and attempts at mental re-framing, as well as my training plans and what I'm doing in a practical sense to prepare Hokey (albeit rather late in the piece) for all this.

Wish me luck!
xx Bex
Picture
4 Comments
Terry Golson link
26/9/2017 12:45:39 am

I'd have butterflies, too! I'm doing something similar here in the States at an event called Equine Affaire. It's huge - thousands of people go. I'll be doing two talks about horse behavior with an ethology and positive training bent. That's not a big deal to me, I'm comfortable speaking in public. But I'm also doing a demo that will (hopefully!) show how to feed treats during training and still have a polite horse. I'll be working with horses (and their owners) that I've not met before, and speaking to a crowd of people in the bleachers. Your challenge is harder - including your own horse partner and doing right by him. It's best to maintain a sense of humor! :)

Reply
Bex link
26/9/2017 09:24:22 am

Thanks Terry. Your Equine Affaire talks sound great, that's very exciting. I'd be interested to hear more about what you're planning to discuss. I have an hour demo/teaching spot on each of the 3 days of Equidays. I'll have Hokey with me during those sessions, as well as a new horse that hasn't been trained this way before (that I'll meet on the day). I also have a seminar as well, on how horses learn and how to motivate them. Like you, those sessions aren't worrying me too much. But add the show to all that and it's all feeling more than a little overwhelming at the moment!

Reply
Terry Golson link
27/9/2017 01:56:35 am

Check my blog, I'll be writing about my seminars (www.cooperativehorse.com), and the descriptions of them are up on the Equine Affaire website. What I am carefully crafting is tone. The organizers had proposals from other presenters about clicker training, but they chose my talks because I approached it from a "solve a specific problem" perspective, so rather than delving deep into theory, I'm going to do practical solutions to everyday issues. I find that if you give someone an option to be kinder (but still effective) they'll start down that more positive path.

Brooke link
28/9/2017 11:09:47 am

You're making me nervous just by reading your blog! But you're gonna rock it... soooooo interested to see how your journey plays out and how you retrain those butterflies hahaha.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Horse Training Blogs

    Subscribe now!

    Stay in the loop - blog posts, latest news and educational opportunities!

    Your privacy is important to us! You can unsubscribe anytime. 

    Or specify what you are interested in:

    Thank you!

    You have successfully joined our subscriber list.

    .

    Author

    Bex Tasker

    Archives

    March 2020
    November 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017

    Categories

    All
    Bob Bailey
    Breathe & Be
    Calmness
    Comfort Zones
    Confidence
    Criteria
    Cues
    Equidays
    Fetch
    Focus
    Food Anxiety
    Journey
    Lifting The Fog
    Planning
    Prevention
    Second-guessing Yourself
    Stimulus Control
    Stress
    Top Talent
    Training Principles
    Tricks
    Where Do I Start

    RSS Feed