Introducing Sophia

I’d like you to meet Sophia, my new Arabian filly.  Yes, it’s time for another project and I chose Sophia to partner me as I start out in two new disciplines, Cowboy Dressage and Liberty.  Sophia has the personality I was looking for, a combination of blue and gray (see our articles on What Color Is Your Horse, Really? for more information on the personality types).  Like a typical blue, she likes to be connected and she is always checking to see where I am, as you can tell from the pictures. :) She is bred to move like a western horse and she does.  Her mama was a Scottsdale reining champion and her daddy is a System A western pleasure champion.  Neither her dam nor sire is over 14.3 hands, so if she gets bigger than that I’m going to be upset!  I’m tired of throwing my saddle up over my head on these tall horses!  As many gray personalities, Sophia handles new things with a lot of grace.  She had never been in a trailer before I went to pick her up and it took me about 10 minutes to teach her to lead properly and then another 10 minutes to put her in and out of the trailer three times before we left.  Once you show her, she is pretty willing.  So far, we’ve done general groundwork and she leads without a halter, has been saddled and ponied with another horse, and is good with things like spray bottles and being sacked out.  We are progressing to more specific work on lunging, maneuvers, showmanship, and basic liberty.  I look forward to having Sophia out and about in 2015 and hope to introduce all of you to her in person!

Tales of the Color Wheel Volume 1 Number 1 - Family Camp 2013: Reds to the Rescue

In addition to customized day camps youth, adults, teams or church groups, MM Training and Consulting offers “Family Camp” by invitation only. Typically held over Memorial Day weekend, this camp focuses not only on horsemanship but also on activities that build stronger human relationships. On the horsemanship side, we work on improving our connection with our horses through ground training, under saddle work and trail riding. On the human side, there are activities and discussion time about personal goals for life and relationships. Marcia and Davalee integrate the MM Training and Consulting philosophies and Color Tool© to promote connection in both realms.

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Enhancing Life’s Relationships Through the Color Tool

The barn was chilly and the lighting dim. Small puffs of dust rose up from the horse’s hooves as my friend, Janie, led the gelding around the indoor arena. The owner of the horse and I watched from the sidelines as the pair went through a leading exercise. Apparently, the horse did not have a lot of ground training. He wasn’t jumpy, nervous or excited; he was simply disrespectful. The gelding stepped into Janie’s space and ignored her signals to move away. Janie led the horse in my direction, and they came to an undisciplined stop, the horse lagging behind.“He’s awfully red sorrel,” Janie said, glancing at me while keeping the horse in her vision.“Actually, I believe he’s gray,” I replied.

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Solving People Problems With Horse Training Logic

At MM Training and Consulting, our expertise is foundational training for horse and rider. In addition to our comprehensive riding/training program, I also believe that we offer our clients a unique gift. This gift is using the concept of horse training logic to solve people problems. Many may think this type of problem solving is just too simple for complicated people problems, but I’m convinced that many people problems are perceived to be much more difficult than they really are.

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Are You a Nelly or a Sally? Scenarios to Strengthen Your Leadership Ability

At MM Training and Consulting, we always strive to learn and grow. We also continually strive to create new ways to explain our concepts to you, our clients. In the following article, I explain some of our new terminology. Plus, I will give you some fun scenarios that will hopefully help you grasp and remember these concepts.

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