Welcome to Best Horse Practices with Jec Ballou. My name is Maddy Butcher and I produce this podcast.
Our show is a space for riders and horse owners of all disciplines to learn best practices and to discover skills, strategies, tools, ideas, and insights for better connecting with their horses, with all horses and for getting work done.
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This is Episode 17 of Season 4 and in it, Jec interviews author, teacher, and horsewoman Jenn Currie. She offers clinics which she calls Brain-Centered Horsemanship and has a book for middle school teachers. She is blending what she knows about her teaching experiences with horse behavior in a pretty compelling program.
Thanks to our title sponsor, Lucerne Farms, producers of quality forage feeds, extremely handy and healthy bales of alfalfa, timothy, and grass blends. A great addition or substitute for your hay or grass and way better than grain.
I bet we all know some really good horsemen who are just not effective teachers. I think that most people in the horse world start giving lessons or offering clinics because of their successes with horses. And yet, it’s so important to connect well with the human – this means, as Jec and Jenn concurred – having the student feel relaxed and safe yet engaged. As Jen said, learning is at its heart is emotional because learning is a journey of discovery. It’s precious territory.
I worked at the local sale barn last week, riding the pens. First time I’d done something like that. It was fast-paced and involved a lot of opening and closing gates, working cows, calves and bulls, listening to the radio for pen assignments, and moving my horse with agility and quietness. I was lucky and honored to have a few folks, good riders and good humans, bringing me up to speed on how things go there with patience and calm. If it wasn’t for them, my horse and I would not have done well. So thank you kindly to AJ and Sheldonna.
It takes a lot of investment of time, thought, and energy to become a good teacher and I really love celebrating horsemen and women who excel at both horse and human connections. Sounds like Jenn is one of those people.
Thanks to Redmond Equine and Pharm Aloe – for generously sponsoring our podcast. Check out Pharm Aloe’s aloe pellets which you can simply sprinkle on your horse’s feed and Redmond’s Rock on a Rope which you can simply hang on a fence. We think you’ll love ‘em.
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That’s it. Another episode in the can and out of the barn. Thanks for listening, y’all.