breathing

Always need a pick me up before you saddle up? If you have a hard time keeping your eyes open when you ride, here are 3 things to do before heading to the barn

by penny | Jul 5, 2021 | The Horsey Life

If you’ve been working all day, whether it’s at your job or business, working in your garden, or keeping up with the housework, you may find yourself pretty tired at the end of the day. And if you typically ride after work, you’re likely to be wiped out long before you put a foot in the stirrup.

I’ve been there and it’s no fun! I don’t know about you, but I want to feel calm because I’m centered and grounded, not because I’m so fatigued I’m struggling to keep my eyes open.

There are thousands of ways to revive your energy – (just type a “how to get energy” in the Google search bar. I came up with about 2,450,000,000 results (0.79 seconds). Don’t feel like scrolling through several thousand articles? You’re in luck! I’ve done some of the searching for you.

The three types of exercises I chose are quick, simple, and free, (and none of them involve heading through the Starbucks drive-through on the way to the barn!)

You might think I talk about breathing a lot, and there’s a good reason for that. It’s because I do. Using your breath in a mindful way can help you feel energized, calm, confident, or peaceful. The value of breathing exercises can’t be overstated – it goes with us wherever we go, and it’s even free!

Why it works: Deep breathing, which is also called belly breathing or abdominal breathing, brings more oxygen into your body. According to an article by Dr. Mehmet Oz on sharecare.com, Nitric oxide is drawn into your lungs when you practice deep breathing. Nitric oxide opens up airways and blood vessels in and around your lungs. Put better breathing in, and you’ll see improvements in your energy and overall health.

The links below take you to a few different sites with breathing exercises. I usually recommend that my students and clients try out a few different exercises. Try to remember to do the exercise 2 or 3 times a day for at least a few days. That will allow you to decide if you like the exercise and if you feel like it’s helping. If you try an exercise you absolutely hate, move on to the next one. (I’m sure you’ll find something that works in the 54,600,000 results that Google pulled up for me ( in 0.65 seconds) when I searched “deep breathing for energy”.

Gaiam, a well-respected wellness site, suggests a one-minute breathing exercise that’s based on yogic principles. Very effective, and it can be done simply, easily, and quickly!

Dr. Andrew Weil is a very well-known doctor of integrative medicine. Three of his breathing exercises can be learned here.

A quick explanation of Integrative Medicine given by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) “Integrated medicine (or integrative medicine as it is referred to in the United States) is practicing medicine in a way that selectively incorporates elements of complementary and alternative medicine into comprehensive treatment plans alongside solidly orthodox methods of diagnosis and treatment.

“Integrated medicine is not simply a synonym for complementary medicine. Complementary medicine refers to treatments that may be used as adjuncts to conventional treatment and are not usually taught in medical schools. Integrated medicine has a larger meaning and mission, its focus being on health and healing rather than disease and treatment. It views patients as whole people with minds and spirits as well as bodies and includes these dimensions into diagnosis and treatment. It also involves patients and doctors working to maintain health by paying attention to lifestyle factors such as diet, exercise, quality of rest and sleep, and the nature of relationships.”

Integrated Health is becoming more mainstream in the United States as patients and doctors seek ways to treat the person as a whole entity, rather than dozens of specific parts. Deep breathing is good for the whole body, not just your brain, or lungs, or heart.

Move

Not the “hire a U-Haul truck, pack up all of your furniture and head across the country” sort of move, more like the “let’s go for a walk, or dance in the kitchen (or clean stalls, groom, ride, etc).

Paradoxically, we’re often dealing with pain that limits the very thing that will make us feel energized – movement.

I am not, I repeat, I am NOT a doctor or other medical professional. You need to speak with your health care provider before you embark on any new exercise program. Be ready with specific questions on what exercises would be beneficial, and which to avoid to keep you strong, keep you healthy, reduce your pain, and ramp up your energy. You can speak with your doctor or physical therapist about what exercises can actually improve your pain while they give your energy a boost.

Hydrate

I don’t know about you, but when it’s hot like it is here in Virginia at the moment, I drink a LOT of water. I have 2 quart-size water bottles as well as a 20-ounce one. They’re stainless steel and double-walled so they don’t leave damp rings on my desk as I work. They also go with me when I go to the barn, work in the garden, or take any drive that’s more than 15 minutes.

According to an article in cnet, water can make you more energized.

“Drinking more water gives you more energy to do anything from strenuous physical feats to staying awake at your desk after lunch. Many studies have shown that dehydration lowers athletic performance, making you feel sluggish and off your game. It can also cause you to feel tired or sleepy, so if you’re getting enough sleep but can’t keep your eyes open, you may need to just up your water intake.

One study suggested that being dehydrated hurts physical performance for any activity longer than thirty seconds. Even if you don’t work out for hours on end, short flights of stairs or walking around the city you live in will feel much easier if you’re hydrated.”

I tend to sweat a lot, so it’s important for me to stay hydrated. I keep track of how many bottles I’ve consumed during the day by putting colored elastic bands around my bottle – 1 for each bottle I’d like to drink during the day. So if I want to drink 4 quarts, I’ll put 2 elastic bands on the lower section of each quart-sized bottle. When I finish a quart, I just roll the elastic higher on the bottle. When all of my bands are near the top of the bottles, I know how much water I’ve had during the day.

So now you have a few things to do during the day that can help your energy levels, and also improve your overall health – helping you be the owner your horse deserves for many years to come.

Until next time, Love Your Horse, Love Your Life, Love Your Self

Five Steps to Becoming the Owner Your Horse Deserves – Step 2 Understand Yourself

by penny | Jun 8, 2021 | Find Yourself on a Horse, The Horsey Life

Whether you’re an adult new to horses and horseback riding, or you’re returning to the equine world after a long break, there’s a bit of a learning curve to understanding a horse. (Trust me – I’ve been a professional for over 40 years, and I’m still learning :-).

There are some easily recognizable signals, such as the horse nickering when he sees you coming (and he knows you have a treat), or putting his ears back when he’s cranky (it pays to learn this one early on in your Horsey Life!); but there is also a myriad of other signals that you may be missing. And the best way to learn them may surprise you. Learn to understand yourself first.

Self is a four-letter word

There are a lot of times where “self” has a negative connotation: self-absorbed, self-centered, selfish – even self-confident has been given a bad rap.

Self-Awareness, on the other hand, is a good thing. By becoming aware of our bodies, our thoughts, and our emotions, we’ll not only gain insight on how we’re perceived by horses, but also why we perceive horses the way we do.

We all have built-in self-protection behaviors – it’s how we’re wired. They spend their days toiling away deep in our subconscious. They have a huge part in running the show in our lives, and we don’t even realize we’re relying on old habits of processing fear, anxiety, or doubt. Our sneaky subconscious has become pretty good at hiding in plain sight.

With a smile and denial

Think about a time when you were around a horse and you felt a little fear tugging at the edge of your mind. You brush it off. Why worry? This is a horse you’ve taken lessons on for a year – why the sudden whisper of fear?

You finish tacking up and hide behind a smile (and in denial). Everything’s fine – at least that’s what you tell yourself. You’re just being silly. After all, it would be too embarrassing to tell your riding instructor that you’re afraid, and you wouldn’t share that with your family – they don’t even understand why you want to ride in the first place.

But by pretending everything is OK, you’re setting yourself up for more discomfort down the road. Without acknowledging and working to understand your feelings, the fear will keep coming back and you will feel more and more powerless to combat it.

Bring your fear out of hiding

If you’re going to continue working with horses, you’ll need to do some inner work.

Extend grace to yourself. You are not hopeless, idiotic, pathetic or any of the other nasty adjectives you use to label yourself. We are ridiculously unkind to ourselves – beating ourselves up over things we likely wouldn’t even notice in a friend. So – no self-flagellation allowed.

Acknowledge the emotion. You are entitled to your emotions and no one else has the right to belittle you or gloss over your feelings. This extends to your instructor, your family and yourself!

See and feel the emotion. Enter journaling and visualization. I know – journaling has become the new black. I think the only thing I haven’t heard people insist journalling can cure is male pattern baldness. But – I’m saying to journal anyway. Write down the instance when you felt the fear – put in as much detail as you remember. Now, visualize the experience in “slow-motion”. Take it one frame at a time and see if you can pinpoint when and how the fear showed up. Were you picking out the horses’s feet? Were you getting ready to tighten the girth? Once you’ve identified when you first noticed the fear, now connect with the what. What did the fear feel like in your body? Did you have a mini-flashback, so brief that you hardly noticed it? Did you feel a catch in your breath or a tightening in your shoulders? Sit with that feeling. You’ll most likely want to skip this or do a very cursory job of it. Resist the resistance. Acknowledging your emotion is the first step in understanding it, and understanding yourself.

Visualize the scene again, but this time, imagine you acknowledged your fear. Imagine you spoke with your instructor and explained your fear. Imagine she listened and worked with you to find a way to work through the fear. How does that feel in your body? Did you experience the same tightening in your shoulders? Did it stay the same, intensify, or lessen? Being able to feel the physical manifestation of fear stops the downward mental spiral that can quickly spin into a much greater level of anxiety.

Gradually work through your body, head to toe, and consciously relax each body part – the jaw and shoulders are often where the fear pops up, but check the rest of your body as well.

Repeat the second visualization a few times and you’ll see your fear start to dissipate.

Visualization is a great way to “pre-treat” anxiety and fear as well. Visualize in great detail that you’re tacking up the horse, you and the horse are calm and relaxed. Feel the silkiness of the horse’s neck as you pat him, smell the peppermint that you gave him. Feel yourself leading him to the mounting block and mounting him quietly as he stands perfectly still. You take a deep breath and exhale, and carry on with a great ride.

Until the next time, love your horse, love your life, and love yourself!

Are you interested in a few more stress-busting exercises? Grab your free copy of 60 Seconds to Calm and learn 3 simple exercises you can do in 60 seconds or less to help you nip anxiety in the bud and fully enjoy your Horsey Life.

April is stress awareness month. The Horsey Life Coach’s plan to help you move from awareness to management

by penny | Apr 5, 2021 | Find Yourself on a Horse, The Horsey Life

I don’t know about you, but I sure as heck don’t need a Stress Awareness Month to become aware of my stress!! Seriously, between losing my Mom in February, COVID, furloughs, loss of my job, and having to drop my husband off at the ER when his doctor called at 7:30 am and said he needed to get to the hospital because his kidneys were failing. It turned out to be something fixable, but for 2 1/2 days, I didn’t know if I’d ever see him again. Then my own brief visit to the ER (again, easily fixable), and leaving my job in September – 2020 is a year I certainly hope remains in the record books as Worst Year Ever (I don’t know how we’d cope if there was a worse year!!)

I think that, as horsewomen, we have an advantage over so many people during this anxiety-ridden time. Our horses become our safety nets, our confidants, and our warm shoulder to cry on when we need to just let it out. Horses have an innate sense of when we need emotional support, which allows us to go to them for comfort (which I have done hundreds, if not thousands, of times). But sometimes even our horses(or a steady diet of Stouffer’s Mac & Cheese) aren’t enough – sometimes we need help in figuring out where to go from here, wherever “here” may be. You just need that next best step…

If you’ve ever had riding lessons, your riding instructor probably helped you with your position, your aids, and how to communicate with the horse you’re riding. That’s all vital information about riding, but honestly, it’s never just about the riding!

It’s layer upon layer of goals, dreams, fears, and hopes. It’s about understanding why you want to have a horsey life. It’s about reaching your dreams and discovering who you are, in the barn & beyond. Sometimes you need someone to just hold a flashlight to illuminate your next step. That’s where The Horsey Life Coaching programs come in.

As a coach, I’m able to help my clients understand stress, anxiety, fear, lack of confidence – all those fun emotions that seem to appear when you consider trying something new. I also facilitate a path forward for women who wish to explore and deepen their connections with their horses, their lives, themselves, and the Divine.

I want to be straight with you right here and let you know that I am NOT a therapist. If you need to heal from past trauma or have clinical depression – go to a medical provider. There is absolutely no shame in needing help. When you need help with the really hard things – please go to the appropriate person/people for help. I can help you figure out your goals and your next best step to achieve them, but our starting point is always where we are right now.

In case you’re wondering about the name: The Horsey Life Coach, I came up with it almost by default. To be honest, I’ve kind of shied away from the term “life coach”. It’s generic and has become a bit of a cliche. I like Confidence Coach, but that’s too limited – I help women discover so much more than confidence. I finally decided that adding “Coach” to the end of The Horsey Life was a nice segue into the coaching part of my business. I’m excited about the service I’m offering horsewomen – I believe I can help you live your best Horsey Life!

If you’d like to learn more about coaching, please fill out the form below. By joining my mailing list you’ll get special promotions on coaching packages, courses, etc. You’ll also get my monthly newsletter, where I share more in-depth content than I do on the blog.

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Horses, Writing, Life – What to do when it all heads south

by penny | Apr 16, 2017 | The Horsey Life

Things were going so well.

I was writing, spending quality time with my family, hanging out with my horses, exercising, loving teaching my therapeutic riding students – and then suddenly I wasn’t. Things stopped going so well.

In the space of a week, I was diagnosed with a heart condition (no wonder I’ve been so exhausted!), and I injured my knee severely enough to warrant surgery. I missed a few days of writing, a few days of exercise, a few days of spending extra time with my horses… and then it was a week, and then it was 2 weeks…it felt like I had lost my way. Can you relate?

Plans and Dreams or Pain and Drudgery?

The truth is we’re all faced with stuff that crops up and knocks us for a loop. Health, horses, family, work – none of it runs smoothly all the time. But how we cope with those unexpected issues can be the difference between returning to our plans and dreams, or getting stuck with pain and drudgery.

We can do what I did for about 2 weeks – we can wallow, play the poor me game, whine a little (or wine a lot ;-), and just let it all wash over us. In fact, that’s probably a useful thing to do. It gives us the chance to sort out and deal with all of the ramifications of our unwanted circumstances (like teaching my therapeutic students while on crutches and having major bouts of dizziness and lightheadedness.)

[Tweet ” But there comes a time to put away the pity party hat. It’s time to move on.”]

If you read my post about meditation, you’ll remember that I recommend the app 10% Happier – Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics. One of the teachers in 10% Happier is Joseph Goldstein, a man with an amazingly calming voice and manner. Joseph’s advice when your mind wanders in meditation is, “simply begin again”. I think Joseph is on to something.

We have a choice. We can continue to focus on the problem, or we can look for the solution. Lamenting the time I’ve lost exercising isn’t going to heal my knee or move me toward my weight loss and health goals. Far better to find ways to exercise that don’t compromise my knee, and simply begin again.

Throw my plans for my blog, my coaching courses, and my book out the window because I’ve abandoned my writing schedule for a few weeks or push my self-imposed deadlines a little further out, and simply begin again?

Fuss that I’m not riding or keeping on my training schedule for Bella, or spend my time doing ground work and relationship building with my horses, and simply begin again.

It’s a choice we all have – wallow or win? Whine or work?

For me? I think I’ll simply begin again.

You are here. Now BE here.

by penny | Jan 30, 2017 | The Horsey Life

Today, I’m going to continue to ~~rant~~ ~~preach~~ talk to you a bit more about mindfulness. If it seems like I’m ~~ranting~~ ~~preaching~~ talking about this topic a lot, it’s because I feel it’s one of the most important concepts I cover on the Horsey Life.

Everything you do, every moment you spend with your horse, setting and achievement of every goal – all come down to this one concept.

My challenge for you today is to see how often you catch yourself going through your day on autopilot – shoulders tense, mind going ninety-to-the-dozen, and generally feeling like a hamster on a wheel.

When you find yourself in that place – bring yourself back to THIS place. You are here – now BE here.

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