I am declaring today is  “A GLORIOUS  DAY!” 

 Options, what wonder filled options.

OK Universe!

• Treat each other with RESPECT

• 
  Share Love in your heart 

• Remember what ever you do affects everyone in the playground, eventually

• Playground Bullies can only control the playground if we let them

• Divine Light can be found everwhere in the playground, we just have to begin to look for it

• …

What playground ettiquette do you use to play? 

 Please add to the list…

I guess that depends on your perspective.  Badger, the horse in the photo doesn’t have any idea she is on the “wrong” side of the fence.  Badger is a Mustang, the whole world is at her feet.  No barriers.  One side is no different than the other.  She doesn’t see herself as fenced in, or out. 

 My hat is off to her in not loosing the spirit of her heart.  No barriers.

  Major & Max

This week’s interview finds us on the East coast in Wales, Massachusetts with Bonnie Jean. Bonnie filled me in on her background.   I’ve had horses for 46 years, came up thru U.S. Pony Club, took the British Horse Society Assistant Instructor’s course in England, evented Prelim, went looking for my first English Shire 21 years ago and came home with two baby brothers. I raised and trained them both.  Along the way I got totally hooked and acquired another pair then the brother of my original pair.  We competed extensively in N.E. and NY. Eventually I totally lost my mind and with my husband saying to me “Bonnie, we can’t afford a 6 Horse Hitch right now, but when we can, we might not be able to do it physically; so let’s do it NOW”, I bought 2 more horses! I became one of less than 5 women East of the Mississippi to ever raise, train and compete their own 6 Horse Hitch in National Competition. I did it for 4 years with my Boys. I even did a choreographed musical demonstration with another 6 Horse Hitch at The Equine Affair in the musical “Fantasia” show. They were the best and did it for me. Eventually I had to retire my Hitch and it took me two years of mourning to get over it. (sort of) What I learned was that I had wanted to do it WITH THOSE HORSES, and not just buy another as they aged.

My problem became simply: Now what do I do?? My passion was retired but I wanted something…more. Friends told me to look at combined driving so I did. I had ridden & competed in dressage and eventing for years. I had driven multiples for years and it seemed like a good fit. But everyone was pushing me to get a Morgan because that was what was winning. So I looked at Morgans. After 18-19h Shires, 15 h Morgans just didn’t move me. Then someone suggested I look at a Canadian Hackney/Clyde that they knew about. That is how I found Major and then Max. I went to see Major and from 50 ft away on a cold March day I stopped in my tracks and stared at him in the field and turned to my husband and said “Unless he’s unsound, he’s my horse”. A year later I went to the farm that Major was from in Canada looking for a mate for Major and found Max. In hind sight, I now realize that they both picked me! I almost passed on Max, but he kept turning to look at me and well, he just spoke to me.”

 So began the saga of Bonnie, Major and Max. Major at 14yrs old has been with Bonnie for 3 years. Major had not been worked or driven since he was three when Bonnie found him turned out in a field.  When Major arrived at Bonnie’s farm she let him settle in for several months.  He spent the first years of his life in Ma with Bonnie’s then family of Shire horses. They were quite a difference from the Standardbred horse that Major had lived with before.  Max joined Major a year later. Bonnie added “I got Max as a 3 coming 4-year old. He has been with us now for 2 years. And just for added fun, that first summer I had him when he was rough housing with Major and ended up with this big, hard bump on his leg that I couldn’t make go away. As it turned out the x-ray report came back”fracture of the canon bone with healing”. I almost fell over. My vet said not to worry that in 12-18 months you won’t see it and I’m happy to report he was right and Max is as sound as a dollar today.” 

About a year ago I met Bonnie when she set up an appointment to work with Max.  Max during his training was kicking at the carriage he was being asked to pull.  Bonnie and Max had reached an impasse in their relationship.  Bonnie is an excellent trainer and there are no barriers between her and her horses.  Max stumped her in that he didn’t think like any other horse she had encountered.  When Bonnie and Max came to understand the way the other communicated, they began to shine together.  This interview comes a year after I met and worked with Bonnie, Major, and Max for the first time. 

Bonnie started by telling me Major has an extreme work ethic. He loves to work, he loves to work well, and he doesn’t waste time evading his job.  He knows what to do and he does it. At the beginning of our conversation Major’s message to Max was “Let me work and don’t interfere MAX.  Stay in the barn if you don’t want to work.  I do not want to be your teacher.”  Max was asked from the beginning to step up and take his share of the responsibility, even in the learning process.  Being young and not having developed a deep love for what he was being asked to do, he evaded like many horses what he couldn’t understand.  Max is learning to develop and find what motivates him.

Bonnie told me “Max has the grace of a dancer and the power of a gymnast.”  I have had the pleasure of meeting them all in person on a trip to the East, everything Bonnie says about her horses is true, it is not bragging. Bonnie holds a vision of an animal’s brilliance and she helps them want to achieve it.  Max early on in the relationship with Bonnie felt his differences were a drawback, not the asset that they truly are.

I asked Bonnie “What would you like to ask your boys?”  She wanted to know why when they were in harness and pulling the carriage did Max lose all his grace and athleticism on right hand turns.  On turns to the right Max as a driving horse must shorten his stride to allow Major to lengthen his and stay even with him around the turn. Max fell apart often when this was asked of him. His usual exuberance of what was being asked of him got cut off abruptly; he fell apart momentarily, physically and mentally through the turn.  Bonnie went on to tell me “In the trot he wants to go, go ,go.” I asked Max to let me feel with him what he experiences when all of this is going on.  “I want to get to that way I feel when I am flying” was his response. He went on to say “I like being in a place of exhilaration, I don’t want to draw back and slow down.  It hit me he was hooked on the thrill and was ignoring the mechanics of the move around the turn. He gets disconnected because he wants to fly faster than he is ready for.  He gets upset because he wants to move into feeling the thrill and he is being held back.  Max is meeting Bonnie’s energy level and wanting to exceed it, not grow with it.

Bonnie and I went on to discuss with Max that he might benefit from learning the process his body needed to follow, and that attempting to get through it to quickly he was missing the satisfaction of the move.  Bonnie pointed out to Max that “Smooth transitions are necessary for fluidity and safety.”

From the information Max shared with Bonnie, she said she can negotiate a compromise with him.  Now that she understands he just wants to keep moving that he is not arguing for the sake of argument.   Bonnie went on to explain to Max that Major’s body takes time to warm up. Bonnie and I shared with Max that Major is very athletic, he maintains his tempo.  Max shared he wants to go faster and do more.   I told Max “When you build a dance with Major and Bonnie that in and of itself will bring you a personal exhilaration of the heart.”  Max showed me he didn’t know he could have different types of exhilaration.  “It starts in your Heart Max.”  Max didn’t realize it was in his heart that he loved being part of the “team.” 

It was clear that, this Baryshnikov of the driving world did not want to leave his driving partner behind.  Major knows he is athletic and is happy doing what he is doing.  He will also be fine when Max will go on and drive as a single horse and shine his star brightly alone.  Bonnie has assured them both they will continue to be driven as a pair, even when Max is ready to excel on his own.  Max is ok with that.  Major is Max “shining” example and friend, not only in the physical but in the heart.  Quiet, steady Major knows who he and is happy with it.  Max is still finding his way to who he is, and having a great time in the process.

Thank you Bonnie, Major and Max for sharing a glimpse into a working team of individual spirits and hearts.