Blue River Farm

Craig's memorial at our farm in Snohomish is up now on YouTube. It was a beautiful day.
The memorial starts with an introduction, it's a little hard to hear but we fix that in a little bit...
Then a beautiful song by Linnea
Then a montage of photos and memories and music...
Then remembrances.
And finally a special treat: Marie Haglund receives her certification as a Foundation for the Equestrian Arts instructor... a very big deal.
Thank you Craig, for all you gave us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJJjY6PIZ2k
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Craig Stevens Memorial Tribute April 13 2024 This is the tribute that we gave at the home he lived in at NSAE, in Snohomish, for Craig P. Stevens.He was a man who loved horses. From Craig's origins in N...

We talk often in training about resistances. How to address resistances, how to recognize them, what to do about them, what causes them.
What we don't talk about is cultivating acceptances.
Transmittal is a word that comes up in training. In the state of transmittal, the conversation is about a situation in which I say 'jump', and the horse says 'how high'.
What if there's a whole lot more going on in the state of acceptance than just a blanket "yes to all you request."
What would training look like if when a resistance becomes apparent in either horse or rider, the work together becomes an exploration into acceptances? How would you savor making it safer and more comfortable and more and more possible to offer acceptance, inviting a deeper and deeper "yes", creating a habit and an expectation of curious, playful, willing, soft, inviting, living, thriving conversation about

'AH here's the yes. And oh, a brighter yes! And even more, even more yes.' from both of us, horse and rider.

Consider the idea that every touch we give the horse can be as welcome as when a mother strokes her foal. If every aid from the beginning is inviting and curiously listening rather than aggressively telling, if boundaries are set clearly, simply and early- before a problem arises-- and if the base line begins with, and throughout the training remains, connection... then the horse remains enchanted with the rider, the rider with the horse, and resistance is never created by the training.

Natural resistance, when it arises due to environmental alterations, flows past without becoming stuck in either animal.

Patriarchal work- work that is about the status of the superior being as the source of an unquestioned hierarchy results in predictable arguments, predictable aggression from all the beings involved, horse and human. Just as it does in our culture. It's not about 'men' or any other gender, it's about status and ego and the fear of losing face.

Matriarchal work-- work that considers both horse and rider as having worth and interest-- is not a romantic ideal, it is the root of great training. And the source of a kind of relationship with life, with horses, with each other... that is open, buoyant, filled with possibilities and endlessly improving.

The more we study in the matriarchal manner, the more we learn and the more there is to learn-- it's endless, this beautiful work.

Mary Anne Campbell,
Blue River Farm.
Come ride with us.