Questions on a Cold Winter Night

Bitter wind races across the frozen ground
Like the thoughts speeding through my mind
Twisting, turning, tossing
We live inside our own heads
Wish I could open mine up to see
Yearning to figure it all out!
And then
The sun on the horizon delivers
Illumination and warmth to chase the cold uncertainty away
No mystery, no questions, nothing left to figure out
No cause for worry
It’s already here
The answer is in your smile, a kind word, a child’s laughter, a bird’s song, a dance, a hug, LOVE.

~~~
Claire Affleck
Claire Affleck Training website
Email me

Riding Lessons for Life #19

The Half Halt:
In a riding lesson that I, myself, was taking the other day, I was discussing half halts with my trainer and he said, “The most important part of the half halt is the letting go.”    The half halt is when the rider pulls back on the reins in order to slow the horse down without stopping entirely or to shorten the horses stride without losing momentum.   In either case, the rider checks the reins back for a stride, and then immediately releases the pressure on the reins.  The reason the letting go is so important in the half halt for several reasons. First of all, if the rider maintains a constant hold on the reins the horse will get annoyed, often to the point of the horse pulling against the rider’s hands in order to try to get away from the constant pressure, and the horse will learn to ignore the pressure so that it eventually becomes meaningless. Another reason letting go is so important is because we want the horse to learn to maintain its own rhythm and to go along without constant dictation from the rider. Read more

Surround yourself with love

Each day we choose who we surround ourselves with.  By emitting a positive, loving energy we in turn, attract other people who are also positive and loving to be around us.  Being surrounded by loving people gives us comfort and support, through our all of our ups and downs in life.  When we have this loving sense of community it provides us with an overwhelming sense of peace, harmony, and well being.

We can build our communities of love all around us, each day.  Our families are one loving community that we belong to.  Families love, comfort and support us unconditionally.  It is important to foster family bonds, but we often get so busy with our daily routines that we neglect to do this.  Take time out today to call or write a family member that you haven’t spoken to recently and let them know you are thinking of them and that you love them.  It’s guaranteed to bring a  smile to their face!   Plan a family dinner or family reunion to bring everyone together. Read more

My status update

Awhile back I wrote on vowing to value my time off, vowing to take one day a week to rest (Monday), vowing to relax and be rejuvenated for the upcoming week.  I’m going to be honest here. Within 48 hours of writing that article, I broke my vow.  But, I didn’t let myself feel bad about it.  Since then, I have been better about truly taking a day to rest.  The most challenging part is letting go of the guilt that I feel for NOT working, however I consciously make an effort to let that go and I am proud of the progress I’ve made in that department.

Now I am working on focusing on ABUNDANCE in life.  Although my business is equipped to continue through the winter, things often slow down a bit when the weather gets cold and the snow begins to fly.  It becomes harder for people to travel in winter conditions, money becomes tight with the upcoming holidays, kids are busy with school and school related activities, and not to mention that it is pretty darn cold in the barn!  So the trick is for me to think of abundance of business throughout the winter and the entire year.  Each time I start to get that negative or nervous feeling in my gut about it I take a deep breath and tell myself, “Don’t think that I am “lacking” think  that I have an “abundance” and the Universe will deliver that to me.” Read more

Believe in yourself first

“If you don’t believe in yourself, don’t ask anyone else to do so.”
-Napoleon Hill, Positive Action Plan

The journey to success begins with self-confidence.  You must first believe in your own mind that you can achieve your goal.  When you have doubts and insecurities you are telling yourself that you cannot accomplish your objective.  In other words, if you think you’re going to fail, you will.  When you exude doubtfulness other people also pick up on that.  When you behave like a confident person, however, others get excited about your aspirations and want to become a part of your success.  Other people will not go out of their way to help someone reach a goal if the individual doesn’t even believe they can reach it!  But, when exude confidence, passion, and positive energy others will latch onto that and doors will open for you!    Read more

Laura’s List highlights Woman Entrepeneurs

Follow Your Passion in Life – Equestrian Women Entrepreneur

Claire Affleck, owner of Claire Affleck Training,  found a calling in life, at a very young age, “horses.”

“I loved horses my whole life. Since I was really little, I envisioned myself having my own equestrian barn. I knew that one day, I would own an equestrian center. My love of horses consumed me.”

Showing horses, at age nine, Claire was convinced she would one day live out a dream. One word to describe Claire, is motivated. She feels success is due to surrounding herself with a great support structure. Read more

Riding lessons for life #14

No shortcuts!
While teaching a lesson last night, my student and I were discussing how riding just takes practice, practice, practice!  My student commented that in each lesson she could feel her body growing more and more used to performing all of the particular demands of riding.  She  stated that nothing else made her a better rider besides riding!  Becoming a better requires climbing in the saddle and riding, riding, riding!  There are no shortcuts and no tricks that can expedite the process.

Afterward, I realized that most things in life should be approached like learning to ride.  Reaching lofty goals, like learning to ride a horse, require a long journey to accomplish it.  It’s like Malcolm Gladwell’s rule of 10,000 hours.  The world’s most successful individuals, like The Beatles, Bill Gates, and world class athletes, did not become great by happenstance, or by taking a shortcuts, or by tricking anyone.  They logged in over 10,000 hours of practice, practice, practice before “catching their big break.” Read more

My personal struggle with learning to relax

It sounds funny doesn’t it? Having to learn how to relax?  Seems like that should be easy.  However, running my own business does not allow for much down time.  But as things began getting busier and busier I realized that I would quickly burn out if I didn’t take time to relax. So this summer I decided that one day a week, Monday, would be my “day off.”  Since we have horse shows and other events on the weekends, it
made more sense to have a day of rest after a hectic work weekend.  Now by day off, I mean I still have the daily chores of feeding and caring for the horses but I wouldn’t ride or teach or any lessons.  Well this past Monday was the first time that actually played out.  The other Monday’s it would be nice weather and I’d think, “Oh I better take advantage of this and ride” or a client would ask to do a lesson and I’d feel bad if I said no, so I’d do it anyway.  So great! I finally let myself relax on a Monday.  But Monday night I realized I still needed to take it one step further because I didn’t really feel relaxed or rested. Read more

Just a little inspiration

This summer I have had the great pleasure of working with a little boy with autism.  He comes for horseback riding every single day.  His therapist comes with him and works on different verbal and physical exercises while I manage him on the horse.

One of my favorite exercises is when we trot the horse.  Trotting on a horse is a two beat gait- one, two, one, two, one, two, etc.  One of  the songs that this boy knows is “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”  When we trot, the therapist, the boy, and myself all sing in rhythm with the horse.  “Twin-kle, Twin-kle, Lit-tle, Star How I Won-der What You Are. Up A-bove The World So High Like A Dia-mond In The Sky, Twin-kle, Twin-kle, Lit-tle, Star!”  It is really amazing to see this boy speak so clearly when he has the motion and rhythm of the horse to help stimulate the language centers in his brain.  And just the fact that he is trotting a horse is impressive!

After completing a particular exercise his therapist and I will cheer for him and ask him to clap his hands.  His therapist said to me one day, “He likes to cheer for himself!”  I replied, “Well I think we should all cheer for ourselves every day, just like him!” Read more

Riding lessons for life #13

A lesson from a lesson horse
While teaching a beginner lesson the other day I marveled at my lesson horse.  The beginner was, of course, trying her best but would often pull the reins too hard, which in turn pulls harshly on the bit that goes in the horse’s sensitive mouth.  She would also kick the horse’s belly at inappropriate times and when she lost her balance she would use her hands (again pulling on the horse’s mouth) to catch her balance.  The horse never changed her expression. She never got upset, irritated, or showed the struggling rider anything but kindness and forgiveness.

I thought that more people should be like this good old lesson horse.   Read more