#68: Kansas Carradine: Heart-Based Horsemanship
Kansas Carradine is a globally acclaimed professional horsewoman with a lifelong dedication to her craft. Since she was 11 years old, she has entertained audiences around the world, demonstrating her exceptional talents as a trick rider, roman rider, and lasso artist.
Some of her performance credits include Hidalgo, Heartland, the World Equestrian Games, Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee, National Finals Rodeo, appearances on MTV, ESPN, CBS, Equitana, Cheval Passion and Equifest. She has been featured in publications such as Sports Illustrated, Western Horseman, Cowboy & Indians, and the LA Times. With Cavalia, she toured over five continents as a featured soloist, roper, rider, and trainer.
Kansas is a HeartMath Certified Trainer and SkyHorse Equine Guided Educator and incorporates her unique skills into her training and coaching; bridging science, spirituality, horsemanship and heart. Through her workshops and teachings, she helps individuals activate their own heart intelligence for improved emotional self-regulation, self-confidence, health, connection, and performance.
Following the wisdom and power of her heart, Kansas has made a positive impact through her service work with G20/C20 Presidency in India as Project Manager for the Fyera Foundation, as well as outreach in indigenous communities and fundraising for the Humane Society, Equestrian Aid Foundation, Wild Beauty Foundation, Compton Cowboys, and Embracing the World Charities.
Intro:
Welcome to Creative spirits unleashed, where we talk about the dilemmas of balancing work and life. And now, here's your host, Lynn Carnes.
Lynn:
Welcome to the Creative Spirits Unleashed Podcast. I'm Lynn Carnes, your host, my guest for this episode is Kansas Carradine. This was such a different episode in some ways, because we started differently than I normally do. Before we got onto record, Kansas, who is a Heart Math certified trainer, had us go through sort of a three part heart lock in, that really shifted the energy as we started. Now, I actually saw something similar when Andrew Huberman and Rick Rubin did a podcast where they started with something similar to create sort of like a heart coherence. And it shifted the voices of the people I was listening to when I heard it, and I realized it did the same thing for us in this podcast. So I'll be curious to hear if people notice the difference, but more about this podcast. So with our focus on heart focus, breathing, and so forth, we really started very quickly, talking about the things that help us become excellent. And when perfectionism can overtake our striving for excellence. From there, we were often running and talked about so many things, but one of the things I want to highlight is the idea of Kansas, his ability to perform under pressure, if you've watched any of her performances and Kavala, perhaps as a stunt rider, we talked about where she did some stunt riding for Heartland, for example, she was in the movie Hidalgo, then if you listen to what she has to say, you find that there's a very different way to do it than the way we've been taught. And that is really the reason it's worth listening to this episode. So one thing I'll say is, I really appreciate these conversations, because it's really, it's really me going to school for me, and then I get to share it with you. So let me say a little bit about Kansas. This is what her bio says about her. Kansas Carradine is a globally acclaimed professional horse woman with a lifelong dedication to her craft. Since she was 11 years old, she has entertained audiences around the world demonstrate striking her exceptional talents as a trick writer, Roman writer and lasso artists. Some of her performance credits include Hidalgo heartland, the World Equestrian Games, Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee, National Finals, rodeo appearances on MTV, ESPN, CBS Equitana cheval passion and eco fest. She has been featured in publications such as Sports Illustrated Western horseman, cowboys and Indians and the LA Times. With Kavala she toured over five continents as a featured soloist, Roper, rider and trainer, Kansas is a HeartMath certified trainer and sky horse equine guided educator, and incorporates her unique skills into training and coaching bridging science, spirituality, horsemanship, and heart. Through her workshops and teachings, she helps individuals activate their own heart intelligence for improved emotional self regulation, self confidence, health, connection and performance. Following the wisdom and power of her heart, Kansas has made a positive impact through her service work with the G 20 C 20. presidency in India as a project manager for the FIRA Foundation, as well as outreach in indigenous communities and fundraising for the Humane Society. Equestrian Aid Foundation, while beauty Foundation, Compton cowboys and Embracing the World charities. So there's a lot there. I know you're going to enjoy this podcast with Kansas, Carradine ANSYS. Carradine, welcome to the creative spirits unleashed podcast.
Kansas:
Good morning, Lynn, how are you? Nice to be here.
Lynn:
I feel wonderful. Because before we hit record, you lead us through, what would you call that technique with a Heart Math technique to create coherence? How would you describe what we just did? Well, we
Kansas:
actually did three steps in one. So we started with some heart focus, breathing. And then we added that quick coherence. So that's activating a renewing feeling. And we were tapping into our inner reservoir of gratitude. And then we were radiating that out into the planet into the field environment. And so that's when we sustained that resonance. That's called the heart lock in the heart locking technique, the
Lynn:
heart lock in something as you were guiding me through there, you said and I was kind of deep and so I may get the words wrong, but it was about a passion or a capacity for excellence? Hmm? Say more, say more about how you see that and what I don't remember the exactly the words. But could you say more about that, because that really struck a lovely chord with me.
Kansas:
Yeah, appreciating our human capacity for excellence, we can appreciate our human capacity for, for anything really for compassion for forgiveness. And when we focus on these different qualities, as I know that your audience here definitely is looking at the human growth potential, and how we can expand ourselves beyond what our mindset might be, how can we go beyond our set points, or defaults or limitations, and how really, when we strive for excellence, that's a quality that has a resonant field to it that has a resonant signature. And oftentimes, those who can have a lot of care or true value, who value excellence quite a bit, that can sometimes we talked earlier about collapsing into judgment, which switches into perfectionism. Because we have these high standards for excellence, and excellence itself, in terms of execution, excellence in our communication, or doing a job well done, whether you're raking the lane, at in an arena or at a horse facility, or whether you're turning in a handwritten assignment, and you want something to look nicely, excellence can permeate all of our activities. So that is something that I look at, again, a core value or a resonant frequency that we can align ourselves with and attune ourselves with.
Lynn:
So I that was actually going to be one of my questions also was how do you make that distinction between striving for excellence and perfectionism? And you mentioned the collapsing in on judgment, which I feel like a lot of us do. I've never heard it put exactly like that, like the term collapsing on judgment, I often say I'd beat myself up or beat myself up with a two before. So what is, you know, I've been watching some, some videos of you doing some of your performances. And we'll have the links in the show notes. But if it for those listening, if you haven't seen Kansas, ride Roman style on horses, there's something stunning because that means for those of you who aren't horse people, that means she's standing on one leg on each horse, as they are running around an arena, and you look magnificently relaxed, like you're in, I often am seeking how to help people reach the state of being relaxed under pressure, whether I'm working with somebody on a board, or helping them with an athletic performance or something, it's sort of finding that magical place where there's a lot of pressure, but you can still sort of access your full repertoire of skills, tools, and so forth. And that's coming through in the videos and pictures I've seen of us, just you're relaxed. So how do you make that distinction where you're not beating yourself up? Because I think that's what takes us out of ourselves.
Kansas:
Mm hmm. Certainly. Yeah, there's a lot of different points to unpack there. Without a doubt. I am very familiar with perfectionism and having a high standard of excellence. And we live in a society really, that rewards us and reminds us that if you're hard on yourself, then that is how you succeed. But really, research or science is really showing us that when you have an inner coach that is positive, that is self reinforcing and reassuring when you can reassure yourself with your inner dialogue, that actually will go a long way when you encounter moments of challenges and obstacles and adversity. And so now as an adult, I start to really be able to be careful when that excellence is turning in, like turning the knife back onto yourself or turning the tool back onto yourself. Like you're saying you beat yourself up. It's not an effective way to use our mind and our creative potential. In terms of, you know, when we have high level of excellence and obviously in entertainment, and doing live shows where you can't, you know, stop the film and replay it. You have a huge amount of preparation to get you to that stage just like an athlete will prepare for their Olympics. As a performer at a high level show like Cirque du Soleil and these type of exhibitions. There's a lot of preparation that goes into it and then you have to execute that like 10 Shows a week. 12 shows a week. Yeah, with that same rigor and with that same level of excellence. And so for me, I find that ease can truly come when you've attained your mastery and that's putting in those 10,000 hours. It looks easy because I literally have been doing it for decades. Those them Many, many hours. And then there's also a support of. So that comes with familiarity. But then there's also that support of having that inner resilience to know that we've been through lots of problems. We've seen how things can go wrong. So when it is going right and going smooth, we allow ourselves to track into that familiarity of best case scenario. I talk a lot about we can have worst case scenario projection thinking. And we can have best case scenario projection thinking. So when I speak with some of my clients, and students, oftentimes they'll say, what is your best case scenario for this event, and it could be your interaction with your horses, it could be getting ready to go to a job interview or stepping into a new business model. And having that, again, using our power of our visualization, and using the power of our intention to really focus on how we want things to unfold, how we want things to come. And what I've learned, you know, specifically studying Heart Math, one of the frequencies or we could say the energies or intentions to work with is really ease and we can breathe ease in throughout our day, we can practice having those moments of being relaxed and patient as we execute our task. And so much of it just has to do with self awareness. If we're aware that we feel tension in our body, then we can diffuse it. If we're not aware, then we have no idea and we just operate unconsciously building more attention.
Lynn:
Yeah. Well, you know, that is I have often thought of it as cultivating a sense of well being. And just breathing sort of that well being it like everything's okay. But I was, you know, I was raised in an environment with, you know, a fairly worried mother who had a, she was brilliant, and taught me to be brilliant as projecting that worst case scenario. Bruce Anderson, who I work with, says, you know, to me stop creating monsters. You know, which I love that language, because it's like, yes, that's exactly what I'm doing. Because if I can create it, then I can avoid it. And he's like, why have it in the first place, which is exactly how I feel like you just said is, you know, if I, if I'm prepared, I can ease or I can, as you said, Relax into the best case scenario.
Kansas:
And that's an important distinction, you can relax into the best case scenario, while knowing about it doesn't mean that you avoid an actual study of risk management, it doesn't mean that you try to put on blinders to what really can happen. You want to understand those risks and evaluate them with maturity and sobriety. But then you intentionally shifts your focus attention to the positive outcome. And then we can actually go through it, you know, kind of in a clinical, break it down into mythology, how do we execute those goals, because when you see the Roman writing, you seeing the last three minutes and a performance, you're not seeing the 10,000 hours, it takes how many times I've fallen off, how many times those horses have split, how many times those horses are, you know, out of control or not in synchronization, or there's something that's fallen, music, you know, danger, things happen. All of that doesn't show up in that micro moment when there is a success. But for the the, you know, the performer, we've been through all of those. And then we navigate the ship accordingly, you know, in that moment, so when you kept when this is the thing that we noticed, in our modern era, when we capture just little snippets of moments, that it doesn't really show us the whole picture and the journey to get there. Because there's ugly moments, there's moments where we're out of sync where we're out of balance, or it doesn't look pretty. Yeah, but those aren't the ones that get as much publicity, if that makes sense.
Lynn:
That See, I think that makes a ton of sense. I, I actually opened a Zoom meeting yesterday talking about this in a different light, but just like you and I are meeting on our computers, and we've got a square in front of us. But but we're both living in a 3d world and there's 1000s of things around me you can't see and vice versa. And we make our judgments based on what's happening on this one little screen. And exactly what you just described. And you know, we're we're common friends with Warwick Schiller. That's how we met. And he he posted something a few years ago about a woman working on catering or a horse. And he actually cataloged the amount of time over several days that she spent hours and hours standing with the horse. You know, all the things that she did that were not cantering to get to a beautiful three minute canter in the arena that was relaxed, I think bridle us can Enter. And he said it was like 1000 times the work, you know, 1000 times the three minutes to reach that. What a good reminder.
Kansas:
Exactly. And that's what everything, and we can enjoy that part of the journey. It's beautiful. There's things that we learned. You know, I often say horsemanship is so fascinating because it's still something that we learned through apprenticeship, or quite often, and we respect elders. So somebody who's 80 years old, just has way more experience because they've been through hundreds 1000s of horses. And at the same time, that person, even at the kind of like, say, the twilight years of their experience, and their career, can still encounter surprises, where they kind of scratch their head and go, Hmm, I wonder how this one's gonna work out, I'm going to try something different. Meaning we're always learning something new through the challenges, the challenges are really that that's what grow us. And that's where we become masters. Because we learn how to problem solve, because we learn how to navigate through something that was unexpected. And it really keeps us alive and in the moment. And we develop our of our full capacities, other capacities.
Lynn:
It's through the challenges, like we have an entire society, I feel like it's built on removing challenges. You know, we're having weather here today. And it's just rain. But the schools are closed, we don't have ice, they are going to have some wind later read. It's just a lot of rain. And I cannot recall ever stopping school and I'm not being judgmental of all the people that did this. They probably know things I don't know. But it does strike me that we've gotten, you know, a little, like, you talked about setting expectations in another context, but that, that we're just not giving ourselves a chance to face challenges as much. Like I feel like I live in I love my push button life. But I need some challenges, you know, and that's, I think what this journey since I fell off the horse is has taken me on is learning how to appreciate what challengers can do for me. Good that can do. It's such
Kansas:
a beautiful, yeah, that's such a beautiful point that you mentioned earlier to being how we respond to pressure. And it gave me the image of like an artist who's working with a piece of stone. And it's through pressure that we sculpt a work of art masterpiece. And when we bump up against the chiseled the moments in life, which is Alas, sometimes we're in the pressure washer, and it's really, but it's shaping us into that masterpiece, you know, it's how art is made. It's how if you look at sandstone and geology, there's beauty to it. And it happens through very complex. You know, there's a lot of heat and compaction and, you know, huge weather events that are catalysts. It's like the process of turning coal into a diamond. And there's certain moments in our lives, right? There's certain challenges that happen, that won't make that diamond otherwise.
Lynn:
Yeah, that catalyst I've used that language a lot. Pressure is the catalyst for our growth. And, you know, I feel like I've seen people who are, for example, I'm working, I have a new puppy, I wish she's 17 months old now. And you know, you don't and she's Doberman high energy. There's no way I could train her without pressure, like she has to face pressure. Especially when she's doing things like counter surfing or, you know, things that she she thinks it's really great to get up on her hind legs. This is a dog that knows that has learned how to open doors. That one I can't even teach her. But but you know, I've thought about how can I have ever trained this dog without pressure? I don't think there's any way because without pressure, she's just going to fall into all of her natural instincts and not be a dog capable of living with humans then?
Kansas:
Well, I think what you're speaking to Lynn, is there's an important distinction to make the pressure, the distinction between pressure and force. And there's a lot of negative connotation with the excessive use of force. Yeah. But if we can gently just, again, clinically, look at the idea of pressure, you know, you can send energy with Chi Gong, and Tai Chi masters, who can use a very kind of light, deliberate pressure, and they can break a metal bowl or a brand. Right? It's a different type of laser point of your force. And then we can also just with our hands, send the horses energy, or just point even at your dog, right, and send a direction. And it's, I've started to change my language around that a little bit when working with horses, is that you're being a direction setter. And so we set a can tainer we set some boundaries, and we say, Oh, we're gonna go in this direction. That's not quite the direction. And then we try to get a unity, a harmony together so that there's a flow and a cooperation coordination together. And then in terms of life, when we encounter moments of pressure, because I think that there can also on the other end of the spectrum, the other extreme can be that we go into pressure intentionally because we think, Oh, well, I need to grow, I need to have intensity. Mm hmm. Right. This is another type of the human experience. Because I think we can truly believe that we can have these moments in life, but we don't need to call them to us. You know, these moments that come up, that are challenging, that are pressured, we can breathe ease into those situations, we can bring more relaxation to them. But we don't need to actively go out and try to seek that's another that's another, I guess, paradigm, that that I am, at least in my reality, moving out of, is how we can still learn and grow and be shaped. And life will inevitably bring moments of challenge, but to not specifically force myself to to be in a compromised situation, thinking that that's how I need to
Lynn:
grow. Does that make sense? That was so that what you just described was that sort of the over and under reacting that I talked about in dancing the tightrope that's like, I feel like my whole life is the joy of dancing on a tightrope. But if I go too much, one way or the other, I'm falling off the tightrope, either by too much or too little, by over or under reacting, like you said, By avoiding or seeking too much. You know, there's so many ways to balance back and forth. And I think the harmony happens with that give and take of whether it's a given type of energy or a given type of responsibility, because, you know, when you're working with the horse, he has his responsibility. If it's a gelding or stallion, or, or she, he or she have their responsibility as well. You know, you're not moving their feet, they're moving. They're responsible for their feet.
Kansas:
Yeah, whether or not they want to cooperate and be a part of it, whether they're enrolled in your idea, and they feel that invitation. Absolutely. And you know, in the herd dynamic they're seeking, who's going to be the direction setter, that's where leadership naturally emerges. Yeah.
Lynn:
I have to say, the other day I went to ride and catch three horses that I catch regularly. These are the horses I ride the most. And your heart methane came into play. I actually very deliberately did this because they live in five huge pastures that are interconnected. And when I got there, they were out on one and I was like, Okay, I'll walk out and get get them and they decided to come up and right, come to the gate and meet me. And when I went to grab, put the halter on, it was tangled. And by the time I got it untangled, the lead horse was walking away down towards the other pastures that and this is hilly country. Okay, fine. And so as I started walking, the horses decided to run away. And they went to the fourth of the five pastures. And I just kept walking. I was like, well, I'll get my steps today. And this is not that unusual. But when I got close, they went yet to the next pasture that to a pasture I've never even seen out of sight over hill. And then, you know, I wasn't feeling you know, like I was in too much of a like, angsty mode or anything. But I was like, You know what, I'm going to very deliberately, just breathe hard. I'm going to do sort of the heart map breathing, I'm going to breathe love in and out of my heart. And I sat at the gate, and it was less than 30 seconds those horses came over the hill and walked right up to me. And I put the halter on and off we went to go have a look.
Kansas:
Wow, I love hearing that. Yeah, but it
Lynn:
shows you that they are in on the joke if you will, like they that either that or it was going to be that way all along. That's the skeptic in me, but I really don't feel like that. I feel like if I had kept amping up there was no way I was ever catching those horses like they were running. And these are older horses by the way the youngest one is I think 22 The oldest one maybe 28 years old. Okay. And they were running like kids you know and full of joy I was actually kind of glad they got a little bit of that out of their system because we hadn't written in over a month but but they were they just walked right up to me when I get the the breathing and could feel myself just radiating. You know, love kind of what we did before we started this session was what I was doing.
Kansas:
That's beautiful. Yeah, I always say horses are the original biofeedback before you have the Heart Math devices. No, no, the horses and nature and our relationships. Anything in the organic world is responding to us. So it's beautiful when you have that. And sometimes you get it repeated. I was working with a group of teens, they're actually quite high level competitive hunter jumper riders in California. And they're going on into a very high performance, high pressure environment. And I bought them out and taught them Heart Math tools, and we had some horses loose in the arena. And those horses also were full of spit and vinegar, you could say they were just tearing across the arena, it was a big new place. They were not from that farm, they had been hauled in that day. And so there was a lot of excitement. And somebody who was concerned that they might knock over a jump or jump out of the low fence in the arena. And as they were ripping around, I said, Okay, it's time we'll go ahead and practice going into our heart and that heart focus, breathing, and just quiet down, it quiets down our nervous system. And then right away, you can see the horses just all stood stock still, and just started grazing a little bit at the fence line. And I thought, oh, isn't that interesting is all these kids had had a representation of that it happened two more times, the skeptic and any one of those kids, I would, I would notice the horses getting excited they're running around. So let's go ahead and try and see if we tap into our, our, our center and that regulated and even inhale and exhale. And what kind of a result does that produce, and the horses would show up once again. So it's just a beautiful way to validate that our we have control of our nervous system, and that the magnetic field that we resonate is palpable to the external environment. There's something that's measurable there. I think our instrumentation as we go on, and technology is just going to become more refined. And we'll start to be able to, to read that even a little bit more, was more detail,
Lynn:
just like the horses do.
Kansas:
Yeah.
Lynn:
For very, I mean, this is very, very far away over the hill. And when they when the three of them started marching over the hill, my jaw dropped, because I was like, okay, that really did make a difference. And they started coming up. But you know, that that distinction? Also, you know, if if, indeed our radiation if we're radiating an energy that others can feel, which there's no doubt that we do, it's communicating. And one of the distinctions I've heard about using pressure is the difference between pressure to communicate, ie, like the art you were describing, versus to intimidate. Right? And pressure to intimidate is really not useful. That's about us. And that's about you know, that's back in that dancing the tightrope, kind of an overreaction, whereas pressure to communicate is a totally different game, because, you know, we have an intention to be in harmony.
Kansas:
Exactly, yeah, that reminds me of, there's a wonderful horse trainer that I appreciate. And when she's working with her horses, she says you can set the direction. But as long as you don't have anger in your heart, oh, meaning when you're putting on pressure, just be really clear about it's like a teacher who wants to bring in a kindergartener from running out into the road is going to apply, they're gonna get a little bit bigger when they do that out of safety out of love. But it's not out of condemnation. And as you said, you're not putting that negative negative kind of pressure on it.
Lynn:
I have worked with a lot of clients that that's a distinction that's difficult for them to make, like when they raised their energy, they don't know how to raise it without adding that, that extra emotion that that anger, or sometimes that fear. But mostly, it's sort of that anger and sort of intimidating feeling. They don't know how to raise their energy without that. Do you have you? Have you found a way to help people? You know, do that to be able to get big without having to get angry?
Kansas:
I think it's a cultivated practice number one, and then it requires a certain amount of self inquiry. Also, Where's this coming from? Because if we look again, at our physiology, a lot of times that's a response that oftentimes it's an adapted trauma response, that's a coping mechanism, a behavior that was ingrained in childhood or in our youth. And as we become more reflective, we can start to unpack it and see, okay, well, Where's that coming from? What is the source of it? What am I really hoping to achieve? Or what do I feel like I'm lacking? One of the studies through you know, journaling, and through a lot of the Heart Math technique is to look, where is our core value being threatened? Because oftentimes, when we're, it's, for example, if we have a high core value for excellence, and we're feeling as though somebody perhaps on our team is being, you know, lazy doesn't have the same work ethic isn't putting in the same quality, then that can create cash My my core value of of excellence is really being threatened, threatened, that is my true care. And we can identify it. So we start to have the awareness and look at that. And then coming back to that with compassion, that can give us the awareness to remove the emotion intensity, and yet still remained very clear about what we care about. And what we'll find often in relationship is that once that pressure, but the communication is still clearer than the pressure is, is dissolved or diffused, we could say and not pressure, but it's as though there's static on the line, you know, noise noise and the noise background noise in the channel. And it's sending conflicting messages, right, because there's a true care for excellence. But there's also, I'm really upset because you're not meeting my expectations, perhaps can be an attitude, a story. So these inner attitudes, or stories are thought frequencies, again, with our future idea of enhanced instrumentation. That's all on the field environment, it's all being broadcast. And when we become aware, again, for me, it's been learning more about the Heart Math, Science, working with horses, who show us when we're truly in authenticity, when our inner experiences matching our outer expression, and the horses come to us. That's a powerful message. So through the equine therapy, as well as through the Heart Math, it started to show me and then I can communicate that to my clients, that that noise on the field, those conflicting messages, those inner attitudes that are subtly running, actually inhibit communication, connection and performance.
Lynn:
That's where he basically did a better job of giving my speech than I did, just because that was the point of my speech at the, at the, at the podcast summit was this, you know, how do we discern signal from noise, how do we get that interference out of the system that creates connection helps us create connection, because I don't have a single person I work with that can identify with the idea that there comes a moment where something hits them some kind of pressure, and this, you know, I call it a gray cloud, but something comes up and it starts interfering, and not only can they not connect to others, but they can't even really connect to what they know how to do themselves. You know, I see it with athletes, especially in the waterski world where, you know, when we're in a tournament we have, it's a, it's not, you can't even have a football, like the minute you quit scoring, you're done. So if you don't go through the gate on your opening pass, you're going home. And so it's a high pressures, you know, very fast sport. And so I see people very quickly forget how to ski, like, the day before, they were perfectly good, but you put them under the pressure of you have to go through the gate or you're going home. And they can't reach their own skills. So you just described it really well. But it's that noise in the system, because our bodies know how to do it.
Kansas:
It's it's true, our our bodies. Org, we could say our capacities are always there. Yeah, and it's just a matter of revealing that part of our inner nature. Because again, I you know, I spoke a little bit too, oftentimes, it's an adaptive trauma response. And that takes a lot of compassion and reflective, you know, journaling and introspection to understand and acknowledge some of those things. I don't believe it takes 20 years to get through it by any means. I think that there's a lot of shifts that can really happen in a heartbeat. Yes, shift to the heart, and all of a sudden, that a lot of things can really unwind. And, again, I my my we're talking about our speeches at the podcasts on that mine was really on the element of compassion, installing a new operating system of compassion, because what I've found both in myself, as well as in some of the people that I work with, is that when we are truly opening up to more compassionate latitude, this doesn't mean sacrificing our standards of excellence. This doesn't mean making everything easy, as you were saying and removing obstacles and challenges. But it just creates a different field like that love that you were spending out, sending out that magnetize the horses, when we can have more compassion for ourselves in the journey. And for other people, perhaps on our team who are working, maybe they're best or maybe not, but there's a reason for it. It just allows us to continue to have that expanded perspective and open mindedness because as soon as we think we have an agenda, we know better. That type of I'm gonna fix this. I want it to be a certain way. It it kind of closes us off from that open mindedness and that relaxed way that ease that you were saying in the competition and in terms of have, you know speaking about athletes, we put so much on these three second 10 second three minute moments, it's really hard. And that's make or break, like you get the gold medal, you don't you qualify for it or you don't, you complete the act, the three minute act on stage, you execute your trick, or you fall short. And it's really a tremendous amount of pressure to be able to prep and reset and come back again into the game. Because we put so much importance on this crucible. Yeah, but really understanding that, okay, we there's a, there's a, there's a learning in that about how we can listen to our physiology more, and begin to quiet our energetics and still stay in the flow. And what you are describing is they forget how to ski. I was in a situation one time where I was Roman writing, which this was not recorded. And we didn't have phones everywhere. If anyone has a video of me performing at the draft horse classic in 2012, I wish I could see it. Because I did an act on a pair of Friesians that I'd only been writing for, like five days. And we didn't get that much accomplished. And so I said, this looks so silly. I feel like a monkey out there. And then I got to thinking, well, maybe I did a quick change outfit, where I put a monkey suit on a gorilla suit. So it came out Roman writing with a full gorilla suit. It was a comedy obviously, ripped off said gorilla soup. And underneath I had a clown suit. And that was Bozo the Clown with the nose and the wig and all of this and it spinning a lasso. And then I took that off while I was roaming, writing, of course going around the arena, and I had on a cocktail dress underneath and I finished it cantering around to James Brown in the black black dress. So this was the act that I had made in just a few days. And it was kind of the first time I'd come back to shows after having my second child. And my fitness level wasn't as high as I had used to it being. And at one point I fell off, and I got back on and I was flustered. And I forgot the names of my horses. I forgot the names of my horses, my brain stopped working, I was totally checked out and everything was was incoherent. Like we talked about being in synchronization. And it was such a funny moment. Because we look back I go oh my gosh, my brain really switched. I completely even forgot the names of my horses, I went to call their names because we we don't have a leg on each side when the woman riding. So we talked to our horses verbal cues are essential. And it completely like my brain went into what we call an amygdala hijack. Yeah, so your higher brain functions are not working anymore. And you come into a fight or flight response. And when we learn about this, then we can start to practice it at rest. We can start to practice that familiarity like okay, what feels like I'm in the zone people athletes call it then we can make that a default setting that we want to keep referring back to. But we're never going to be able to bring ourselves back into balance and alignment without feeling what it's like to fall off center to fall off.
Lynn:
Right. It's the recovery and the ability to go back to the center. Because I think that's what we're actually doing all the time is recovering. You know, Jane pike said it and I quoted her in my speech, there's no balance, there's only balancing. And to me, that frees us in that perfectionism to say what you're seeking isn't what you're seeking at all. You really actually want the ability to fall and get back on. Not never move.
Kansas:
Correct? Correct. That's such a great point.
Lynn:
And then the never move if you actually project that into the future. Like imagine for just a moment I was perfect. What now? There's only no there's no place to go but down are dead. Hmm. So why is it so true?
Kansas:
It's just so true. Absolutely. Well, and that quote that you said, I've used that a lot. There's no balance only balancing. It's one of the ones that stuck to me as well. It's such a great comment. The other one was I think it was it Kathy Price who said intention? Attention,
Lynn:
no tension tension. Yes,
Kansas:
that's that same, that same piece? It's
Lynn:
that same piece and it I do feel like it's that it's not that easy to do, because let's go back to what you were saying earlier, that, you know, when we start shrinking when we think we have an agenda or we know how we want things to go we have an outcome. And I've experienced that as well with horses where I was working with a Mustang last month and he's 200 days in training. He was in the wild for like two and a half three years in holding for two and a half three years so he's been around for a while had two very different experience. says he's, he's really a wonderful horse. And all I was doing was standing next to him with the halter and lead rope in my hand. And as soon as my thought went to, it's time to put the rope over his neck, he backed away. And then I backed, I stopped the stop, and this happened five or six times. And I, he was my biofeedback device as I had to find a space within me, that could move without an agenda. And yet, knowing what I was doing. And that's a very tricky mind space, it's a mind. It's a different mind space to be in, and then I'm practiced at doing, but the minute I was able to get in it, he was fine with me putting the halter on as long as I did it in that space.
Kansas:
And that's, that's the beauty of working with many different types of horses, and how they show us how, what can shift when we show up differently, and they really help us get that inner attunement. Yeah, that's so subtle. You know, when we have we talk about trying to have a clear and empty mind without that agenda without the questioning, you know, but how do you get there? Well, you get there by understanding when it's full and busy, and how to bring it to emptiness. And when you see the response of oh, okay, this is where I had that relaxation, that we were talking about that ease, and look at the outcomes and practicing that many times. And again, it's so much of his is really about having self awareness. And there's many things that are under my radar right now that I don't know about that asked me in 20 years, and I'll have some things to tell you. That's been the last 20 years of understanding what was below the radar and then kind of like weeding, weeding out those things in the garden that are not going to produce useful fruit. And then seeding the future. Yeah, those positive practices and habits.
Lynn:
I love that you use that language because I've often talked to people I call it weeding and feeding, I was like, weed out the things that aren't serving you and feed the things that are. So yeah, I love I love a turn of a phrase like that. Anyway, the weeding and feeding is awesome. But you're exactly right, my gardener too. So I can't even call myself an aspiring gardener. I am not I can grow tomatoes. And that's it. And I can't even eat tomatoes as much anymore. I could I used to eat tomatoes like they were going nowhere. My stomach has started saying no, not so many tomatoes. But I have a question how do you define compassion? How do you personally define compassion? Because I think that's a big word and a it's a multi faceted concept. Hmm,
Kansas:
it is. And, you know, I'll be very transparent in that I've spent a lot of time working with the Indian spiritual teacher named Mata Amritanandamayi. She's also known as the hugging state, and really an embodiment of compassion. You know, similar to the Dalai Lama, a lot of these spiritual teachers will speak so much up to the importance of compassion. And how is it a subtle distinction from love or from forgiveness. And to me, compassion is really having that soft, soft attitude, soft heart that is threaded with both understanding and love, deep care, true care, but with understanding because we talk about applying compassion, to a situation that otherwise we might have judgment about. But there's other aspects as well from for example, there's studies that have shown Dr. James James DoDI, from Stanford University has a whole institute studying the science and nature of compassion. And there's many studies that have shown when we're even watching an act of compassion, such as a small child, who will pass a homeless person on the street, and doesn't have any idea of social acceptance or norms, but will pick a flower and give it to them, or give their cookie to them. That's a compassionate act. That even bypasses logical thinking in the mind. And just by watching those, those type of things, there's a physiological change within ourselves, within our bodies, and that mirroring where we understand, and the way that I've perceived it, just through self awareness is that there's a softening to it. It speaks to that ease that relaxation that we've spoken that's so essential, as we meet the regular day to day activities of life. So my practice has truly been, how can I add more compassion to myself because like many athletes, I had a high performance, mindset, performance, anxiety, perfectionism, all of those things. And it wasn't until I was able to unravel that, that I could open myself up to more possibilities and live a healthier mindset. So that like you mentioned at the beginning of our talk that we weren't using our mind against us. Yeah. And then that compassion that we can instant out then to others. So we can start with others if it's easier to get to ourself, but ultimately, they're interchangeable. And when we look at the industry, it's very easy to say, well, this is wrong with this industry, my industry, I see all these problems in it. And when we focus on all those problems, we notice, how does it make you feel? Does it make you feel relaxed and open and coherent? Or is it something that creates more rigidity, closed awesomeness. And so if I can have compassion for my human travelers, as we're all navigating through different life changes for the two different trauma responses, then that actually helps not only me feed the field with coherence, but it helps me listen and understand and receive them more.
Lynn:
Yeah. So that's, I love that definition. And as you were, I was making notes as you were speaking that and what I recognize is, you know, I've just completed your four week Heart Math program. And so I've gotten to know you a little bit over the last few months, and you live these things, this is you. And my experience, so your definition, your words, and your actions line up, in other words, so I just had to reflect that back that there is an ease about you, and a soft heart that comes through.
Kansas:
And I will I'm very grateful for that. That's so kind of you to share, and I will be 100% transparent and say, I was not always that way.
Lynn:
I mean, I'll do doing right, totally.
Kansas:
And you know, I didn't even have the awareness, you talk about things that are not showing up on your radar. You know, when I was in high school, I was, you know, when I was in grammar school, I got in a couple fights, I was an aggressive person, I thought that you had to be strong and tough to survive. I was very judgmental, I was very condescending, very hard on myself, and all of those adaptive behaviors over time, you know, fell away. But it was it was not my normal state of being when, when I was learning to be a performer, and when I was in, you know, like a youth athlete, it was very much like the tough the tough girl. And there's certain this you know, I have my business, you could say it's called circus cowgirl. And there's that inner resilience of the cow girl. There's that, um, frontier spirit, pioneering spirit independence, and all of those qualities are great. But when they have, we could say like the shadow side of them, of just being mean, or just being insensitive, or lacking in compassion. That's not embracing kind of, you know, the higher octave of being the cowgirl. So what you're seeing now has to do with a lot of transformation. And I could very honestly say that my time spent in spiritual pursuits, and then really meeting, you know, embodiments of compassion and watching many, many acts of compassion. And care truly helped soften and dissolve my limited, rigid thinking and soften my heart. So
Lynn:
what do you do? Can you remember an event or a person or a moment where you began to recognize that you wanted to change yourself? Was there a moment?
Kansas:
Um, yeah, there's a couple of moments. I think we're always wanting to grow. And so there's lots of times are you really see that we want to change and be kinder. You know, I had an incident when I was I think I was 18. And again, I was just being inconsiderate. We were with a, we had like a team that was not supportive. And we would tease each other relentlessly. And that was kind of the way of like being in the, in the group of writers being just really hard on each other being very cynical. And I wrote a note about somebody and was just tearing them apart and was laughing about it with this other girl. And that somebody found that note and read it totally innocently just picked it up and read it and I saw them fall apart. And then they expressed obviously, you know how sad they were and upset they were and and in that moment, I realized being mean was not cool. And I had grown up with the image that being mean, being the tough bye. That was the like, I was a bully. And in that moment, I was like, This is so not cool. I'm never ever doing this again. And that was one change point from my, my, you know, 18 year old mindset. And then I would definitely say that there's moments where motherhood has changed me it intensely, I was very much like, type a busy fast. Boy, can I get a lot of things done. And then I had kids and I had slow everything down. And to really have compassion for myself as I was learning as a first time mother, like all of us. And also to just be on that I never held babies growing up, I was not particularly maternal, like a lot of people have been. And motherhood truly changed me and opened me up to being in those softer feminine qualities, because I would say that I was the type of feminist who was very masculine. Yeah, you know, very much like the tomboy like, and that was how I achieved success. And that was the image of a successful female at the time. And that has all transformed into really, the higher female qualities of having that accountability, being able to set a boundary with love and compassion. Those are also admirable qualities. And so in the last, really, the last 20 years, that's where I've been developing some of these other capacities going to the gym, not to just work out my arms, but to do the lower body workout as well. Because it was just kind of out of balance.
Lynn:
Really, yeah, I can really identify that with that, because I grew up as a tomboy as well, and wanted to be sort of at top of the pecking order. And I was actually somebody who had a moment where I heard people talking about me. And what that did was teach me that what people showed me were not always not always what was really happening behind the scenes. So that made me very skeptical and cynical for a long time, and very well guarded. So I had to understand, you know, it took a while for me to be willing to be vulnerable again. But motherhood was a big one big one that changed me.
Kansas:
It is it is for all for those women who choose to enter into that, again, not required for transformation at all, but it is one that that comes into our lives. And, and, you know, I would go back and say, part of the reason that I was being hard on other people is I also had heard people say not things nice things about me. And that continued to close me down. And that continued to create this armor armoring, if you will. Well, if, if, if, if I'm going to protect myself, then I'm going to strike out before somebody gets a chance to get you guys all things you learn learn behaviors and our societies without a doubt. I mean, it's kind of silly, but I remember going to school, it was kind of a hard part of town, and sharpening pencils to walk through the underpass, which is kind of like an alleyway to go past all the kind of punks that were that were in there as I was walked to school in the morning because I was gonna, and I must have been eight, eight or nine years old. You know, and this sharpened pencils was gonna be my weapon.
Lynn:
Wow. Well, I'm watching lessons in chemistry on Apple TV right now. And there's a scene where she's, she's getting attacked by her advisor, and she stabs him right in the belly with a pencil. And of course, in those days, he's the one trying to rape her and she got charged with assault. You know, that's and that's, that's what a lot of us have to remember is a lot of people lay down some good, you know, cover for us over the years, or we'd still be in that same state. But yeah, pencil can be a weapon. Very much can be but yeah, I used to carry the keys between my fingers when I'd go to the parking garage, leaving, you know, in the downtown areas of corporate that I used to work in and have a kid coming out of every finger in case I had to do the thing. And luckily, I never encountered I never encountered anybody in the garage that I felt threatened by. But I also really learned to like do that, like push out my energy and look confident so people would leave me alone.
Kansas:
Exactly. And this was my next segue is when you see what the horses were attracted to when you came in, there's also a different resonant field that as we get older, the we start to understand that we can really work with and I think one of the things that I'm also really passionate about is teaching young people. So I have my daughters now that I speak of are 14 and 18. And I've done some youth classes because my 18 year old said Mommy, this is so useful for other kids in my class, my friends, let's do some classes together and being able to have the understanding of our nervous system, being able to name different emotions and have you know, emotional literacy. What is coming Question, what is fear? What am I really afraid of? Is there a definite threat like, to my mortal body? Or is this an imaginary threat that's coming from a previous experience, there's really not a saber toothed Tiger chasing after me. But my body's responding in that primal way. And teaching, you know, humans at a young age can be extremely empowering.
Lynn:
Yeah, well, you know, that, just that idea of, you know, if you watch horses, they can push each other away. It's not all draw drawing it, it's driving out, you know, it's that putting, as Carolyn resonate, calls it putting on the gas pedal, you know, having them push away from you, as well. And being able to hold the boundaries, I think is very important for young people.
Kansas:
Certainly, certainly, and that's another reason why horses have been so healthy for youth. And for me, as well as growing up and understanding, you know, when you said Carolyn Resnick talks about putting on the accelerator, a lot of times the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous system are related to our driving a car, the parasympathetic being recognized as the brakes and the sympathetic being recognized as the accelerator. And when we start to tap into how we can control our energy, how we can increase it, and how we can decrease it, not by running, not by physically moving and speed, but there's an energetic lifts that can happen, or you tone it down, certain horses that can be really reactive and sensitive, we kind of need to tone down our energy and drop. And we can get practice from being out with them. Or other horses, we need to turn it up a little bit. And we need to say, Okay, I'm gonna get a little bit more sympathetic arousal a little bit more increase in energy, not with judgment, but just kind of a clinical way of operating our system. Yeah,
Lynn:
well, that's, I think that's back to that, in a way, it's that recovery idea of being able to, instead of keeping it flat, being able to rise up and go down. And even when I'm skiing, what we found is if I, if I stay flat, going, kind of threw the wagon around the buoys, that is not going to lead to a good pass, what I have to be able to do is amp where there's like this peak intensity right behind the boat, and then drop it, and ride the ski out, and then amp up and accelerate. And like, the more of that there is, it's almost makes me think about those waves we do with HeartMath. As well, you know, the more of that there is, the more healthy the ski paths will be, if you will, this
Kansas:
is such a great point. This is a great point. And I, I talk about this a lot lately in in classes, because there's an idea that we should always be in parasympathetic, that somehow the parasympathetic response is the ideal response. And that we should always be sitting there. Well, that would mean that everybody who's had happy hour and who's just, you know, wanting to wind down at the end of the day, that that's the key to happiness. But it's not, it's not just being, you know, even a horse that we go catch out in the field, when their eyes are closed and resting or dozing, or they're just grazing, that's not the type of learning interests that we're seeking. We want to have their curiosity and their attention. You know, the sympathetic activation is what helps us be able to learn better. That's why we drink a little bit of green tea or caffeine in the morning to get ready for a test or we do some physical activity because it helps getting our, our circulation going. Yeah, that's a sympathetic activation. It's good. And what you're speaking to is this healthy relationship between the two. And it's really the tension like the equal tension between the two that create that performance a high level of performance.
Lynn:
That's actually I'm really glad you said that out loud. Because you had said earlier, you'd mentioned sympathetic earlier, which is, like we if we think one is good, and one is bad. That's not useful, because it's really the ability to move between all of it, and to some degree, have something to say about how we move into it as opposed to having it run us.
Kansas:
You know, we can't yet. Yeah, that's the key to start to pay attention. What's running right now? What's an activation? Okay, being self aware. Yeah, but you're right. It's the capacity to flex, we want to be able to slip into rest and digest response, and be in relaxation, when there is no threat. And we're sitting around, you know, the table with our family and having kind of a moment of connected conversation at the end of the day. These are all moments where we do want to be able to down regulate, we can say but then, you know, when someone says oh, I always want to be in parasympathetic parasympathetic response is also what we would term as you know, low energy, depression, shame, guilt, apathy, despair, that's a parasympathetic, you know, stuck in response as well. Yeah. And so again, the healthy relationship between the two is the sign of a healthy nervous system.
Lynn:
That's actually really good to hear. And speaking of getting things aroused, you are going to be doing the Gaucho derby. And what a month, is it a month from now or less?
Kansas:
I think it's even What day are we? It'll be, I believe, February 5. Yeah. So it'll be less than a month, the actual Derby begins, but I will be in Argentina sooner. So first, perhaps we should explain to your viewers what the Gaucho derby is.
Lynn:
Please, please explain. Explain it to everybody, including me, because I have just a fight. Here's what I know about the Gacha, Derby, Argentina, difficult lots of wind, that's about what I'm testing. So yeah, and the rest of
Kansas:
it for the accurate. That's pretty accurate. So the Gaucho derby is is 500 Kilometer over a 300 mile race across the southern state of Santa Cruz and the region known as the Patagonia, it's on the Argentina side, which is the West eastern slope. And this 500 kilometer race basically will go across those who want to move it quickly can complete an I think at about eight days, but you have 10 days to complete it. And it's what we call self supported. So you carry your own tent and food and supplies. On the horses, you're only allowed 10 kilos of weight. And so it becomes a very precise organization in order logistically to make sure that you have the essentials, what you need. And the animal welfare is of the highest priority. So there's checkpoints about every 20 or so kilometers, to make sure that the horses are in good condition, their heartbeat, heart rate has to come down to an acceptable resting, I think it's like 56 beats per minute. Otherwise, you have penalties. And then of course, they just want to make sure overall that the horses health is the highest integrity. And so this has been running I think for about four or five years. And the infrastructure is such that when you go in there, there's no map to follow. There's no course flags like endurance racers, so you navigate on your own. And as you're crossing these these vast distances, you can get on a cliff, you can get in a canyon, you can get up against a fence line even and really send yourself out on the wrong route. So being able to navigate looking around and being able to kind of self in situational awareness. And then the terrain itself that you partner with the horses, there's you change horses about every other day. And so there's quite a few different horses who would draw the numbers out of a hat. And then you go and catch them, put your tack on them, and then go off on your ride again into into the wilderness. So I was invited by a mutual friend work.
Lynn:
I have to ask this because it's just in my head, I can't get it out. Do you have more than one horse to carry the 10? Are you riding one horse with a tent on it?
Kansas:
You're that's a very good question. So we don't have a pack horse. You are solo with your one horse and you carry the tent and your bags and your food and everything on your horse with your saddle. Okay.
Lynn:
Okay, so go back down to where you were. That's the picture. I had to clear her up because I was like, dang, right? How do you carry all that, like, it's both would be difficult. But I mean, the
Kansas:
logistics, the logistics is important, for sure. And the terrain is really challenging. So you spoke about the winds, the weather is known for, you know, having kind of ice rain, snow, blazing wind, and scorching heat all before lunchtime. So the weather down there is pretty, pretty wild. And so you have to dress and prepare for all of that. There's multiple river crossings where you bring your horses across that so you're gonna get wet. And what I was saying is that I was invited by our mutual friend, work chiller. He said, Hey, I'm gonna go do this, would you be interested? And he asked me about a year or so ago? And I said, No, that's not really I, I don't want to intentionally put myself into that kind of a pressure cooker. That's really what my mind was saying, what we spoke about at the beginning. So I said, Now that that's not really and I don't think I'm going to be around and that won't work. Well, fast forward a year. He's got another friend of ours, a mutual friend of ours enrolled in it as well. Jim was talking and I thought, gosh, what an amazing opportunity, just became more educated about it. And then we met at of course in San Antonio, and he's been prepping for it. He's been training really for two years. Yeah. And I thought, Gosh, I keep thinking about that what you're going to do, that's such a great opportunity. I wish I could do that with you. I had said yes. And then after the conference finished, he wrote to me and said Well, somebody dropped out last minute. Do you want to go are you interested? If you are contact this person? You know what the event. And now here I only had like six weeks to get ready where most people train for like a year or two years, multiple ways. But everything in my beingness was saying yes, yes, I want to go to this. And the distinction, you know, what is our intention. And wherever we put our attention, for the sake of what this is one of my teachers, teachers are animals, he, she says, what's your, for the sake of what was your reason why you're going. And for me, I'm really, really drawn to connecting with the horses down there connecting with the land. In this ancient relationship where humans cross vast distances with horses, there's very few places, places where we can still do that. And to be able to connect with those horses, not just one or two, but seven to 10 different horses over the course of the prep and the actual Derby itself, and not trying to go in and win it with this. I want to get through it as fast as I can and have that focus on the speed of it. But really, to savor the moment of the partnership with your equine partner, where you truly rely on them, for your very survival. And putting all of these tools into practice, in that type of a situation is really what's drawing me.
Lynn:
That's it, that is so cool. You know, if you think about it, this is what people used to do. This is how they got anywhere. You know, maybe not not just
Kansas:
people, this is what everybody used to do.
Lynn:
This is all I mean, this, you know, this is how we, how we transported. And when, I mean, I think we underestimate the effect of the automobile, on how it created less distance between us and airplanes, yet another whole nother level of that. But this was how people used to get from one place to the other, like I live 25 minutes or 25 miles from Asheville. It's an easy in and out day trip if I do it now. But in the old days with horses, that was not the way it was, you know, you made a big deal out of going 25 miles on a horse over mountains and in rough terrain. And yeah, you know, so you're getting a chance to experience this sort of go back to our roots.
Kansas:
Exactly. It's an ancient relationship between horse and man. I always talk about how horses are really responsible for all of the advancements in our civilization up until about 100 years ago, and we're very Eurocentric. So being in kind of like a European historical legacy, we look at horses. But as I've traveled a lot over the world, and whether it's in the Middle East or in Asia, wherever they use camels or elephants or yaks, but in partnering with animals and crossing vast distances and having them both in warfare as well as for, you know, building and, and moving and construction and really development of human civilization. It's one of the most ancient relationships that we can do this interspecies connection. And obviously, that's for my life's work has been being a professional horseman for so many years. But it truly has this particular experience or isn't. This truly has a way of bringing in so many elements into one thing, because the other thing we haven't talked much about, but I'm also a very passionate Outdoors Woman. So you know, I backpack quite a bit and hike a lot and ski and mountain bike and have always been, you know that inner conservationist is very much there. Growing up in the foothills of the Sierras. It's really been a huge imprint. And a lot of my my mentors work that I started riding horses with was going up into the high country and packing and really exploring the Sierras in the summer. They're one of the most amazing regions on the planet. I'm a little partial, but the southern Sierras and it to somebody. You know, my cowboy family is there stagecoach drivers. And so a lot of history of understanding how we moved people across the world, with horses, and over very, very extreme terrain. I mean, a party had to take apart those wagons so many times and take one wheel at a time overpasses and over rocks, and then hand walk horses up and over, and then put the whole wagon back together again, and then go for a little while and then take it apart again and get up and over. It's just incredible. So when you talk about how easy our life is, now, it makes sense that we seek out difficult situations. But again, this is really about connecting with the horses and bringing in a lot of these tools and principles in into action. I
Lynn:
feel like it's going to be an incredible adventure. I don't aspire my Self. I, as I said to Stevie Delahunt, which I think you're working with Stevie, who was just on my podcast to prepare. And when she and I were talking at the summit, she said something about, you know, a lot of times she's training people to do endurance races that are afraid to gallop on a horse. And I said, Well, I said, How do you get somebody ready? She goes, Well, I teach them how. And I said, Oh, you could teach me and she goes, yeah, so I'm going to her galloping workshop brought after the yatra. Derby in March. So I'll be up with Stevie, just for me. Just, you know, maybe I gallop, maybe I won't, we'll see if I'm ready. But that's our, that's my objective. And to me, that's a equivalent for my state of where I am, as to you go into the Gaucho Derby, you know, I'm super excited to really stretch myself that way. And of course, for for seven days, you'll have lots of opportunities, I'm sure to gallop across that countryside. Because if you walk a lot more than eight to 10 days, right? That's
Kansas:
true. That's true. Yeah. And
Lynn:
how many days? I mean, how many days? How many hours a day? Are you riding? Do you ride dawn to dusk? Or?
Kansas:
Yeah, well, no, you don't because of sunset. So sunrise is very early in the sun sets so late. So and they have specific hours so that you can't just gallop your horse for 12 hours a day and run them into the ground. So you're allowed to be riding from 8am to 6pm. And there's actual GPS trackers to make sure that you honor that. Because if you go over if you start early, you'll get dinged and have a penalty. And so it just creates good sportsmanship. And I think a good experience, also not just for the horses, but for the humans, to take your time to get ready in the morning, to make sure that everybody is able to do their prep and reset, so that they can step into the day because we already are going to be facing extreme conditions, and sort of really give everybody that chance to downtime to do their camp accordingly in the evening, and then I think the sun goes down around nine or something at nine or so. So you still have a lot of daylight
Lynn:
hours. Yeah, so you'll be camping in the daylight, which is nice. And this is basically this is an intense camping trip. And are you going to travel alone? Or will you be traveling with others? Like, will you and Warwick stick together? Or do you think you'll go alone? How does that how's that going to work? Yeah, we've
Kansas:
talked about sticking together. So we'll see what happens. We have some other people also that we know that we've been collaborating with. So there's four horsemen that I know that will be going down there, as well, as Stevie, Stevie is an Outrider and a support person. But when there's 42 riders total, and from what I understand, at the beginning, there's a lot of assessments that take place was about four days of assessments to make sure before people are sent out, you know, in the field on the Derby, that they are competent, that they know how to set up their tent, that they have enough food that they have all the required equipment, and really the competency. And so in those four days, we really all get a chance to bond and to meet with with all the other riders. And from what I understand, there's been stories in the past where people will say, Oh, yeah, I'm riding with this person. And then something happens, you know, maybe horses shoe falls off or goes lame, or somebody gets injured, and they have to pull out or drop off. And then you find different groups, you know, to ride with. People do go solo as well. It's not that it's totally discouraged. But a lot of people find the value in being able to have a partner to go down there. I happen to know you know, a few people and I'm sure I'll meet and make more friends as well. And then obviously, and never truly alone because you're with them. You're there with your horse. And
Lynn:
you'll take all of your days of food with you and initially are there stops where you can pick up food along the way.
Kansas:
There are resupply stations. So when we change horses as well, that's an opportunity to have some resupplies. They have given us specific size containers and bags, that we put a maximum of two kilos, and so about four to four pounds, four and a half pounds. And that will have extra food and, you know, maybe change a clothes, extra battery packs, things like that, that are essential, because those GPS navigation tools do require batteries. And so we have to make sure that we plan accordingly so that we don't lose charge.
Lynn:
Yeah, that's another big one. So and is it going to be your typical camping food like the you know, the packs and stuff like that, or what are you?
Kansas:
Well, dehydrated food is definitely the lightest and so just having something to be able to boil water, and then you can put that water into the dehydrated food packs and just eat it all you don't have to bring extra dishes or anything like that. So that's definitely I would say the bulk of it. But then also, you know, kind of your protein bars and any other snacks that are like dehydrated fruit, nuts, things like that we'll be bringing as well. What kind of
Lynn:
wildlife sample what kind of wildlife might be trying to eat your food in the camp or anything Unlike that, do you have to deal with?
Kansas:
Good question? No, they don't have bears down there. There are jaguars, but not so much in that region, from what I understand, they've started to reintroduce them into different areas. So there's different NAFTA national parks and protected areas, you can still see condors down there, which is quite interesting. But, you know, there, it's a region that has mostly been also transformed over into ranching. So there's a lot of cattle ranches and things like that. And there's not as many little critters but everything's gonna be zipped up tight, because it also has to be protected from the rain. Because it can definitely be kind of a constant downpour and heavy rains throughout the course of those, you know, eight or 10 days.
Lynn:
Oh, yeah, you're gonna get wet. There's no doubt in eight or 10 days, you're gonna be getting to, you're gonna ride wet, I'm sure. And,
Kansas:
yeah, yeah, that's one of the the advice. recommendations that I heard was just if there's one thing that you can keep dry, make sure it's your, your pajamas and your sleeping bag. Yeah. Put that and make sure it's really dry. So the end of the day, you can at least get in there. Yeah.
Lynn:
Wow, this is going to be so I can't wait to hear on the other side, how it went. I'm excited. I'm gonna get to see Stevie right afterwards, so I can get the scoop.
Kansas:
Oh, amazing. Yeah, she's become such a great, great friend and resource. And this is just one of the amazing things too. When we connected together in San Antonio, there was such a resonance that was such an excitement. Such a meeting of minds that really I just feel so grateful, because there's a lot of wonderful relationships that came out of it. You and Stevie and some of the other people that I see have been also on the podcast like, yeah, Cathy price, Christine Dixon be doing a retreat soon with her.
Lynn:
I am. And, you know, I didn't get to spend nearly as much time with Ariana as I wanted to, but you just use the language for the sake of what? And I have worked for years with Melissa McNair, who was one of Ariana early students. And Melissa used to talk to me a lot about Arianna. And the work she did with horses. And what was What's ironic is Melissa has been working with horses for years and years, in a leadership capacity with lots of different and big companies and so forth. She's done sort of that corporate leadership thing. And when she first introduced it to me 20 something years ago, I was like horses. Yeah, that's interesting. I liked him as a kid, I don't know why would have anything. And it wasn't until I had my accident fell off the horse. Now six years ago, that I started understanding it, and then came back to so many of the principles that she had learned from Ariana were starting to make sense to me. And so getting to meet Ariana and then hearing her talk, and she used a lot of language that I was like, Oh, I know that language. Like, I'm sort of from that lineage of what Ariana has brought to the world. Yes. So isn't it interesting? How are different ripples come out? Like, you know, Arianna had no idea. There was somebody else in the room that was sort of one of her ripples. Until, you know, the last night when I told her I said, By the way, and she goes, Oh, I remember. Yeah, she was one of my early students.
Kansas:
Wow, that's so amazing. Yeah, Ariana has been an incredible, incredible teacher and mentor and really become family over the years. And, you know, I, I wrote a letter saying that I was interested in learning from her back in 2007. This is after I had my first child. And I had really become aware that horses and horse medicine as I call it, you know, the mystical side of horses, there was something happening and the horses healer world was just popping at that moment. You know, the Dow had Delve, Equus by Linda Cohen off, who was also obsessed with us, had been written. And there was that, you know, expanded curiosity that was just kind of taking off in that industry. So I wrote to Arianna because I wanted to study with her and under her and I came for one of the conference that she was having back then where she gathered people like Linda Cohen off and those you know, Barbara Rector and the people who were luminaries in that developing field together to have a conference. So I came to help her with a conference in her horses and in there was a flood, you know, the roads were cut off, she couldn't get, you know, people, hundreds of people to be able to have the event. And she left me with our horses, which she said she never trust anybody without really knowing them first. But we just had this understanding and right and then she she right away, you know, after it was like, oh, yeah, you know, me like we're in the foxhole together. Like we just had that soul connection. And I ended up spending a good solid two years, you know, studying with her for equine guided education. And her you know, main audience was really corporate at the time and had been for probably 20 years up into that point. Excuse me, and so All of that, you know, leadership conversation was very right. But what people didn't know and that now she expresses more. And this is where we really connected is the spiritual esoteric conversation was always there. And that's just become a little bit more there's an there's a readiness there's an understanding of energy before we couldn't talk about energy and use some of the languages that we have back in the early 90s. It was shunned or it was you know, put down condescended to the people thought it wasn't appropriate to bring into the conversation. So Arianna has really been a trailblazer. And she still is somebody that I regularly go to because we we talk about like, what we're noticing it like common themes that are coming up, but she really shared with me she and another My Heart Math mentor Sheva car, really taught me the power of facilitation or not the art of facilitation, how to hold a group.
Lynn:
It is an art. It's been something I've been working on for close to 30 years now. And it is a is definitely an art. Yeah. So I have to say I was looking at your your website I love your new website will tell everybody how to get to it at the end of this podcast. But I noticed lots of the different places you've appeared and I happened to be a huge fan of Heartland. I saw Heartland on there. So tell me what your connection to my one of my all time favorite TV shows was?
Kansas:
Oh, how fun. Well, I've just been on one episode which is which was lovely and really fun. But I've because it takes place in Canada. And there's a lot of stuff writers in it. I've known about Heartland for so many years. So many my friends have worked on it. A good friend of mine has a main stunt double for the character who's Amy which is Amercian. Yeah, yeah, she's been. So she and I met her name is Nikki. Nikki Flandre performed together in Australia many many many years ago. And as truck riders and then she became a the stunt double for for Amber. And I was contacted to get some horses from Kaivalya the equestrian show that I've worked with her over 15 years to bring into an episode that was about you know, they wanted Spanish horses at Liberty. And I said actually, you know, we are no longer holding horses anymore. But I know somebody who can help you out. And rather than Spanish horses, I did have one. I called up a friend of mine that I had also met in Australia, Australian friend that I also who introduced me to Warwick, my friend Dan, Dan James. Oh, yeah. So yeah, yeah. And so he's out of Kentucky. Lexington, Kentucky is double Dan horsemanship and very, very talented horseman in many different domains. And so long story short, they liked his horses and asked him to come up for one of the episodes. And so we were in Alberta, it was right when Canada was just opening up after the pandemic, right. So it was quite, you know, kind of fingers crossed operation whether or not we were going to be able, he was going to be able to get into the border. I live in Canada. So I was already there. And we met and, you know, brought the horses on set. And the horses did so well to be able to do well on a film set. There's a lot of tweaks and changes that will happen in the moment. And so this is about being able to flex and be creative and problem solve. And the director might say, Oh, well I'd really like the horse to be in this shot and it'd be great if he could shake his head down here, or if he could somehow turn away from them. And so Dan, okay, and so he walked away, go spend about you know, an hour 30 minutes or something with Apple Jack is this Spanish sport horse that he has Palomino gorgeous horse, amazing horse. And boy, he would come up with something brand new on the spot. And Boy, they sure they sure loved him for that. And then I was helping him, you know, work his horses, prepare them for the show. And then I wrote his reining horse in it as well. And then funny side note, but I knew one of the actors in the show as well. So he came up on set he's Oh, Kansas. It's so great to see you here because he's been on the show has been running for 15 years. Yeah, we know each other really? Well. He's come to Cavalleria Chris Potter is his name. So he plays the dad.
Lynn:
Yes, dad. Yeah, he's a great character. You know him. That's he's a great
Kansas:
character. Yeah. Well, he's like family too. So because he was on a show with my dad in the early 90s. Playing my dad son for about six years. Is that like family? Yeah, well,
Lynn:
that is awesome. Well, my my one of the things that happened to me when I was first watching the show is that the ages made no sense because I felt like he looked too young to be Amy's dad. And Jack look, you know, the guy that plays Jack, I don't remember his name, but he looks too young to be Amy's granddad. And so all the ages it took me a while to like get that family tree on the show. Fixed because that grew. Spider just looks way too young to be like, no, no. I can't be like a boyfriend. Oh,
Kansas:
how funny. Yeah. And Chris is such a great character on that show. Oh, people, of course, it always told me about it. And I really hadn't seen so much of it. I actually don't watch television truth be told, or movies or shows or things like that. So I'm pretty poor, if you ask me. But I watched some knowing that, you know, we were gonna go there and be on it. And his character is so funny.
Lynn:
Well, and I, you know, here's how I first ran into Dan James, it was at a raining event in Oklahoma City. And he was doing something with the palominos. And the freestyle, they do a reigning freestyle, like in the evening. And now all of a sudden, this guy comes in and he's got these horses, and they're all at Liberty, and they're in and a warm up arena with all these other horses. And he's got like this, these horses are so connected to him. And I was like, What the heck is going on? And he had like, a little miniature as well. I remember like, three step step. Yeah. You know, these horses? So yeah.
Kansas:
So I have yeah, those are the ones those palominos would have been the ones that were on heartland. Yeah.
Lynn:
Versus up like the same horses? And did you actually write in the show? Or it was? So you were on? Did?
Kansas:
Yeah, I did. I was a stunt double for it. Yeah. Oh,
Lynn:
I'm gonna go back and find that episode. And check it out. Because when I saw that I got, of course, you have a lot of credits on your website of all different places that, you know,
Kansas:
this is an interesting thing. But because I spent a little bit of time in, you know, working in film and TV, and I actually prefer live entertainment. There's just something different about it. And that's, that's fine. But 20 years ago, my first job in the Screen Actors Guild, so you have to get to be a union card carrying member in order to get into the Screen Actors Guild. So my first job where I was brought into the guild was on the film Hidalgo, where I was doing stunts, darling, as a guy in Hidalgo. I was playing an Arab man, which is funny with goatee and the turban and everything like that. But it was 20 years ago. And that film is the quintessential horse race across the desert movie, one of them. And now here, it's been 20 years, and I'm doing my Patagonia ride. I thought that that's kind of an interesting, full circle moment. Exactly.
Lynn:
It is a full circle moment. And it's funny. Hidalgo is the name of the first horse that I actually rode myself, after I had my accident. I got on a reining horse, but I wouldn't let the guy take the reins. Give me the rights, I was so scared. And this was actually this would have been December of 2018 that I first got back on a horse and my accident was 2017. So it was over a year. And I went to this local place where they have a trail ride. And he saw my high and said, I'm going to put you on band. So we get down to the barn. Ben was an 18 hand draft horse. And I was like, not just No, but hell, no, I'm not getting up there.
Kansas:
And it's too far to fall. Which
Lynn:
is it's really ironic because I was just on an 18th hand draft horse earlier this week, and it was no big deal. It's like no big deal. But it was a big deal then. And so my friend who was much shorter than me said, I'll ride ban, you can ride Hidalgo, and they had a paint horse who used to be a show horse, really beautiful horse named Hidalgo that I didn't even understand the movie at that time. But now I do because I went back and researched it because I said, Oh, he's named after the horse in the movie. And he looked a lot like that horse. So and you were in that movie, too. That's so cool. I was Yeah. I also saw World Equestrian Games. Were you here in trial on in 2018.
Kansas:
I was not. It was 2010. And Dan James also ended up being there for that one as well. Yeah, my dad and my friend Nikki. So it was for the opening ceremonies of the World Equestrian Games in tacky.
Lynn:
Nice. Okay. Yeah, I I never even heard of the World Equestrian Games till try on, you know, the I'm 20 minutes from the trout Equestrian Center. And that came in and then they said they were bringing these Equestrian Games there. Everybody was like, what is that and it was and we had about as much rain as we're having today. That weekend. It was not good for a lot of the events we have. It's
Kansas:
hard. It was hard. But now those big horse the high profile horse horse events are pretty spectacular. You know, I've done World Cup, you know showjumping competitions and been at the not competed in them but performing as entertainment. And one of the most beautiful facilities was actually the United States Equestrian Team headquarters in Gladstone, New Jersey. There was a world pairs driving competition there before the World Equestrian Games existed. They had these you know, The World Cup events, and what an incredible, beautiful facility. And there's something you know, like the Olympics, when you get together with those of your discipline that just, it has such a enthusiasm. You just feel like you're really part of history history making. A lot of people asked me what's kind of, you know, highlights of your performance career. And one of them that stands out, obviously, is performing for the Queen of England for the Royal Jubilee, or her silver jubilee, which took place in 2012, and that was in the Windsor Castle. And so we had about 700 different performers from all around the world. For the first I want to say 17 or 18 countries that she visited on our first Royal Tour. So from Azerbaijan to Milan, and, you know, Canada, and we brought, obviously United States. And so we brought this western flair from America to represent. And we had 500 horses in the arena. Many of them are the Queen's horses, and she was very authentically a horse woman wrote every day, and the carriages and the different breeds of parades. And again, that whole that had like this Olympic Village quality experience, to be there and prepare for it to run through it. And then we, I think we did two or three performances, and that was also marked by rain. Was it really I thought, you know, I'm a desert girl, I'm from California, I thought, Well, surely they're going to have an indoor arena. But no queen didn't need an indoor arena. They had a lot of I mean, all those people would just sit with their umbrellas or ponchos rain ponchos and watch the show in the rain. And we didn't we didn't have punches, but we
Lynn:
and you you're she was tough. I so what is it like to be on a horse that's galloping while you're not seated in the saddle, but you're standing or you're hanging off the side or whatever. What is it like?
Kansas:
This fun? That sounds really fun. Yeah. Yeah, it's really fun. Um, you know, I many years because my father was a martial artist. People always ask me, Did you do martial arts? And I would make categoric answer was no. And I started realizing just in the last year, oh, my gosh, drug riding is, yeah, martial art. It came it was born out of warfare, we have the same mythology, myth, methodology as a methodical way of going through a system to teach it. And to have that mindset, very, very, the same thing as as martial arts. And so what we do is trick writers, Cossack writers especially passed down from, you know, Eastern Europe, the Cossack riders in competition, excuse me in combat, is you intentionally bring yourself out of center, so you take yourself out of the saddle, at a standstill, and then at a walk. So if you can stand up on the horse, you know, 100 times or 300 times at a standstill, then you start to do it at a walk, and you start to build a little bit of capacity to understand that with movement, and then you do it in the truck. Now the trot for those who ride is going to have the most movement and the most agitation. And so that's really where you develop the muscles the most. So that by the time that you're ready with a coach, hopefully, or if you're, you know, with Chuck writing, I always, always encourage people to work with with coaches, then you progress up to a canner. And it's all of the muscle development that happens with that more intense movement. That makes it easy when you get to the canter. And so what I explained to people is, you know, we have powers of interoception, which is feeling what our internal body systems are doing. And then we have the powers of proprioception, which are very developed in you know, athletes. And as we practice, moving our body off center, whether it's lifting your legs up and over the front of the horn, or hanging off to the side, your body is developing proprioceptive awareness of where it is, it's time and space, and then it knows how to come back to center center. Is that grounded? You know, in the martial arts, it would be horse stance, or I'm sure you have a waterskiing kind of set point, like bring yourself back into what is your neutral position, we could say, and so there's a trick writing neutral position as well. And all of the tricks that take you out into space and spread you into a different field. They are always wanting to come back to your core to your center. So that the feeling that we get, you know, when I'm on a galloping horse, and I'm standing up on them, I'm able to counter they counterbalance me so I lean out against my straps, and I'm very rigid in terms of like all my bus, my body muscles are tight, but I have an ease within that like I've found the softness and breathing into that like I can flex them I all of the muscles in my legs, but I'm not straining. So it's it's effort but without strain. And then you truly feel like you're flying. Because the horse is doing all of this movement. And you're merely holding a static posture just like a yoga position. I do do yoga. Now. I've been doing yoga my whole life on horses. You know, one of the main tricks that I did, I don't do it anymore was a full backbend. So a full bridge, on a on a, on a galloping horse on a horse running full speed with out of control liberty, kind of, I
Lynn:
saw one of it so funny, that kind of blew me away. Yeah,
Kansas:
it's a funny thing that I tell people, you know, what do you do? Well, I basically tie myself upside down on fast riding horses and let them loose. That's kind of what we do. But there's, there's, there's, there's a whole bunch of progress coming into that. And so we start at slower speeds. And I always say, the, I let people struggle with getting in and out of tricks and pull with their muscles and things like that. Because the you get stronger in the struggle. So for example, when somebody's trying to swing on their horse, if I were to always give them a boost, then their muscles don't develop to pull on for them on their own. Right? So you develop that capacity that familiars that strength, a little bit. Well, you have to work for it. And that speaks so much to the theme of our of our talk today. Yeah,
Lynn:
yeah. Well, that this whole thing, the idea of moving off center and coming back of effort without strain of becoming stronger in the struggle, that is the theme of this talk and what it has been?
Kansas:
Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. And it's been so fun, because, you know, I will give lessons in clinics. That to be able to embrace your inner circle circus cowgirl, I've had women who are over 60, participating in my truck riding clinics, because it's not about becoming a rodeo trick rider. It's more about understanding how to bring yourself back to center, and how to give your body the muscle memory and the experience, to feel what it's like to be off center. And so that it's not terrifying. Because all of the with with, with support with my guidance, all of the exercises are going to put you in positions that you never dreamed that you could do. But when I show you you can do it, it's like that wasn't so bad, I can stand off my horse while they're walking, and bring my legs over on one side. And then you can do it at a trot. And pretty soon you can do a holding on with just one hand, and you got one hand in the stirrup and one hand on the horn and you're all the way off the side. That's a basic basic move. That is just a building block for being able to do those high speed tricks where you, you know, hit the ground and hits the other side or flip and land backwards on an anchor, go on to the neck and hit the ground and get back on the saddle. All of these things that happen at high speed, we develop them at slow speeds. But what I love doing is showing people that they can build their confidence with these truck riding exercises without thinking that they have to do it. You don't want to have that performance goal in mind. It can be applicable to other disciplines as well. So being able to teach, you know, dressage riders, a lot of times when we were at Cavalleria, the dressage riders want to come and work out with the truck riders because they knew it would help make them better, better riders.
Lynn:
Yeah, they
Kansas:
can be more confident with a leg on each side, when you've been hanging around for you know, 2030 minutes in every other position, upside down, hanging off the off side hanging off the near side, you know, going on to the back, learning how to jump off, hit the ground and get back to the saddle. boy sitting with a leg on each side just feels way less intimidating. So that's what I love showing people with safety with security, you know, on a safe horse, there's so it's really fun to just watch people open up and be like, Oops, I never thought I could do that before. And and then the other thing I'd like to do is I take the reins away. So being able to show everybody that you can stop your horse with your breath and your intention, and that you don't have to always pull on the reins. That becomes like a big aha moment for many people. Certainly a lot of the youth riders work with barrel racers and again, 100 jumpers, and when they realize Whoa, I can stop my horse with just an exhale. That is life changing. And that was something that I worked on a lot with Arianna you know, she was one of the people who really I had been writing for my whole life. But then it was working with her both as an equine guided educator to help with the court corporate leadership conversation, but then also as an equestrian she helped me fine tune in my my or Li 20s muy muy horsemanship.
Lynn:
That's you know that that ability, that confidence that you get from being able to stop a horse with a breath, being able to come back to center. I mean, the first time I stopped a horse with nothing but my breath, was it that was that was the moment when I really feel like I got back on the horse even though I'd been on for a long time. Because my big question after I fell off was how do I stop a horse? And even now, as you were describing this, I was thinking, what happens if you're tied to a horse in a back band, and they decide they don't want to stop?
Kansas:
Hmm, that's a very serious consideration. You do not do a backbend on a horse that you have any qualms about. Yeah. I mean, it's crazy, because sometimes I would go, and I would do it on horses, that I was training overseas that we only had for a week or two. But there's that inner guidance system that says, Okay, we have a mutual understanding, I trust him, it's all about trust. If you don't have that trust, don't do it. And being a professional, you know, how to cultivate that you know, what the signs and signals are every step of the way. And then, of course, you know, accidents can happen. But there's ways to be sober and mature about that and mitigate them as much as possible. When we're training that you're guiding horse. And when I'm working with new people, I'm helping to generate the energy. And so the new rider doesn't have to worry about the motion of the horse, and I'll help keep that in. But you're right, because when you're in a trick, any change in the flow is going to upset your little T car. Things ago, things go wonky, if the horses cadence is broken. And so for every trick, the excuse me, for every speed, whether you're on a walk at a trot, or canter or gallop, it just has to be consistent. You can't have those fluctuations in accelerating or decelerating because it'll mess you up and change your speed.
Lynn:
Yeah, well, just, I'm just starting to get into writing and have never done and officially change. But what we've discovered is I have already learned how to do if blindly change because I adjust myself in the saddle, because I'll feel a little out of balance. And my horse is brilliant. And she's just like, oh, wait, I have to learn how to like, if I'm gonna have to just do it in such a way that didn't queue her for a late change. And of course, we're not. We're not scolding her at all, because she's doing exactly what I'm asking.
Kansas:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, and horses are so amazing. I mean, when you speak to that, a lot of people think that you can only do one thing with a trick riding horse. And gosh, you can't do finally changes on a trip riding horse or do dressage on them because they have to be desensitized to all this other stuff. And then they won't be sensitive for that shift in weighing, right. And I've found that to be completely false. And again, when we were evaluated so many different disciplines, you know, dressage and liberty and jumping and took writing and ramen writing and all of this. Horses are really, not only are they poly lingual, they understand each person's unique cues and language. But they also are totally intelligent to understand that this is a different cue for a different time. So we had, you know, took riding horses, Robin riding horses that were beautiful lateral reflection, and just Saj movements. And we had horses that were dressage horses that were able to do, you know, liberty, and a little bit of Roman writing and all of this. So it really has everything to do with your intention, and the precise nature of your cues. Horses are Exter infinitely versatile, versatile. It's only humans that I believe that put them and pigeon holed them into a particular space. And I think both as riders as humans, and I would say in the horse world as well, being able to be cross training is very healthy. So that's why a lot of dressage riders will see the value of taking the horse out for a hack or taking them out for a trail ride. And when we were truck riding, we would never spend time just sure grinding, grinding, grinding, grinding and only go one way, we would always do everything else that we could, whether it was trail riding, and, you know, some West Western cow horse and things like that, to be able to make sure that they were well rounded. That's
Lynn:
that idea of intention with a horse is so huge, because they really, it's amazing how they get they get it. I mean, I really do feel like when we create a picture in their mind, they have that picture. Yes, absolutely.
Kansas:
Yeah. It's really fun. And that's why working with the picture the mental capacity to visualize something and then working our with our magnetic resonance with what the feelings is that we also want to send in sending that out through our, our heart frequency. Using both of those is so effective, it's fabulous. And it's not based on proximity. You know, you can do it while you're writing. Sure. But you can also do it before you go to bed at night, before you even get to the barn. Mm hmm. It's not dependent on just being there in the physical proximity, which is really fun to explore.
Lynn:
I've actually started this is a whole different conversation, and one we won't have time to go into today, but I've been exploring telepathic communication with animals. And I've been working with Anna 20, who lives near me on an animal communication class, and she is a magnificent animal communicator. And it is it is really taught me that animals if we tune into their frequency, if we can send them pictures from a long way away, and they can send us pictures. Yes, absolutely. And much more than asking and receiving. Yeah, she lists like 17 different ways that we can receive. Which is, it's really profound. So yeah, that just that I'm not going to open that can of worms, but it's a good can of worms. I do want to explore before we wrap up, I would love for you to talk in this heart resonance idea of, you know, I got to just experience your program. And I'm so glad I did. And you've got another one coming in March, can you describe what that's going to be about so that people can know how to sign up for that. And it'll be after the Gaucho derby. So you'll have that sort of informing that next round of this program, which is so magnificent. Absolutely.
Kansas:
Absolutely. Yeah. So the program that you took place you participated in that took place in December was the heart nose. And it's really the basics of understanding what coherence is, what the research is from the Institute of Heart Math. And then what are the techniques and tools that they have, pioneered really, to understand our human operating system, and be able to navigate through life. So I was introduced to Heart Math, oh, 20 years ago. And since then, I've used it not only to increase performance, but also to deal with the vicissitudes of emotions and life. And I found the technology to be so compatible with other systems with other ways of life with other energy work, that it's really has a universal appeal, which is why I'm so happy to share it. So after 20 years of using it in my own kind of life laboratory, I decided, hey, I really want to be able to offer this to a wider group. And so I became a Heart Math Certified Trainer last year. And since then, it's these tools that I'm really able to disseminate in a group setting, we go over a lot of the, again, the research, you know, there's over 40 years of HeartMath research, but then we get to practice it together in a supportive environment, to unpack it, and to really integrate the tools into our lives. So it happens, it's a series of our four weeks, and this will be Saturdays in March. And my new website, which just went live yesterday, has a couple things, you know that we're still working out the kinks and chinks in there, but it's circus cowgirl.com. And you can learn about that class that's coming up. So it's, it's, again, four weeks. And then after that, I'm going to be traveling a lot in the summer, and I do in person clinics as well, where we bring in those HeartMath principles and work with them with our horses. But this four week class is just on Zoom. And even though we're all in different places, even around the world, I think that you can probably speak to this to Lynn, there's no space, no distance between two hearts, and the level of intimacy and connection can still be really felt and palpable. So it just created such a wonderful community, your group that was post podcast Summit, and every time we get a chance to gather like that, and really support each other and set in that kind of group intention is very powerful. So I just love offering it and I'm really grateful that you know, we have zoom and things like that, to be able to, to share and give exchange ideas together.
Lynn:
What I what you did beautifully on Zoom was set a standard for us to connect and not treat it with a distance that sometimes we will. So leave the camera on, you know, you did make up classes instead of recordings and, you know, we use that ability to connect across distance so it wasn't just about the screen, but I really felt the connection as we were in those sessions and really, really loved it. So I hope people listening will take you up on this offer and go to circus cowgirl.com and get on this class because it's it was is definitely worth it. It was great. Awesome. Awesome. Yeah.
Kansas:
It really comes from love of just wanting to share the things that I've found so empowering because a lot of people Are were a little bit of what coherences are some, maybe they've been the technology, but that there's a whole system of of tools to really be able to implement that are very practical, practical skill
Lynn:
set. Yes, it is a very practical skill set. In fact, I, in my notes went and actually, you know, took note of all the tools as we went through them, and then I pulled them out and gave myself like one note of just the toolbox. So I could, you know, see all the different things that you taught us, which was quite a bit over a short amount of time.
Kansas:
It's very rare. Yeah, yeah. But hopefully not too much. No,
Lynn:
it was exactly right. It was exactly right. It's actually one of those things where you go back to say, Wow, we did a lot. And it was effort without strain. Right? There was a lot to it. But you didn't feel like when you when I looked at I was like, There's no way we did all that. So I think it was just exactly right. Exactly. Right. Yeah. So tell everybody else how to get in touch with you is Circus circus cowgirl.com? The best way to do it? Do you have other socials you want to tell people about?
Kansas:
Well, I've been on LinkedIn for a long time. And then, you know, I actually started, there's a circus cowgirl Facebook page as well. Okay, kind of a more intimate group. It's just become active recently. And then the circus cowgirl.com website is going to be a new way that we'll be able to network and create kind of a community through there that I'll be able to interact with everybody. Because I'm going out of the country, I will be kind of off grid for quite a while. But once I stepped back in, I have plenty of clinics and things like that throughout the year that I'll be posting. And I want to have more. You know, one of the other people that were speaking with us at the conference was Denise Byron, yeah. And she speaks a lot about the gathering of circles and the importance of that, and just like we shared in our class together, we can see the value in just gathering and connecting. And so I'm going to be creating more opportunities to have what I call circles of compassion, and to really be able to connect an experience and unpack some of the questions that you spoke about, what does compassion mean to you? You know, how can we implement that, where were moments where you've witnessed acts of compassion, and then be able to really use that to serve for the greater good, because it's one thing to be able to benefit on our own. And it's another thing to be able to feed the field, or to really raise our gaze and allow that to benefit our whole human family, and really, our whole earth family.
Lynn:
This is one of the things I've loved about Heart Math has I've I'm on their email list, and they do these global coherence events where their practitioners radiate out into the field. And the more we do that, I think this is I think this is the key to healing the planet.
Kansas:
absolutely got to heal ourselves. Yeah, the global coherence initiative has been going for some time. And so the moment that you're referencing is, is every full moon, there's a care focus. And it's not just practitioners, but it's really anybody who wants to learn about the global coherence initiative. There's a GCI app, if you have the technology that you can tap in. And you actually see how all of us that are radiating gently radiating true care, and a coherent vibration, how that actually creates an energetic shift that's measurable. So when we are practicing those heart lock ins like that we did before we started record, this morning, that it has been shown to put us in tune with the earth resonance.
Lynn:
That's I need to dive into that a little bit more, because I just see it, I never actually do it. And I need to get that app and start looking at what's really happening. Because, like I said, I really do believe it's going to be what helps us heal this planet.
Kansas:
It's just there's so much more to discover. There's so many opportunities, there's so much great technology out there. Yeah, I think optimism is a resonance that we can really carry into 2024.
Lynn:
That's, you know that on the on the theory that you get more of what you touch, I think the more we can focus on what is working and what we do care about, the less we have, feed the energy into the things that are going to not serve us. So you know, back to feed the thing that matters the most to you, and starve the thing that determines
Kansas:
and thinking again of that intention, attention notes and attention where we where we set our intention, and then where we put our attention is really important. But then we release that into the universe and keep open to your curiosity and to the possibilities how it unfolds.
Lynn:
There's so much power and being open and curious, and I didn't mention it Earlier we talked about Kathy price she was on my podcast as well. So for for those of you listening, if you haven't heard that podcast go check her out as well as as well as her podcast with Warwick Schiller, which was fantastic and Jane pike. She has been doing some stuff with Jane bank as well. So awesome. Oh, Kansas. I can't thank you enough. This has been a delightful conversation. Thank you so much for being here.
Kansas:
Yeah, it's my sincere pleasure, then. And I hope I get a chance to come down and see you and you're heard at some point. Oh, I hope so. And quite fun.
Lynn:
I would love it. Your your The door is open. And we have a beautiful place at Mystic waters for you to stay. So that would be great. All right, well, so for those of you listening, if you enjoy this podcast, be sure and share it with others. And if you want to stay in touch, you can go to learn current.com And subscribe to the coaching digest. I'm putting something out every week. We'd love to have you there. Thanks again, and we will see you on the next podcast. Thank you for listening to the creative spirits unleashed podcast. I started this podcast because I was having these great conversations and I wanted to share them with others. I'm always learning in these conversations, and I wanted to share that kind of learning with you. Now what I need to hear from you is what you want more of and what you want less of. I really want these podcasts to be a value for the listeners. Also, if you happen to know someone who you think might love them, please share the podcast and of course subscribe and rate it on the different apps that you're using, because that's how others will find it. Now, I hope you go and do something very fun today.
Kansas
Carradine
This is the long bio, and please let me know if you need a shorter one!
Kansas Carradine
Kansas Carradine is a globally acclaimed professional horsewoman with a lifelong dedication to her craft. Since she was 11 years old, she has entertained audiences around the world, demonstrating her exceptional talents as a trick rider, roman rider, and lasso artist.
Some of her performance credits include Hidalgo, Heartland, the World Equestrian Games, Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee, National Finals Rodeo, appearances on MTV, ESPN, CBS, Equitana, Cheval Passion and Equifest. She has been featured in publications such as Sports Illustrated, Western Horseman, Cowboy & Indians, and the LA Times. With Cavalia, she toured over five continents as a featured soloist, roper, rider, and trainer.
Kansas is a HeartMath Certified Trainer and SkyHorse Equine Guided Educator and incorporates her unique skills into her training and coaching; bridging science, spirituality, horsemanship and heart. Through her workshops and teachings, she helps individuals activate their own heart intelligence for improved emotional self-regulation, self-confidence, health, connection, and performance.
Following the wisdom and power of her heart, Kansas has made a positive impact through her service work with G20/C20 Presidency in India as Project Manager for the Fyera Foundation, as well as outreach in indigenous communities and fundraising for the Humane Society, Equestrian Aid Foundation, Wild Beauty Foundation, Compton Cowboys, and Embracing the World Charities.
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