The Mane Event

Although a bit skeptical at first, I knew this field trip would not disappoint.

With my scant experience with horses, I was curious to see what this event was all about.

During the first 'horsemanship trainers challenge', I was a little bit taken aback at first when Steve Rother pulled out his whip and began striking Toby to make him run around the pen. But soon enough, his obvious expertise in horse training put me at ease. It amazed me to see how quickly the horse was able to determine what Steve wanted him to do. I really liked how Steve vocalized to the audience what exactly his non-verbal methods were in communicating with Toby. I almost felt like he had read the readings that Stephen emailed us when he mentioned words like "finding the flow" or "rythm" with the horse. I really felt like I got a good understanding of the physical cues and trust building that is required when training horses. It also amazed me how important it was for the trainers to releasenthe strain on the horses as soon as the horses responded to what the trainers wanted them to do. I never realized how intuitive horses are and how their herd mentality aids in building a relationship with their trainer. I really liked how Steve emphasized the importance of trust and how by being strict and persistent, would in the long run benefit the horse.

I thought that the second trainer, Cade Mills took more of a nurturing approach when training his horse, "Walkabout" was it? It was very evident that he was not a veteran like Steve Rother. Although it seemed to take him longer to get the horse to learn his commands, I think he was just as effective, but in a more loving and caring way. He was always concerned with the horse being at ease whereas Steve seemed more concerned with helping the horse help him, as he said "let me help you, help me."

Jonathan Fields blew me away, seeing the connections he has been able to build with his horses. I was taken aback by the level of synchrony he could create with his horse. I loved how when he liberated them, as soon as he made that eye contact and certain mannerism, the horses new to come to him. I was also impressed by how he stressed the importance of a horse knowing when to follow cues, and not be super sensitive to any gesture.

As a teacher, I see much value in these non-verbal cues and being able to set the tone in class by a simple gaze, or body posture, or the hint of a smile. I also see much value in a simple touch of the shoulder when engaging with students, and that simple human touch can alleviate stress in a student. Mimicry is a good tool in language learning in terms of pronunciation and tone when speaking.

Overall, this was a good experience, one that I may have never experienced if it weren't for this HEALing journey.

Active Living Reflection: Soccer

I have been playing soccer since I was 12. This is not to say that I am an all-star hard-core soccer player, but I quite enjoy the smell of the fresh-cut grass (harder to come by these days with turf fields taking over), the cold rain alleviating my sweat, and showing off the occasional bruises that I accumulate after a rough game. Currently, I play in a women’s selects/premier team. My team consists of women from ages 20-43. It’s amazing, but a few of our best players are at, or pushing 40. One of the reasons I continue to play, despite time constraints or previous injuries, is the inspiration I draw from these women who are not only top notch players, but are also mothers with full-time jobs and have a house hold to run.

To me, soccer is a way to release stress, socialize with teammates, continue to challenge myself, and a motivator to keep in shape. Often, I’ve complained that games take up most of my Sundays, or that I’m too exhausted to go to an 8-10pm soccer practice during the week, but during the off-season, when I start to miss it, I am reminded of all the wealth it has provided my well-being over the years.

I have often heard friends say that they wish they had a sport or an activity to use as an outlet or to claim as a hobby. The truth is, it’s never too late. I have a friend who at the age of 28 joined our co-ed soccer league for social purposes. She loved it so much that she joined a team in the fall, registered for a few soccer clinics for adults and now tells me she has “become a soccer player,” something she never considered herself to be before.

So what are some conditions that enable me to play soccer?

• I am able-bodied


• I have a car to drive to practices and games


• I can afford the $275 annual registration fee


• My work/school shedule allows me to attend practices and games


• I had the contacts to find a team to play for

What are some conditions that may prevent some people from playing?

• health condition that does not allow one to engage in intense cardiovascular activity


• lack of transportation to games and practices


• lack of funds to pay for registration


• lack of family support


• work schedule does not coincide with practice/game times


• other aspects of life do not allow for leisure time

This being said, in spite of these obstacles, soccer is the most popular sport in the world. It requires little equipment and the rules are overall, easy to follow. In rural areas of third world countries, it's common to see children playing bare-foot with an improvised ball made of tied up rags or taped up garbage. For this reason, I wasn't surprised to see El Salvador make it to the semi-finals of the world cup beach tournament in Italy this past September.

In Canada, although hockey is quite popular, soccer is the most played sport. I recall one of my teammates saying that when she was a kid, her parents signed her up for soccer because it was the only sport they could afford. She said it was "the poor kid's sport." I laughed, realizing, that this was probably the case for me as well. She also commented that nowadays, her kids are also playing on soccer teams, but prices have skyrocketed. Emphasis has been placed on not only signing your child up for a team, but also for soccer clinics and player development camps. The competitive aspect has over-shadowed the leisure dynamic of the sport. If you don't sign your kids up for the "extra stuff', you are stifling their potential.

In terms of accessibility for non-committal soccer, I once attended a drop-in adult soccer session at the Newton Recreation Centre. What I discovered was a gym full of about 50 men raging from ages 16 to about 40, mostly of indo-Canadian or hispanic background, all eager to get some time on the 'field.' Aside from myself, there was only one other girl in the gym. The men were not accomadating to new players, let alone female players. I stayed for about 1 hour, and afterwards had a chat with the people at reception. I suggested that perhaps they should have more than 1 night of drop-in soccer a week since it seemed to be so popular and perhaps they should also have a ladies only night, since I'm sure most girls would be too intimidated to ever set foot in a gym with 40 extremely competitive, burly men. They gave me a card with the management's contact info, and encouraged me to make the suggestion. Unfortunately I did not follow through and now looking at the current schedule, I still see only one soccer drop-in night...time to take action! ;)

So there it is, soccer is the root of my active living. Everything else I do to be active stems from here.

fat tax? Bring it!

Here's an interesting article from a couple of weeks ago: Denmark is imposing a fat tax to try and divert people from eating fatty foods while using the revenue from the tax to fund obesity-fighting initiatives.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/the-hot-button/eat-it-butter-denmark-rolls-out-fat-tax-but-will-it-work/article2188130/

I think this is a good idea. I've always thought the government should tax fast-food, highly processed goods and they should highly subsidize fruits and vegetables.

It's also interesting to read the comments on this article.

Reflecting on the income gap

Okay, I haven’t posted ANYTHING since my intro, and after checking out my peers’ blogs, I’ve realized that I need to catch up! So here I go:

After Reading Ch. 3&4 in our textbook Social Determinants of Health, I’ve become pre-occupied with thinking about the income disparity that exists in our great nation of Canada. What struck me the most from these two chapters is:

- the rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer

- the middle class is disappearing as the healthy apple shaped economy is hollowing out

- “the 246,000 privileged few who rank among the country’s richest 1% took almost a third (32%) of all growth in incomes between 1997 and 2007." (http://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2010/12/Richest%201%20Percent.pdf)

- the government is not doing much to equalize the growing income gap as they reduce social programs such as employment insurance

- corporations have a big influence on government policy making and they see to it that they don’t lose out on their profits

- although taxation and government transfers alleviate low incomes, the major culprit is low wages

Since reading these chapters, I feel appalled that living in a country as developed as Canada, we can allow this to happen. Now that Occupy Wall Street has hit the media and is having a snowball effect across western nations, I can understand why “the 99%” is speaking out against the corporate biased government. I don’t want to get too political, but if we want to be a healthier nation, we need to have more equality amongst our population by enhancing our social programs and evening out the income disparity. Here are some articles that are relevant to this topic:

http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/10/15/OccupyVancouver/

This article talks about the different reasons why protestors are “occupying” Vancouver. The main reason is speaking out against corporate greed and its negative implications towards the general public, but there are many causes people are advocating for and they see this as way to have their voices heard.

http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/10/18/Billionaire-Occupy-Wall-Street-Allies/

this article speaks about billionaires accepting that it isn’t fair that they aren’t being taxed enough…interesting…

and here's one of my favorite images: