If you wear lipstick, have paint on your walls, or use a computer, you’re a purchaser of the mineral mica, the stuff that gives lippie it’s “sparkle”.

Children need to be in school, they don’t need to be slaves for our lipstick.

Keep your workers safe – and avoid lawsuits!

Remarkable in-depth paper on

Musculoskeletal Disorders and the Workplace: Low Back and Upper Extremities.

Solutions for back pain sitting at desks.

Everything is fine, but then one day we wake up and BAM it we can barely stand up.

Or, one day you start getting headaches, day after day.

WARNING:  You must work with a medical professional. You must find out if there is an underlying medical issue.

But as far as biomechanics goes – here’s GREAT tips that got my back sorted, and got my pupils to the Olympics again and again:

1. Clean your teeth on one foot.   No 1 exercise I give my Olympic athletes!  Put one leg straight out in front of you.  Best exercise for the elderly – but be careful to hold the cabinet until you’re steady!
2. Stand on one foot. Truck drivers have to stop to refuel. Office workers need to get up to go to the bathroom. Everyone makes a cup of tea or coffee, or gets a cool drink from the fridge.  But SPECIFICALLY:   with the other leg straight out in front of you. 

WARNING:  lawsuit!

If your staff sit for long hours – you are inviting future lawsuits. Simple as that.

If you employ truck drivers, or anyone that sits for long yours  – there are ways you can avoid future lawsuits.

As the previous Spokeswoman for the WorkCover Authority of NSW, I have been speaking to businesses, schools & Universities around the world.

However, now that I am semi-retired, I will still do events for charitable purposes, or for organizations that have a charitable purpose.   So, contact me if you would like me to give a key-note presentation, or short day course.

Contact me

Sore backs – a possible legal problem

Many years ago I was invited to far north Vancouver Island to teach horse riders better seat and posture, but what I left with was a new level of understanding of how biomechanics can help industry.

My lovely hosts arranged a tour of the forestry industry while I was there (this appears to be quite the tourist thing to do in the area). Honestly, I wasn’t interested in forestry at all, and knew very little about it.

I arrived and there had been a mix-up (thank you Universe!). The ‘tour’ somehow didn’t happen that day, but my hostess had already dropped me off and left. The boss was so sweet – he said he was touring the entire facility anyway, and I could ‘tag along’ with him for the day.

Well – what a day we had! We drove all over the massive property, and I was impressed that it was a planting program as much as a forestry program. But it was at the end of the day, when we returned to the production area that changed my career forever.

For ‘a bit of fun’ they invited me up into this huge big rig that lifted massive logs all day long. When the operator looked behind him, I could see his back “twinge”, and the all too familiar look of “no pain no gain”, and “I’m going to tough it out”.

There were only the two of us in the machine, and I said to him “why on earth don’t they move the steering wheel on the other side of the machine if you spend all day twisted, looking behind you.”  I felt so sorry for the pain he was in, and no way to really help him unless they changed the machine.

When I came down out of the massive machine, I then saw a bunch of women they call “scalers”. Their job is to measure the massive logs that are put up on a huge table. But the table was quite low, and they spent all day bending and twisting down to measure the logs.

Worse…they also had a small (but quite heavy) computer strung around their necks to enter the data. All day long this thing was pulling on their very delicate necks.

The women told me there were many days off work, lots of pain, and no chance of fixing it because of the poor design of the table – and the computer dangling off their neck all day long.

When I mentioned something, they begged me not to say anything to the bosses…but hey…anyone who knows me – I’m an Aussie and we stand up for the little man! And, I’m a bit of a blabbermouth anyway…so I went straight to my new friend, the boss, who had been driving me around all day.

“Thanks for letting me see the production area. Gee your staff love you” I said.

“That’s great to hear” the man said “we really love our staff, they become friends in such a small town. We know all their families, and their kids, it’s a very tight team”.

“That’s so wonderful you’re great friends, it helps you put off the lawsuit”

“Lawsuit?” he said, looking panicked!

“Yes, I notice that the big machine has the steering wheel on the wrong side. Just a few thousand dollars could stop a lawsuit. And, lifting the tables for the scalers, and putting the computer on a simple trolley – just a few more thousand – that could save you millions. Your staff are just wonderful that they don’t sue you. They really must love you.”

Needless to say he was shocked, and didn’t really say much.

It was the end of the day, and I said goodbye, and didn’t really think about it again, being on tour teaching and speaking.

It wasn’t until a hand-written letter managed to reach me (not easy when you’re always on a speaking tour).   It was from the old man’s wife from the big machine.  I still have it to this day, and this is what it said:

Dear Miss Kelly,

I am writing on behalf of my husband Peter, who cannot write personally, as he did not complete his education and cannot read or write.

We both want to thank you for changing our lives – completely. After your visit, the very next week the company executives had engineers come all the way up to the yard, all the way from Vancouver to change the steering wheel of Pete’s machine from front to back. 

But they also did something else that was amazing. They built up the scaler tables so the girls don’t have to bend any more. And, they also had a local metal worker make little trolleys so their computers can be next to them all the time, but they don’t have to carry them around.

I was so worried. This is a small town, and there are no jobs except in forestry or fishing – either one is going to wreck my husband’s back even more. He had gotten to the stage where he was taking medicine every day, and couldn’t even help me with the groceries.

With the steering wheel on the other side, he is not in any pain any more from looking behind him all day. The pain is gone. But for me, it’s the change in his personality. I don’t think he’d mind me saying he had become ‘the grumpy old man’. Now, he has turned back into the man I married. But it was yesterday that prompted me to write to you. I enclose a photo that literally explains everything.

I cannot thank you enough. You have changed an entire town in one visit, and you didn’t even come officially, you were just visiting for the children’s horses – and yet you changed so many lives in just a few hours.

God bless you Colleen (I hope you don’t mind me calling you that, seeing we haven’t met – but you are indeed now a true friend).

Your friends from the north,

Peter and Margaret

[enclosed was a photo of Peter rolling in the grass with his grandchildren and a little dog. I’m pretty sure I cried at the time!]

As the previous Spokeswoman for the WorkCover Authority of NSW, I have always had a major interest in industrial and commercial occupational health and safety. For example, I was instrumental in having roll-bars made mandatory in all tractors in Australia when at the time tractor injuries were the number 1 work related injury in Australia.

But until that letter I didn’t realize how you could change an entire industry in just a few hours.  I will never forget that letter, and I have had the joy and honor of helping industrial and commercial workers regain their lives, and industry leaders avoid potentially crippling lawsuits.

Below is a wonderful, simple study from very reliable sources studying one simple thing that could change lives: adjustable truck seats.

Take a look at this remarkable study by Cardoso M¹, McKinnon C², Viggiani D², Johnson MJ³, Callaghan JP², Albert WJ¹. published in US National Library of Medicine National Institute of Health (PubMed) on-line library:

Biomechanical investigation of prolonged driving in an ergonomically designed truck seat prototype.

Truck Driver’s Lawsuit Upheld

Report after report, similar to this one is being received about long-haul truck drivers and back pain-related law suits.

Arm yourself with the latest information. Take a look at this remarkable study  by Erick Ohlson and Anna-Lisa Osvalder published in Science Direct.

Their Abstract:

After several decades of small incremental improvements, the development of ergonomics in truck driving environments is now facing a potential change with the introduction of autonomous driving. The knowledge on what happens to the driver’s posture and vision related behaviour with an increasing level of automated driving is still very limited. The aim of this paper is to understand truck drivers’ expectations on both current vehicles and future trucks with an expected increased level of automation, and to see how the expectations relate to previous driving posture related research. Truck drivers’ postural behaviour is determined by several contextual factors. Some are related to the actual driving task and traffic situation, and some related to the cabin layout. Individual variability also largely affects the choice of sitting posture. The field of vision is often prioritized over sitting comfort in increasingly complex driving environments and drivers tend to adapt to a more forward leaning posture to get a better overview in these situations. An increased level of automation could potentially allow drivers to get an increased freedom in choosing their preferred postures but also possibly mean a change in their working tasks, with increased possibilities of performing secondary working tasks like transport planning and handling orders. However, the interviewees in this study generally imagined increased opportunities of finding relaxing and comfortable sitting opportunities rather than a change in the working task as a result of increased automation.

Click here to go to their Science Direct study

GO TO:

Several years ago I was asked by a large backpack association to speak at one of their events on how to pack children’s backpacks.

It was one of the few times I said ‘no’ to a lecture. Frankly, I don’t believe children should be carrying backpacks at all.

At the time the only solution I could think of was a trolley. You don’t see children at an airport carrying a backpack – they pull a trolley instead. But of course now we have kindle, the internet, electronic submissions of essays. Why on earth are they carrying a single book?

Looking into it further at the time, I did a small study (n=27) and found that the children in Melbourne that I studied, all from Grade 9 at the local Bacchus Marsh School, were carrying more weight than Heathrow Baggage Handlers!

But, as the Universe would have it – while I was doing the study, the school had a group of children visiting from Japan.  What did they arrive with….trolleys!

Children should not be carrying heavy back-packs.  Simply a lawsuit waiting to happen – that can so easily be avoided.  Extra lockers, using kindle, internet and electronic submissions, and if the school is that old-fashioned they are unable or unwilling to go paperless…use trolleys!

Click here to go to the Time Health Article

I would like to thank everyone for the thoughts, prayers, cards and flowers and for those of you who came to my father, Frank Kelly’s funeral.

Many of you remember my mother Gwen Kelly who rode in the “Spirit of Pharlap” show at age 76, she was an incredible dog and horse trainer as everyone knows, but she also trained cats to do tricks, and even as a little girl I was already training cats & our family dog to do every trick we could think of.  You may also remember my incredible sister Shauna Kelly who was truly a remarkable woman and a great gift to the world of education and music.

As I am the very last remaining member of the Kelly Family, (the “endling”) I am dedicating my book to them, “The Last Wild Horse” as I always knew, whatever my achievements, wherever I went in the world, it was because I stood on the shoulders of three people who taught me the strength to achieve anything I set out to do.

Again, thank you for your prayers at this difficult time.

You can follow my breast cancer journey here

Easy balance tip…

No matter if you’re a horse rider trying to stay on a frisky horse, or a handler trying to keep on your feet with a big, boistrous dog you’re training for a client…you need good balance. And, the older you are, the more balance becomes important.

Here it is: Clean your teeth on one foot!

BE CAREFUL!  Support yourself with one hand, put your leg out straight (not bent!) in front of you – and clean your teeth on one foot.

What do you have to lose trying it?  Bad balance that’s what!

WARNING: BE CAREFUL!   Support yourself.  And, please do not do any exercises if you are injured. Seek medical advice & clearance before any physical activity!

No matter if you are a dog handler trying to handle an “out of control elephant” a client has given you to re-train, or you’re a rider trying to stay on riding at the Olympics – balance is vital – and could be the difference between life and death for the rider, or losing your dog and them running off.

Go shopping…

Yes, that’s right…finally shopping has a purpose (lol!).  Instead of pushing your trolley with your hands and knuckles on top, roll your hands over so they are underneath the bar, so your fingernails point up.

As you’re pushing your trolley try lifting the back wheels slightly off the ground as you roll along.

Warning!

Do not do any physical activity or exercise without the permission of a medical professional.

I’m sorry I’m retired now due to my breast cancer, but look back, happily, on such a wonderful career…

K9 and Mounted Unit Training

I have been donating training to K9 and Mounted Units around the world for 34 years.  I have had the honor of teaching, and judging, at National Police Championships and lectured, taught, and presented awards at the National Police Colloquium, Lexington Kentucky.

I was thrilled to teach at the Lord Strathcona Mounted Garrison in Canada, and truly honored to be able to teach the most amazing group of Mounted Police in the World: the Mounted Unit who support the Queen of England’s Guards at the Imbercourt Training Facility in London.

The only official “sister” school to the Spanish School of Riding, the greatest military training college in the world is the SA Lippizzaners, and what an honor it was to teach there too!

Although I will be retiring in 2017 due to my health, you can still contact me for K9 Lessons only in 2017.  I am not teaching horses any more due to my inability to hear the riders, and a call for help could be a disaster!

Donations & Free Training

Every year I donate hundreds of hours to any disabled, therapeutic, hippotherapy or related program, together with Police K9 and Mounted Units.  I have received four awards with my work with disabled people, and have experience with nearly every kind of disability – as it relates to training service dogs and horses.  If I can’t visit personally, I’m happy to donate DVD’s for you to raffle, or free lessons at my farm you could auction.

I’m sorry I’m retired now due to my breast cancer, but look back, happily, on such a wonderful career…

I’m sorry I’m retired now due to my breast cancer, but look back, happily, on such a wonderful career…

Hi everyone,

We’re coming through Santa Fe (Nambe) on the way to Colorado, and invite you to come along to ride or watch.

This will be a VERY INFORMAL and fun clinic, and you’re ALL WELCOME.  No matter how old, how young, what sport, and what level of expertise.

If you’re in pain when you ride, or would like to improve your balance & confidence…this is the weekend for you.

Please don’t think “I’m not good enough” to ride with us.  You don’t wait until you’re a concert pianist to have a piano lesson.  NERVOUS RIDERS – YOURE SO WELCOME!

We will work with you in a totally respectful and careful way, so please do come along….and SPREAD THE WORD with people in the area.

Contact Shelley Bachicha

I’m sorry I’m retired now due to my breast cancer, but look back, happily, on such a wonderful career…

I am looking forward to visiting Ireland again in 2019.

2018 is almost booked out lecturing to private industry around Australia either with my keynote: “From Homeless to Millionairess: The 8 steps to success.”

For a press packet, including free DVD email our team.

No more riding coaching – but I can still help any sports performance. Come along to my 2019 lectures. Dates to be announced.

I’m sorry I’m retired now due to my breast cancer, but look back, happily, on such a wonderful career…

Great News! Colleen Kelly is coming to Ireland.

First at the Royal Dublin Horse Show, then a

Seat & Position Clinic in Dublin

ALL WELCOME! Details here

Contact:  Nicky Mummery

I’m sorry I’m retired now due to my breast cancer, but look back, happily, on such a wonderful career…

This is an opportunity of a lifetime…come to Kentucky and help us behind the scenes at these to SIMULTANEOUS events at the Kentucky Horse Park.

Rolex in the daytime, Reining Cup in the night time… two tradestands, lots of excitement.

We’re after:

• riders who are interested in becoming speclialist seat and posture coaches in the future and would like free training on the stand
• professional ISRB coaches to help with seat and posture assessments
• people who can help out with errands and setting up or pulling down the stand.

I’m sorry I’m retired now due to my breast cancer, but look back, happily, on such a wonderful career…

SEAT & POSTURE: at Kentucky Horse Park

This year we will have TWO tradestands at the same time giving seat & posture assessments & demos.  Rolex – April 24 to 27, 2014. And in the evenings the Kentucky Reining Cup – April 25 to 27, 2014. Don’t miss us!

Stabling and camping limited but available at Black Pearl.

Don’t put it off – life’s too short! Come for a trip of a lifetime!

I’m sorry I’m retired now due to my breast cancer, but look back, happily, on such a wonderful career…

Hi everyone! You are receiving this information FIRST because you are signed up on my own personal blog, and have been such a great supporter, as most of the riding places are already filled, and I don’t want you to miss out! Either come and RIDE or come and WATCH….

Tennessee & Australia 2014

I invite you to come along to one of the upcoming riding clinics. Tennessee (first week of April 2014) and Australia (July, 2014) are riding clinics. A lot of my higher level riders like to have a couple of lessons on their higher level horse before the clinic (and sometimes I can travel to your place to avoid the horse having to travel), and then they bring their green or problem horse to the clinic.

Wisconsin & Canada – ISRB Official Teacher Training

As a Board Member and examiner of the ISRB I travel the world both giving clinics and examining potential coaches. These two clinics – (both in May, 2014) are for 5 days. The first 4 days is sitting watching, listening, coming into the arena (so bring those riding boots) and testing riders. You will go away with such an incredible depth of knowledge, yet, boiled down to incredibly simple principals.

There is no lateral work in this clinic (but I can never help mentioning how it will apply to higher level things just to give you an idea of Level 2 and Level 3).

This TEACHER TRAINING clinic suits riders who want to be better, coaches who want to specialize (and develop their earning potential!), beginner riders who haven’t got a clue and feel terrified to come in such higher level company – seriously we’d love you to come! We’ll make you feel right at home. Promise!

NO EXAMS!

Just come for the 4 days and go home if you like. You might not be able to get 5 days off work. You might be nervous in public. You might have only just started coaching and would like to come along and do your exams at a later clinic.

We understand that coaches, Mums and Dads are busy people, and we will find a way to work in with you later to do the exams if need be…giving you a little more time to study and be relaxed with the work.

Or, “do it all”…you can do the theory exam the evening of the first night, and the practical exam on the last day, and with a few more paperwork steps such as insurance, you are then an Official ISRB Coach qualified to teach biomechanics seat & posture specialty at the very first level.

Mums and Dads:  We get lots of Mums and Dads who will never coach, just want to help the kids! They don’t do the exams, they just come for 4 days, but come and watch the exams on the final days to help with their teaching style for their own children. Either way it’s a great way to help their children be safe, kind to their ponies and blossom into wonderful riders of the future.

FREE “TWO FOR ONE” OFFER

We want to spread this knowledge to people who might not otherwise be able to come. So, chose someone in your area and give them a free gift and bring them for free! Or, if you’re friends coming together, split the cost in half. At any rate, all teacher training clinics you can bring another person for free!

I’m sorry I’m retired now due to my breast cancer, but look back, happily, on such a wonderful career…

Hi there,

Seriously, it’s not too late to join in the amazing clinics we have in South Africa in just TWO WEEK’S time. Riding places are available, and if you were touring with us I’m sure we could get you a borrowed horse. more >

If you live in SA….even better! Riding places still available, or just come and watch this time!

I do hope you join me, as a local rider, or travel from overseas with us, come see the elephants with Nick and I! (and ride in or watch some great lessons too!).

 Dunblane Equestrian Estate – 7-9 March 2014
Cnr 9th & Shamrock rd, Bredell, Johannesburg East
Contact: Hannacke Smith 
hannacke@dynamicequilibrium.co.za Cell: 076 421 1845 

 Southern Riding Centre – 14-20 March 2014
Plot 81, Eisenhower street, Tedderfield, Johannesburg South
Contact: Hannacke Smith
hannacke@dynamicequilibrium.co.za Cell: 076 421 1845

 El-Shadai Equestrian Centre – 21-23 March 2014
Contact: Kristen FitzPatrick kristenfitzp@gmail.com

Best wishes,

Colleen

MVP Shauna Kelly: A Remembrance

November 16, 2012 – From the Microsoft Most Valued Professional Newsletter/Weekly Roundup

One year ago today, beloved Word MVP Shauna Kelly lost her battle with cancer at 8:36am at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Victoria Australia.  Shauna was known for her quick sense of humor, big spirit, sharp intellect, and endless capacity to help people in the community.  Shauna’s passion, enthusiasm and clarity of thinking in the way she approached being an MVP was very special.  She was such a huge force in the community and in our Microsoft Family and her loss continues to be felt today.

Before her death, Shauna was working on an ambitious project she named, “Word Toolkit”, which is a suite of tools for people managing large documents in a corporate or government environment.  Shauna’s vision for Word Toolkit included tools for managing styles, content controls, building blocks, headers, footers, revisions, and large sets of documents (including sets composed of a mixture of Word documents and PDF files). As a first step toward realization of that vision, she generalized the capabilities of the tools she had previously developed for governments and corporations. Then she merged the tools into a single software package and added to them other tools developed for more general users of Word.

Unfortunately Shauna was unable to complete this project. To honor her memory and to help keep her in their hearts, friends and family and other interested parties joined together to help realize Shauna’s vision.

Peter Grimshaw, Karl E. Peterson, and Rob Bovey helped gain access to Shauna’s VB6 code. Tony Jollans, Jonathan West, Lene Fredborg, and Bill Coan analyzed the code and concluded that it should be ported to VBA, so that it could be carried forward by the large population of users who have knowledge of both Word and VBA.  The Word Toolkit framework and Shauna’s Header Footer Boss were ported to VBA by Bill Coan. Additional tools will be ported and brought to completion in the future. Anyone who would like to help with this effort may contact Bill Coan at billcoan@wordsite.com or Peter Grimshaw at info@btmi.com.au.

Header Footer Boss is the first of Shauna’s tools brought to completion. Others will be added to Word Toolkit as they become available. Header Footer Boss lets you:

•View in a single dialog box all headers and footers in all sections of all open documents.

•Mark for special attention headers and footers that control their own content, sections that specify a starting page number (or where a new page number format begins), documents with different even-numbered pages, or any of a dozen other items that could be a source of problems.

•View the status of any individual header or footer and link, unlink, edit, or delete its contents as desired.

•View or modify the properties of any individual section and link, unlink, or delete the contents of the headers and footers in that section.

•View or modify the properties of any individual document and link, unlink, or delete the contents of the headers and footers throughout that document.

This first major milestone in the realization of Shauna’s vision will be published on the Word MVP Website, run by MVP John McGhie, very soon, with the other tools to follow as they’re completed.

Shauna Kelly had a quickness of mind, clarity of thinking, a vividness of expression, and an openness of heart that won friends for her wherever she went. She went all over the world. Should you wish to honor her memory, a donation in her name to the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation would be her wish.

For more information, visit http://www.ocrf.com.au/

We honor our friend and remember her life well lived today. We miss you!

from Jason Shore

This is the coolest “quick trick” you can do sitting at your desk to develop independent seat and co-ordination. The horse rider’s independent seat is not just for dressage, it’s for all horse riding sports to gain the ability of moving one part of the body without interrupting other parts or the fluidity of the horse.  This email, received from Jason Shore, is currently going around all the email mailing lists, so I am not sure where it originated….but it’s brilliant!

You can do this at your desk

This will boggle your mind, and you will keep trying over and over again to see if you can outsmart your foot – but it seems it’s pre-programmed in your brain!! 1.  While sitting where you are at your desk, in front of your computer, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles. 2.  Now, while doing this, draw the number ‘6’ in the air with your right hand. Does your foot change direction?