No matter what discipline you ride you always want some sort of contact with the horse through your reins. We then want to be able to use this contact in order to collect the horse and create the proper outline or frame for the job we are doing. Despite how Read more
It has been quite a while since I have written a blog, in part due to the whirlwind of changes in my life right now. One of the big things that has happened this year is I learned about PSSM. It is something I had heard about for years, but Read more
As a trainer one of the most difficult tasks I am faced with is determining whether a horse’s problem is due to pain or due to purely poor behavior. Figuring out the root cause of the problem is essential to fixing it. For instance, if I have a horse with Read more
I’ve been talking with a few people lately about the difference between riding for yourself versus riding for the horse. A lot of people think that good riders ride for the horse and poor riders or beginner riders ride for themselves. Although there might be some merit to this idea, Read more
Recently I’ve been riding bitless a lot. After years of riding only in bits it was quite the change. Most of my horses had some foundational work in a halter and all of them have hacked in halters, but I always left serious riding to be done in a bitted Read more
In last week’s article we discussed the difficulties of working with a new horse and how I approach it on the ground before riding. If you missed that article check it out here. In this week’s article we will discuss what I do after having worked the horse on the Read more
Do you feel nervous when working with a new horse? A lot of people avoid working with new horses because their confidence comes from knowing how the specific horse will react to each situation and aid. In this article I am going to break down for you how I approach Read more
I was having a conversation the other day that led to us talking about trainer tune-ups and realized this was something I really needed to share with everyone. So first off, what do I mean when I say “trainer tune-up”? I’m talking about the traditional show ring training program where Read more
A problem horse is generally defined as any horse that is difficult or dangerous to work with. More commonly any horse that doesn’t comply is labeled a problem horse. While this is a convenient way to lump a wide variety of horses together it doesn’t say anything about what is Read more
In part 3 of our 3 part series on conditioning we take an in-depth look at high speed conditioning. If you missed the previous two parts to this series go ahead check out our articles on Long Distance Conditioning and Interval Training. What is High Speed Conditioning? High speed conditioning Read more