How-To Guides are articles that explain how to perform simple exercises with your horses using step-by-step instructions. These guides will help you build a solid partnership with your horse drawing from a variety of Natural Horsemanship and Classical Dressage training techniques. They can be great resources to remind you of exercises you have forgotten as well as to expand your equestrian tool box.
You are always encouraged to seek professional help when in doubt. These guides are not a substitute to training and instruction from equine professionals.
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…
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 decided to write this quick guide because I have been severely disappointed in most people’s bridle adjustments. In particular, I don’t like where most riders position the bit in their horse’s mouth. When I get a new horse in training I almost always adjust the bridle before I even Read more…
First things first, let me clear up some terminology. I don’t tend to use the word “lunging” a whole lot because I feel it tends to draw up the image of sending your horse in endless circle after endless circle in the hopes of tiring him out. I hate to Read more…
I know a fair number of people that would rather be on a difficult horse than on the ground with the rationale that at least they can’t get run over or kicked when they are riding. I’m guessing most of my readers are of a different opinion. However, that still Read more…
We get it, all horses spook. Is there anything we can do to help our horses (and ourselves!) through a spook except just hanging on for dear life? To answer that question, yes! There are a ton of things that we can do to help prevent, or at least minimize, Read more…
Has the winter weather gotten you down? If you aren’t fortunate enough to have access to an indoor arena, winter can mean months of not riding or working with your horse. Today I have compiled a list of my top 3 exercises to do when the footing is not good Read more…
Recently I’ve been working with a few horses who have some rather serious issues. Most of these issues occur when the horses are stressed or put in unfamiliar situations. This has really gotten me thinking about the coping mechanisms horses develop and how we can help horses cope better. Horses Read more…
It seems there are as many philosophies on tying horses as there are horsemen. Opinions vary from those that think every horse needs to know how to tie to a solid post to those that never tie. I think there is a middle ground. Safety Concerns When Tying First off, Read more…
I’ve had several people ask me when they need to do groundwork before they ride and when they can just get on and I’ve found myself having a lot of difficulty answering this question. Although to most people’s eyes I often “just get on”, in my opinion that isn’t possible Read more…