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How-To Guides

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.

How-To Guides

The Unbalanced Horse

I currently have a few horses that are really learning to use themselves. They are all suffering from PSSM, which has certainly contributed to their fundamental lack of balance and awareness of where to put their feet. Since I am sure I am not alone in having horses like this Read more…

By Stephanie Walker, 5 days3 weeks ago
How-To Guides

Top 3 Exercises to Finding Connection in the Saddle

I’ve been doing a lot of theory blogs recently so I thought it might be fun to mix it up and do something a little bit more accessible that you can incorporate with your horse right away. When I was trying to come up with a topic I kept going Read more…

By Stephanie Walker, 2 weeks4 weeks ago
How-To Guides

The Energy Field

Every horse in every minute gives off a certain energy. In fact every creature does, we are just very bad at reading it. Most people can feel the energy shift when a horse tenses and bolts off or sighs and softens through their body after something stressful. But can you Read more…

By Stephanie Walker, 3 weeks1 month ago
How-To Guides

Correct Contact

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…

By Stephanie Walker, 5 months5 months ago
How-To Guides

Pain or Behavior? How to Differentiate

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…

By Stephanie Walker, 8 months8 months ago
How-To Guides

How To: Fit a Bridle

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…

By Stephanie Walker, 1 year6 months ago
How-To Guides

Lunging for Suppleness

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…

By Stephanie Walker, 2 years2 years ago
How-To Guides

How To: Calm an Anxious Horse while Leading

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…

By Stephanie Walker, 2 years ago
How-To Guides

5 Tips for Dealing with a Spook

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…

By Stephanie Walker, 2 years2 years ago
How-To Guides

Top Three Exercises for Bad Weather

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…

By Stephanie Walker, 2 years2 years ago

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