These articles explain various training principles employed here at Free Heart Stables as well as opinions on common techniques and approaches to horsemanship. Some articles provide advice on how to solve specific problems whereas other articles address the basic underlying principles of horse behavior and training. Check these articles out if you want to learn more about horsemanship or want to understand the “whys” behind our training methods.
Last weekend I went to a clinic with the ever-talented Terry Church. I’ve worked with her a lot over the years and always look forward to bringing her my greenest, most challenging horses to help sort out. This year I didn’t have a particularly challenging horse to bring, so I Read more
As some of you may know, I went to a clinic a few weeks ago with the wonderful and talented Amber Lydic. I learned so much from her in such a short time, but what has stuck with me the most is about my release. If you know me or Read more
I was feeling a little bit discouraged this week because I have a lot of events planned for the end of March and April and my horse has once again managed to hurt himself. I started to think that all of my plans were for naught because something always seems Read more
How has your observation been going over the last week? Have you been fighting the urge to get up and do something? Last week I told you to spend some time simply observing your horse at liberty without interacting with your horse or getting distracted. If you didn’t see that Read more
We have all heard that in order to become better horseman we need to ride more. In fact, I think it is just the opposite. I think if we spent less time riding or doing anything and more time just observing and being in the company of horses we would Read more
Today I caught myself feeling upset that I couldn’t do what I wanted to do with my horse. All I wanted to do was ride him, but he hasn’t been able to be ridden for a while for various reasons. It reminded me that I I’m getting far too caught Read more
All too often I see people locking their horses in stalls with blankets and boots and everything short of bubble wrap. They won’t turn their horse out with a buddy for fear of injury and avoid even individual turnout in the winter. These horses remain clean and free from injury, Read more
As a continuation of last week’s blog post I thought it would be great to talk about how our barn environment affects our ability to work with our horses in a useful way and what we need in a barn. If you didn’t see last week’s post you can read Read more
When I hear about a horse with behavioral or training issues the first thing I ask about is the horse’s environment. Although the behavior certainly requires some training to correct, the first step in any problem solving is to determine the cause. Nine times out of ten I find the 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