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 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. 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 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 Read more
When we think of working a horse we automatically think of movement and physical exercise. Many equestrians lament not being able to work their horses in the winter do to weather. While not everyone has an indoor arena to ride Read more
It is pretty well accepted that equestrians should be the leaders in their relationships with horses. However, the term “leader” means a lot of different things to different people, making it easily misunderstood. As with governments, there are many different Read more
There seems to be this idea in the horse world that you are only training your horse when you are specifically working on something. Most people don’t consider their grooming and tacking up time to be part of their training. Read more
With Thanksgiving tomorrow I thought it would be an appropriate time to give thanks to all the horses who have helped shape my horsemanship and all of you who have allowed me to learn and grow with you and your Read more
There are two distinct schools of thought in determining the correct rein length. Some people will say you should ride with a short rein until your horse earns the right to have a long rein. Others will tell you to Read more
18 year old me with my horse looking at me and saying, “Really? I don’t believe you.” There is a certain school of thought in horse training that you should never hit, push, or otherwise use physical force on a Read more