5 paths to building connection with horses
Category Archives: performance horses
Seven toning exercises for older horses
Last year, my older gelding Khami, at 24, was diagnosed with Cushings. This is common for older horses these days. But there are many things that can be done to maintain the health of an older horse so that his organs and other body parts function well, in spite of the aging process.
Who is the lead horse?
In Liberty Foundation Horsemanship, we talk a lot about “leadership,” which is also talked about in other forms of horsemanship. Basically, what that means is that a person must earn the “respect” of the horse, which begins with forming “trust,” or some sort of healthy “bond.”
10 tips for working with a fearful horse
Horses are fearful by nature; they are flight animals. How we address fear in the horse has to be a very fluid and dynamic thing because not all horses will respond to the same approach. A frightened horse is potentially dangerous because they are hard wired to flee or react suddenly when frightened.
Thinking as a herd
In the beginning there was the herd. The herd traveled as one; each member had its own thoughts but they thought as one being when deciding where to move, when to move, where to eat, to drink, what to do if a predator approached. Their days flowed together and were designed around the quest for food, shelter and space. They shared a language that consisted of body language, sounds, just thinking a desire.
For the love of ponies!
This past weekend I had the opportunity to work with some ponies, all with different personalities and levels of training. While they are really no different than horses, they are often treated differently and are in some cases so small that adults can’t get in the saddle, which may mean they might lack some basic training.
Diary of a liberty horse coach
Many people ask me how often I do liberty work with my horses, and do I do it before I ride, or after?
What we read into what horses tell us
Recently I have been concerned about how people and horses come together, and how we “read” what horses are telling us.
Straight from the heart…what do horses tell us?
Valentine’s Day is a great opportunity to talk about what we think of “love” between ourselves and our horses. We don’t really need studies to tell us what we feel about our horses and probably we have a good sense of how our horses feel about us. So much of what we feel would be considered “anecdotal evidence,” yet it is powerful and real. But there have been pilot studies done on the relationships between people and their horses, with some surprising, validating results.
Continue reading Straight from the heart…what do horses tell us?
10 tips to riding horseback for the rest of your life
(Okay, if you really want to, you can get off to sleep and for meals, if you think it’s necessary.) 
Continue reading 10 tips to riding horseback for the rest of your life