Tag Archives: herd dynamics

For the horse who has done everything

My gelding Khami inspired me to write this blog. But he’s not the only one: there are others I have worked with over the past years who are like him in one way or another.

Khami Endurance El Paso Continue reading For the horse who has done everything

May the herd be with you

In the pasture, the horses usually gallop off to one particular favorite place, up over the ridge to where some colts are stabled. Then I hike up there and my mare Zuzka rounds everyone up when I ask the horses to come back with me. This time, my gelding Khami took over, and he got everyone going.

IMG_2679  Continue reading May the herd be with you

Equine Liberty Training: A Year in Review

2014 saw the birth of the Independent Liberty Trainers Network (ILTN), a loose knit group of seven trainers from three different countries, who spearheaded a new paradigm for the horse.

Patches_portrait Continue reading Equine Liberty Training: A Year in Review

Do Horses Have Precognition?

I talk a lot about “being in the moment” with horses, but I have not said much about something I’ve been noticing with my own horses over the years – precognition.

jazzie_buddha Continue reading Do Horses Have Precognition?

10 New Year’s Horse-olutions for 2015

It’s 2015! I started to write a bunch of resolutions for working with horses – “horse-olutions” I call them, and then realized: I don’t like New Year’s resolutions!

Zuzka in the pasture Continue reading 10 New Year’s Horse-olutions for 2015

Great expectations for horses

We all want something from the horse. Otherwise most of us wouldn’t have one or work with one.

DSC_0293-2 Continue reading Great expectations for horses

The shaping of a liberty horse

Two days. Five horses. Nine people. Liberty Foundations.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjOx3KYPtNM&w=420&h=315]

Continue reading The shaping of a liberty horse

10 lessons in horse love

It’s debatable whether horses love people or not. But they definitely feel very big emotion for them and about them. It’s easy to be flattered when a horse pays special attention to you and depends upon just you – even more so than when your dog licks your face!

Noble McGinty
Noble McGinty

Continue reading 10 lessons in horse love

The “no change zone” for dealing with changes for horses

The changes in horse’s living conditions can sometimes make a sensitive horse upset. The things that are constant will comfort him, but the change in surroundings – sights, smells, sounds, can all make a difference to his well being. Until he gets used to it, it can be a time when new behavior emerges.

IMG_0694 Continue reading The “no change zone” for dealing with changes for horses

The healing herd

When the old horse was led out past the barn, the younger one lifted his head in curiosity and sniffed the air. Something was not right, or perhaps it was. The old horse had been wobbling, fragile, his skin becoming paper thin and hanging on his bony frame like ghostly fabric. His heart was missing beats, and there was not much natural timing left in him. He was not able to eat much, and so therefore the younger horse would eat all he left. The younger horse had watched and felt old horses become distant and other-worldly before they passed on.  He knew, the moment the old horse hit the ground, his heart suddenly stilled, that he was gone, and his pain was a thing of the recent past.

peckingorder Continue reading The healing herd