Yes late. Life has been busy.

Bracing creates more bracing. It doesn’t matter if you are on the ground or in the saddle. Every time you are tempted to brace against your horse, hang on the rein/rope, pull, stop and give instead. Give for one step. Then repeat your request. Stop after three attempts. Reset, re-evaluate. Do not continue the brace no matter what. If you continue to brace against your horse you only teach your horse to brace. Your horse can make no other choice but to brace against your braci

Yes late. I’ve had a full plate troubleshooting for clients. I have had several messages this week with people frustrated over their horse’s behavior. They want to tell me the laundry list of things the horse did wrong. Many times I start the conversation with, “if I could ask your horse, what would they tell me about you?” I might also ask for them to tell me something that was good. If you catch me when I’m tired and cranky, you might get this response: “well you escalated

Consistently showing up goes a long way with your horse.

We must remember the horse is our partner. We have conversations with partners. We do not compete or go to battle with them (at least we shouldn’t).

If you don’t feel safe in an environment or with a person, you can’t relax or focus on anything but trying to figure out how to make yourself safe. The same is true of your horse, only more so because they are a prey animal. If they don’t feel safe they can’t learn.

Horses have defensive behaviors when they feel threatened. So do humans. When we feel insecure, our behavior and communication change. When our horse is concerned and feeling defensive it doesn’t instill confidence or security in us. Without proper conditioning and training of our nervous system, we revert to defensive behaviors. Unfortunately, this makes our horses more insecure and defensive. The chain reaction starts and the wreck is inevitable.

You can't teach a horse to deal with pressure by avoiding pressure. Tip toeing around our tense horses to avoid adding more pressure only makes their tension and confusion worse. What they need from us is confidence, boundaries and clear communication.

Your horse should be able to handle time off without training falling apart. Taking a two week vacation should not make you lose ground with your horse. Breaks can even be beneficial.

I LOVE horses, just in case you hadn’t noticed 😉. That being said, sometimes loving them isn’t enough. While traveling and teaching I run into people who have found horses they love. However, they purchased a “deal”, got a free horse, or rescued a horse out of a poor situation. Often times these horses are a bit more than they bargained for.

If life is getting in the way and your riding is sporadic, walking is your friend. Focus on the details in your walk. Straightness and bend. Work on your three walks. Transitions will get your horse stronger. We need strength then mobility. Straight is strong. Crooked is crippled. Forward is your friend. Faster creates chaos.

If your horse has time off and it feels like starting over with training when you start back to work, something is wrong. Good education doesn’t disappear with time off. Fitness does. While it may take time to build up your horse’s fitness, they should not feel like they “forgot” what they knew.

If you are having a hard time string the trot, relax your ankles and lift your toes. Your ankles act as shock absorbers. When you are grabbing with your toes, your ankles are braced. Your seat will be braced. Your body will resist the movement instead of flowing with the movement.

Trainer’sTip

Part of our survival instinct is to remember negative events and work to avoid them. This makes us really good at recognizing all the things our horses do wrong. We like to remember those things and carry that baggage with us to every ride. We inadvertently set our horses up to fail because we unpack that bag and review all the negative evidence right before we get in the saddle.

Horses learn when they feel safe. Your horse won’t feel safe if they are receiving a lot of mixed signals from you. Some ways we create mixed signals for our horses:

It’s all connected. That bulging left you feel under saddle is also your horse sucking in behind you while you are leading them. It’s shrinking the circle lunging left track and dragging you out of the circle right track. Evading left getting in the trailer? Yep, same problem.

Simple things you can do with your horse that will have a positive impact on posture and relationship.

I had a really tough ride on a young horse yesterday. Nothing went correctly. She was emotional. My timing seemed off. I probably didn’t...

Why do you still take lessons? Don’t you know how to ride your horse yet?