Buying a horse is stressful. Here are some tips.

Buying horses is hard. We will talk about some steps to take to prepare yourself. This is part one.

In the wild a horse with live with a herd most of its life. While colts will get kicked out if their “family herd”, they will join a bachelor band or create a herd of their own.

After 60-90 minutes your horse likely is not learning much. No matter how good or bad your training session is going, you need to keep in mind how long you are asking your horse to focus.

A day late. Stop over preparing. I watch riders prepare for a transition and they expect the horse to hold that transition for multiple strides prior to asking the horse to transition. The horse becomes frustrated and stiff. The transition fails and the horse gets blamed. The horses do not need to hold a preparation for multiple strides just to prove to you they are prepared. We, as riders, need to stop asking our horses to prove themselves for “one more step” before we

Adding on to yesterday’s post about domestication being hard on horses and skills that they must learn to be safe in domestication.

Yes a day late.

Yes late

We can’t train pain. You have heard me say this before. Horses are designed to hide pain. By the time we see pain, the horse is pretty uncomfortable. Training is not pain free. There will be discomfort associated with fitness. Getting in shape creates soreness. This is not the pain I am referring to. The pain I am referring to is in regard to joints and supporting structures like tendons and ligaments.

Your horse doesn’t care who is in the White House. Enjoy them and keep working at being the best version of yourself for them!

To inject or not inject, that is the question. First, consult your veterinarian. The following is just my option based on my experience rehabbing horses.

I didn’t feel like running today. I did it anyway. It wasn’t a great run, but I showed up.

Hurry creates worry. Ever notice our horses become less cooperative when we are in a hurry? Getting on the trailer? Catching them? Dancing around to saddle or mount?

Rehabilitation is hard. It takes a lot of time and money to rehabilitate a horse. When I get horses in for rehab they can start to feel better with some work and treatments. Owners see the improvements and think the horse is better. They have improved. The horse does feel better. That makes the next conversation hard. Many times even though the horse is improving there is still something underlying that needs to be addressed. I can see that while we have improved, there is st

Horses are not machines. I know that seems obvious. However, people expect them to operate like machines.

Horses are not our emotional support animals. We are emotional support humans for our horses. This is contrary to how many treat their horses. They want to use horses to unwind from their stresses. Rider’s want their horses to be steady in new and unfamiliar environments so the rider can relax.

If your sole goal with horses is winning a competition, might I suggest you take up another sport. The issue with equestrian disciplines, is that there are two beings working together to compete. However, only one of those beings has a say and gets to make the decisions. The horses do not get to decide if they feel like participating. The horse could care less about competition or winning. Winning is about you not about the horse. If you want to participate as an equest

You are your horse’s advocate. That does not mean you have the knowledge to make all the decisions you need to make. That means you are smart enough to surround yourself with people EDUCATED enough to help you advocate for your horse. When you have to make large decisions regarding your horse, RESUMES matter. Your cousin who had an uncle that had horses is not an advocate for you and your horse. They are emotional support for your, which is NECESSARY. Advocation has to

You would not put a new driver in a car that was only half way built. You would not put a new driver in a sports car. Those are recipes for a disaster.

A day late