When teaching a horse to be comfortable around their head, you need to remember two principles of natural horsemanship:

1) The reward is in the release: This means that when you are touching the horse, you

need to make sure you only stop touching when the horse is being

pleasant. If the horse were…

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We often can see rider's setting their horse's heads by pulling the reins back and forth and the horse ends up in a head set, without experiencing true collection.... so how can we get our horses to offer collection and a nice round head set?…

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Building Confidence with Free Jumping



Have you ever heard someone say “that was a long spot” or “you really chipped in there?”

Learning to jump takes patience and time, for both you and your horse. Allowing your horse the time to build confidence over fences will ensure he’ll trust you to jump any fence, from any distance, and most importantly, he’ll want to jump for you.



When your horse wants to jump for you,… Continue

Choosing a Horse to Suit You



There are three main criteria for judging the suitability of a horse for you: confidence, dominance, and sensitivity.



Confidence



Confidence can sometimes be described as bravery. It’s largely a product of environment, but horses are all born with different amounts of confidence. Some horses can build confidence more easily than others, and… Continue

Help Your Horse Jump



Jumping horses is an aspect of many equestrian disciplines and in many of these disciplines we often see a horse refusing, drifting, jumping crooked, taking a bad take off spot, or rushing the fence. Horses can make these mistakes when jumping for many reasons and the rider can be the cause of the mistake, more often than not. Riders can interfere in many ways with a horse’s jumping and it’s important that you have an… Continue

Refusing and Rushing Horses



Having a horse refuse a fence can be a frustrating and a scary experience. It happens to the best of us and usually our first reaction is to blame the horse. Take a step back and look at it from the horse’s perspective. Leave your crop back in the barn so you’re not tempted to use it—a refusal is usually a message from your horse that there is some reason they cannot jump. Recognize the communication and try to figure… Continue

Why Go Natural?

Have you ever watched the drama of horse-intimidators trying to load a horse onto a trailer? It’s unforgettable. Very often in the horse world you will see people cracking a whip at a horse or beating a crop against a horse’s shoulder. But you seldom notice the savvy of the horse handler who uses communication and leadership to complete the same tasks because their methods are done in a much calmer and more successful way.

When… Continue