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…

Do You Know What’s Hiding in Your Equine Grooming Products?

April 5th, 2010 | Author:…

I was trail riding over the weekend, and my horse took a dislike to the horse behind him. I saw the symptoms (making faces) and tried to get his attention on me, but he would have none of it! That awful equine behind him clearly needed to be taught a lesson (he must have been several feet back). So my horse (an appaloosa) RAN backwards!…

I have been asked now several times to address the subject of fitting western saddles. As you may know, my specialty is English saddles – and mainly dressage – but for what it’s worth, here are my thoughts on western saddles.

 …

i have been so lucky with my little hano/tb. she is 4 yrs 3 mo now, and has been such a pleasant horse to start. we can go to shows-have been to 5 different facilities-including one that was many hours away. we can also go to the forest for hacks with her mum or on her own, or even... with others-not such a good idea. i mean someone saying that they tend to let their app choose it's own pace, should have warned me- and cantering down a hill is not a good idea. lovely delph though, just kind…

Today I would like to talk to you a little about mares, geldings and stallions and how they respond differently when communicating with us.



Mares can be moody. In these periods I find that if I take the time to connect with them slowly in the beginning before riding or training on the days they are moody, they will come around and forget…

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?…

The Running Horse

A Bi-monthly Newsletter from Horse Play

Issue May - June 2010

Horse Play

EIN: 05-0506340

Website: www.hptrc.org

Email: horseplayri@msn.com

Message from Aidan – the…

This Week in Horse History - April 26th Through May 2nd

April 29, 2003 – Barbaro, the famous Thoroughbred racehorse, was born at Springmint Farm in Nicholasville, Kentucky. His sire was Dynaformer and his dam was La Ville Rouge. He was owned by Roy and Gretchen Jackson. Barbaro was foaled and raised by Bill Sanborn. In 2006 Barbaro would go on to win the Kentucky Derby before breaking his leg in…

Last week, with visions of rowel spurs in my head, I went to my "local" tack shop--a 60 mile round trip, and discovered they did not have what I was looking for. There was ONE set of smooth rowel spurs, with the extra long neck, made of zinc of all things but only $10 US so I got them anyway for future experiments if needed. I also found this weird looking set of slip-on spurs, with the "spur" interface being a series of rounded metal curves. This set looked…

I would like to start off by saying that I am not a "DQ" (completely)....I am though very strict on my training and horse management as thats how I was trained by some of the best in the World. Coming from a family of Dressage riders and competitors, I am really amazed at how the Dressage community in my area demonstrates 1.sportsmanship 2. horse care 3. training 4. barn…

Less distractions are better if you can help. If your horse is not listening on the ground first, you may have a problem once you get on. If you are not in the saddle yet, work with your horse on a shorter lead, keep the horse closer to you and try to keep their head towards you or looking where they are going.

Keep sessions short. When asking for something new, and you succeed, make sure you repeat it again before stopping.

Start your next sesssion with what they…