Just thinking through what it’s like to be a horse is bound to make us better riders and appreciate our equine partners!

“Consider, for example, a horse and rider preparing to jump a four-foot wall. Jumping serves the rider’s interests—recognition and a ribbon! The horse, however, takes a risk by jumping, and given a choice most…

Trying to Bring it All Together

The past few months have been a time of discovery for me, discovering just how badly my multiple handicaps affect my position, seat and aids when I ride horses. Between my Pegasus Butterfly saddle, the “rider's push-ups”, the Equicube getting my shoulders right, the Rainbow reins, and the old type Wellep snaffle bit, I discovered how abysmal my riding was and,…

Standard equipment in English disciplines. Training equipment in western.  While nosebands are designed to prevent bit evasion, in the horse business, we’re inclined to default into thinking “If a little is good, more is better! Are we masking bit evasion without asking WHY the horse might be resisting?

The International Society of Equitation Science…

Why attending the 

Painted Pony  - Creative Retreat is as good as a Vacation

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the fast pace of your life and endless to-do lists. Feel like you just NEEEED a break?

But with heavy schedules and commitments its hard to get away on a vacation, I hear you!  Whether it’s impossible to take time off work or the many responsibilities at home with a family, for many people…

Mara B have been out enjoying the neighborhood around the stable today!…

Have you ever been unsettled by your classmate’s handwringing before an exam? Or the patient before you holding their jaw as they emerge from the dentist’s room?

Its not that you sense or smell fear. You’re reading their body language….and catching it like an infection.

Riders often tell me that their horse senses they’re nervous. I ask them if they…

• hello from Helen and Mara B! We are out riding with snow still on the trail! Please enjoy our daily posts @maramomentshorsetime.com 

       Happy Trails …

I Try Out My “Old Type” Wellep Lever Cheek Snaffle

Lat Sunday was a good day. The weather was nice, Shannon's ring was dry, my grandson was visiting, and I got to try out my new bit on Cider! This bit, the “old” type Wellep Lever Cheek Snaffle has some differences from the “new” type Wellep Lever Cheek Snaffle that I had used a little bit several years ago. The cable that goes through the…

  As training went, March was pretty good.

  I got some stuff cleaned up around the arena that has been bugging me for a while. There is still a massive amount more to do, but almost all of the broken jump stands are now either repaired or removed, all of the broken poles have had the jagged parts cut off so they can be used as ground lines, or likewise trashed.

  The top bars on the jumps have been raised another hole, so that we are now jumping over obstacles about mid-thigh…

I will preface this story with the advisement I love Thoroughbreds and Thoroughbred Horse Racing. At the age of six I discovered the Kentucky Derby and the subsequent US Triple Crown Races, then the Canadian Queen’s Plate and our own Triple Crown series. This year will mark the 56th Derby I’ve watched. I will also express my undying gratitude to the CBC broadcasts of…