It’s not uncommon at open shows to see a red ribbon fastened on the tail of a horse. The message? Stay away.  I kick.

if your horse’s territorial nature has gone so far as to warrant a red ribbon it's time to go back and do some homework before going off property.  (More on that  next post!)

I know some people with red ribbon…

Bingo Does Not Want to do a Slow Walk

Wednesday was a wonderful day for riding, for early summer. Since I bought my Kerrits IceFil tights with the silicon full seat, I have stayed pretty cool, but on Wednesday my body said NO when I went to put on my grain leather half chaps, so I rode in my Moxie Air-Puff ventilated half chaps though they are a little bit…

The debate around legalizing marijuana continues. Some would say it’s condoning a vice. What about “condoning” cribbing? More and more researchers  are leaning toward it.

Dr. Daniel Mills, an equine behaviorist UK specializes in stereotypies. “ I’d generally say, unless the horse colics recurrently, that it’s better to allow him to crib then to prevent it…

My New Wellep Full Cheek Double Jointed Snaffle

A few weeks ago, on Ebay, I found this listing for an “extremely rare” Wellep Full Cheek Double Jointed Snaffle. Yes, this bit IS extremely rare, I have been haunting Ebay for seven years, frequently checking for any Wellep bits for sale, and this was the first time I had seen a double jointed Wellep bit for…

Avoid it  - If I’m going to stir up a storm, I need to be able to ride through whatever horse’s response so that he doesn’t find bucking rewarding. So I might come at a training problem in another way vs attacking head on.

Examples – small wins vs epic wins. 3 % improvement. Aim to never have to step back down the training staircase because you jumped…

I’ve been taking the youngest out for rides on Coyote in the mornings while the oldest is at school. I’m glad he’s liking horses, I thought he’d be tractors and nothing else. One morning I went ahead and turned Rusty out in the yard to graze while we rode. We left him behind for the first part of our ride, fortunately he can’t really come with out through the corn field. But when we got back into the yard he started following us. I decided to have some fun with it and see what he would…

Or playing with balls. But that seemed a little wrong.

A behaviour expressed in variety shapes and sizes:

• one buck or multiple.
• a sharp kick out with one or both legs,
• stationary, stalling, rocking, humping or while running.

A buck can also follow a flight incident like an exclamation mark on the tail end a spook.

Why does my horse buck?

Equitation scientists…

I Compared My Most Secure Full Seat Riding Pants

In last weeks blog I told all of you about my experiment in using both my Corrector saddle pad and my Kerrits IceFil tights, and how my Pegasus Butterfly jumping saddle stopped shifting so much to the side. On Sunday morning it was a bit cool and a wind was blowing, so I decided to wear my FITS Performax full seat deer skin breeches instead,…

 Dear fellow horse enthusiast,

           Do you feed your horse steamed hay? Have you ever wondered what the benefits could be? This survey is being distributed to people within the equine industry in Ontario to understand the prevalence of the practice of steaming/soaking hay within the province. We currently know that…

The wind was howling and the temp had gone from very comfortable all morning to nearly one hundred. It is still bone dry so the dust was kicking up everywhere.

We brought him in and saddled him, worked on a couple of little things that he has well down to get him paying attention and led him out to the pen we were using. No round penning or working him until he was paying attention (read dripping sweat and too tired to do anything) just a few cookies and simple cues and he was ready…

I was going to ride him, the weather was good, someone was home, the wind wasn’t howling and I had been working him regularly. The time was perfect.

I pulled him from their pen and he spooked his way through the gate. I saddled him and lead him to where I planned to ride him to start with some ground work. He took off running and bucking. Where was my horse? The one who responds willingly and happily, who doesn’t care about tarps and balls or anything else I could throw at…

My daughter chose a ball for us, pink and purple of course. We had been targeting a ball getting ready, now we had a ball specially for this, it had stopped snowing and I had a moment. He walked up to the ball and touched as soon as he got in the round pen. I clicked him but he didn’t want a treat, there was some grass. I guess that works. I left him to eat some grass so he wouldn’t be so desperate for it when we started working and got the rest of my stuff. When I came back we got down to…

Signs of Progress

This has been an amazing week for my riding.  I finally managed to stabilize my new saddle so it stays centered on the horses’ backs, and I stopped slipping and sliding around in my saddle.  The horses were happier, Debbie, my riding teacher was amazed, and if I were not exhausted I would feel like I was in my twenties again.

Two lessons ago, Debbie was please with a lot of my riding and Bingo’s responses, but she was NOT pleased that I could not keep myself…

Last time I thought about clicker training, it was all theoretical. I had done a little with a previous horse but that was short lived and I haven’t had an opportunity since then.

Now I am absorbed in the practice, the study and the art. Maybe not, but I am really fascinated. Every chance I have I watch videos and read up on it. Horse Tricks 101 and Hippologic…

When I go to buy a horse the first things I look at are head shape and placement of whorls.  In my experience with my own horses and way back when I was starting colts I have found that whorls and head shape are great indicators of personality. This isn’t completely hair brained. Various grates including Temple Grandon have studied it and apparently it holds true with dogs, cattle and even children. I’m going to have to look into that a little more.

Lets take a look at Rusty. The most…

I was whining to my mother about not having a horse to train. She had been looking at a nice little reining type quarter horse with a friend, why didn’t I get him she asked. I don’t want a quarter horse I whined.  You have Princess Onna, my daughters mare, why don’t you train on her? My mom is so patient and apparently I whine a lot because she just wasn’t what I wanted either she’s old and broke good enough. I wanted a nice young, unstarted, western bred Morgan. Not that I’m picky or…

I can still hear my early instructors barking at me. Like any novice, while I focused on keeping my horse going or identifying the right diagonal, my hands would elevate and bounce around. But the more I tried to force them down, the stiffer and more jarring they became. As a coach, I make it a goal to describe the importance of and specifically how to develop elastic…

Bingo Improves--Slowly

When I arrived at Debbie’s barn her daughter, Sam, was hosing down a TALL chestnut mare’s left hock.  Another mare had kicked her there during turnout, and it was swelling.  When Debbie’s granddaughter led Bingo to me, I had her tie him up several stalls down from the wash stalls because the mare was not happy at all about being hosed.  Then Sam had to get Debbie’s help because the mare refused, refused, and refused again to take her medicine.  So I had to start…

 I learned equitation fundamentals to the repetitive tune of  “head up, heels down!” trotting around and around  the riding school ring. I aquired the “whats” of riding in those early years, but didn’t get good answers to my “whys!”  It’s a shame – if I’d grasped the logic and the science behind the skills, and how I’d use them in the future, I’d have been…