There’s nothing better than a well-maintained horse pasture. But sometimes, despite your attentive maintenance, weeds can take hold and threaten to take over a paddock. If you’re battling weeds in your horse pasture, these tips can help you to get them back under control.

Identify

Before you set about removing or destroying weeds…

This month on Equine Business Coaching we are all about figuring out where, how and on what should we be investing our time on a day to day basis in order to see the best return on your most precious asset, time, in your business.

Streamlining your schedule is often one of the most difficult things we can tackle related to our productivity, however figuring out a workflow and routine that supports all the necessary ‘maintenance’ items in your business, while at the same…

Leg yielding is generally most riders first introduction to lateral movement; lateral meaning sideways.   This weeks audio horse riding lessons aim to not only explain leg yielding to you in easy to understand terms, but also to give you some nice exercises you can use while riding your horse to begin working his muscles and joints in a different, and beneficial way.

At the beginning of the podcast this week I mention that leg yielding and, quite frankly, riding…

If there’s one thing that every barn has plenty of, it’s baling twine. So what do you do with all of this leftover twine, aside from throwing it in the trash? Here are some creative ways to use old baling twine.

Braid a Grooming Wisp

Group a handful of baling twine together into a grooming…

We have discussed the Azteca before, I wrote a blog post on them a while back, and now I am writing again on the Azteca as I just love both variations. The Mexican Azteca is not as physically attractive as the American Azteca, or at least that's my opinion. 

First, lets give an overview of the Mexican Azteca: the Mexican Azteca is an extension of the Spanish horse, although a vast majority of…

FIDGETING AND HEAD TOSSER

You got a horse that is not comfortable, always fidgeting and tossing its head? Can't figure out why? Well, before you go through an endless series of bits, thinking it's the bit, get a thermal image of the poll, shoulder/neck and head. You'll know instantly if there is an inflamed area, where it is and possibly…

Many barns, especially large facilities, feature apartments that are either above the barn or located on the property. When planning your barn building project, whether or not to include an apartment is a choice that you will face. You will want to consider the following points when deciding whether to build an apartment with your …

Wednesday was a nice sunny day, and more importantly for a quiet ride on Tercel, there was no wind.  When I got to the stable Debbie asked if I wanted to ride her wild man, I shrugged and said “Sure!”  So she went out to get Tercel while I brushed off the saddle pad and girth.  Several minutes later she came in riding him bareback with the lead rope tied make reins with the tale of how Tercel had moved to the remotest part of the paddock when he saw her, instead of coming toward…

I finally found a couple of free evenings and finished a sword-holder and stirrup lance-bucket, so I can now strap my repro 1908 British Cavalry Sabre onto my repro 1912 UP saddle and re-introduced Oakley to the sport of tent-pegging.

Last time we did this was over 2 years ago, and he was... skittish. He got terribly upset at the sound of the sword drawn from the scabbard, he was nervous about the sight of a drawn sabre, tried to escape from the waving pennant on the lance, and did…

Remember the Stepford Wives–a little too submissive, a little too darkly docile? I saw horses just like them last week and I’m still in a snit. They were at a riding facility–a group lesson of fairly novice western riders. Each of the horses had a shank bit, each of the riders used spurs. The horses moved like the zombie-wives who had lost the will to live… altered into submission by their self-important husbands. If one of the horses did lift his head to see where he was going,…

As the cold weather drags on, it tends to feel like the end of winter is nowhere in sight. Luckily, we’ve come up with some fun activities for you to help beat the winter riding (or non-riding) blues.

Host a Barn Movie Night

Bring together students, boarders, trainers, and everyone else in your barn for a barn movie night. Choose a…

Providing your horse with access to fresh, clean water is important year-round, but keeping buckets and troughs clean in the winter can be a challenge. Rather than battling the algae that often grows in troughs and buckets during the summer, the winter brings cold temperatures that can make cleaning buckets and troughs difficult. These tips can help to make the process easier…

A Perfect Night

Like much of the country, we have been getting lousy weather.  What can we expect for winter in Cleveland?  Most days have been cold—very, very cold.  We have had plenty of nights on either side of zero—and that is…

Have you ever wanted to live with your horses? Or maybe you’re considering building an apartment above your barn for a caretaker, or to rent out. Living above a horse barn may seem simply idyllic to a lifelong horse enthusiast, but it’s not always all that it’s cracked up to be. Wondering what it’s really like to live above a horse barn? We’ve got the scoop for…

One of the things that a lot of Daily Strides listeners have in common is the fact that the time they have to devote to riding and improving their riding skills, is generally in short supply… And rides can become something that are squeezed in between the million other things we have going on in our lives.

In times like this, when we are riding, we are set out looking to achieve an active, working trot… But due to lots of different factors, this can end up just…

It was cold on Wednesday morning, so cold that Debbie called me up to make sure I was coming.  It was down to 25° F, and a light breeze was blowing.  I told her it would really help me to ride since I was not able to ride either Friday or Sunday and my walking was getting worse, but if it was too cold for her it was fine, I could ride on Friday.  She told me to come on out.

When I got out to the stable the ground was frozen hard.  I…

Final January Update on Ground Work

Alas, I have gotten lazy.  In the last week or so, I haven’t done much ground work.  After I ride for a while in the arena, I am taking him right outside to ride in the snow—and skipping the ground work.  The weather is going to get very cold, again, so…

Hi there,

I am writing the current issue of my newsletter. If you are interested you can sign up here.

It's free, no spam, and it comes twice a months (including a short article and some tips about what to read and what to watch).

Nadja