Can anybody post some holiday themed or wintery pictures to share?  I love the snowy pictures.  I will post one myself very shortly. Snow is rare in my part of the united states and it makes for such beautiful pictures.

When I was about 6 years old, my cousin moved to Kentucky. She started riding by the time we went up to visit for the first time. I was 7 when I got to ride one of their horses, Freckles. I always liked horses, but riding Freckles made me love them. It made me feel so happy being up in that saddle. Feeling his every mood. Ever since that experience, I always wanted a horse. When I was.. eh, I'd say about 8, my cousin was in town and she made me a Barnmice account. I was so into it.…

You likely have a list of a few things you’d like to delete from your horse’s repertoire. From rooting the reins out of your hands to biting at the lead shank to slipping a trot step into a flying change.

“In almost all training, situations, the most effective way to “delete” behaviours is to prevent them from being expressed.” Dr Andrew Mclean,…

I approached Friday’s ride with eagerness because I had not been able to ride Mia the previous two weeks.  Normally I LOVE riding Mia, but ever since Quizzy entered the picture a month ago Mia has not been the same horse.  Debbie had Quizzy checked over by the vet, including palpating the ovaries, and the vet found nothing wrong with Quizzy and she told Debbie just to feed Quizzy more Regumate to try and cycle her out of her hormone driven manias.  Apparently the previous…

Hey bloggers,

Hope everyone is getting ready for the holiday season since Christmas is exactly one month away! This week's blog is going to be based on one way of getting into the Christmas spirit, which is making your own homemade Christmas cards featuring you and your horse(s). Christmas cards are a great way to show your love, and to show your family and friends that you are thinking of them during the holiday season. It is also special to send homemade Christmas cards because they…

Do you think horses are healers? Have you experienced their intuitive sensitivity? If you are inspired by the unique and amazing ability of horses to teach and heal humans; if you would be honored and happy to witness horses facilitating a person's insight and immediate learning - I need you to assist me for short periods of time.

I am a Life Coach and a Reiki Master and offer individuals and small groups mind-body coaching, creative…

The holiday season is upon us. From Thanksgiving till the end of the year, we’re encouraged to celebrate the family, seen through Norman Rockwell eyes. Lots of us fit that mold. Our families come together, smile into the camera, and stay up late laughing.  Generations of women gather in kitchens and cook massive meals to the praise of the men folk.

But some of us didn’t come from warm families. Some of us had parents who didn’t really want kids after all. Some of us have lost loved…

You can take the title of this blog as meaning either or both of two things:  horses that are moving (in which case the word “moving” is an adjective), or the things a person does to move a horse (in which case the word “moving” is a gerund).  The two things are related, which will turn out to be the theme of this blog.

This entry is the joint product of two people:  myself as the anatomist and biomechanics scientist, and my business partner Jo Belasco as professional trainer. Jo and…

Sometimes the best way to understand how your horse moves is to mindfully experience how your own body moves.  This is called experiential learning.  When I used to teach comparative anatomy and functional anatomy in the university, I always told my students that the number one tool we all have to understand how animals move is our own bodies.  See if you don’t discover something really cool about horse…

Hey bloggers,

Hope everyone is starting to get into the Christmas spirit, especially now with the Santa Claus Parade taking way in downtown Toronto. This week's blog is going to be featuring recipes for spoiling your horses with homemade treats this holiday season. Baking is one of the most fun traditional aspects of getting into the Christmas spirit, so why not bake some treats for your equine buddies. Some common ingredients you will need are: oats, molasses, flour, any type of…

Last month we talked about the

questions that I ask every owner of a new horse coming into my barn.

Young or old, trained or untrained, it's essential to know as much about a new horse as possible.

Wednesday was nice, sunny, windy, and cold.  Mick had been out for an hour before being brought back in and even though he wears a warm blanket he was obviously stiff.  I massaged his loins with my roller ball hand massager, he enjoyed it but he was as stiff as always as we headed toward the ring.  When I mounted and we started walking his back did not “swing” and he was not too happy about having to move.

After a minute or two of just walking around I got to work on loosening…

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I think we should nix all the others and celebrate Thanksgiving every month. I am fine with changing the meal sometimes, as long as the tradition of eating too much, sleeping, and saying thank you is still the order of the day. Got to love a holiday with such low expectations.

And I have so much to be grateful for. Today, as I took a deep breath, quieting outside distractions… I heard a still, small voice from very deep inside of me say, “I hate…

In a very interesting conversation with a trainer whose observations are consistently brilliant, I realized that it’s hard for riders to see the similarities between human and horse gaits.  This is because the vertical position of a human’s torso, due to our being bipedal, changes the orientation of the arms or forelimbs, thereby obscuring their motion.  So I thought it might be useful and interesting to compare the motions of humans and horses, anatomically.…

It seems like such a straight-forward title, “Understanding the Horse.”  Yet if it was easy to do, we wouldn’t have a book, video, clinic, and training industry that’s worth billions of dollars annually.

Two aspects of understanding the horse are represented by the seminars I offer:  how horses stand and move, and how horses relate to humans through story. …

Horse psychology insights: for a winning edge in the show ring and in life!

"The meeting of preparation with opportunity…

So, after a month of careful desensitizing, he's getting really good at not flinching when something strange comes along, at standing near the scary blue plastic wall (from a Fisher-Price child's toy) that is used as a 'wing' for a jump, even at ignoring tarps that he used to panic about. I noticed that he was much more willing to go over jumps and trot poles and around strange objects. I thought he was just about ready to ride in a parade...…

Forty seven years ago when I first read Vladimir Littauer’s “Common Sense Horsemanship” I was first introduced to the mysteries of effective contact.  All of my previous riding, four years of trail riding in Chile and Uruguay, had been done on loose reins, and contact was a deep, deep mystery to me.  I tried to learn all I could from books since I could not ride much until I got my first horse 5 years later.  Then, since I could not afford good lessons, it was me and my…

Hey bloggers,

This week's Baker's blog is going to be based on the recent helmet rule that has been put into place. Starting at the beginning of this year, it became mandatory to wear an approved helmet in the dressage ring. Traditionally in eventing, a hunt cap or a top hat was worn during the dressage phase symbolizing etiquette and a rider's experience level. Although tradition is a major aspect of the sport of 3 Day Eventing, safety is the number one most important thing. With…

So, my sweet Maggie Mae met her end on Monday.  It was not exactly how I thought the day would go.  A routine vet appointment to find out why she was lame ended up with a complete break of the proximal third of her cannon.  It's not often, I think, that one finds comfort in the vet report to the insurance company, but knowing that the vet heard the break and saw it from his spot on the outside of the longe circle, when I didn't, lets me know that even if she'd stopped immediately, the…