Alas, My Hopes Were in Vain

This January I will have ridden only once, my lesson last week.

Last Sunday it was too cold and the ground was too frozen.

Debbie called me on Wednesday just as I was starting to get ready to ride. It had rained a lot the night…

At Least I Had a Lesson This Week

I only got to ride on Wednesday this week, at least I got a lesson in!

Cinnabar was my lesson horse again. It was so warm I did not have to use any of my butt blankets. I think I felt a lesser degree of the muscles in his butt moving smoothly because we did not have the BOT butt blanket on.…

When you really think about it, whipping an animal is cruel. Yet many horse riding methods and those which proclaim themselves to practice 'natural horsemanship' whip horses and use whips in all of their routines. It is surprising when we consider that horses are adored for their intelligence, memories, beauty and sensitivity. Why would anyone teach to whip and cause pain to such an extraordinary animal?

True Natural Horsemanship has done away with the whip and instruments of pain…

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

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…

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…

As a mother of three (and grandmother, too) I know how important it is to build strength and confidence in your children. When my kids grew up in Germany, there were no ipods or tablets, and 'playing' meant running outside and getting knocked around a bit.

Today, my kids are strong and confident adults, who learned to ride a bike, swim, climb a tree, build sand castles, balance on climbing beams, build wood huts on 'adventure playgrounds', spend a (scary) night sleeping in their tree…

"I want a pony for Christmas."  The phrase uttered by little girls everywhere and feared by parents across the world.  The "Christmas Pony" novelty has been mocked by TV and social media for years, but is it really as bad as the eBay commercial would have you believe?…

Do you plan to take your horse swimming this summer? Swimming with your horse is a fun summertime activity. These tips will help ensure that your experience is a success.

Make Sure Horses Are Allowed

When you’re planning your trip, check to make…

When things go wrong in our horse work, our horsemanship, our riding.....we begin to blame ourselves; but we also take it further.  Sometimes we can blame ourselves so much when things go wrong that we stop trying, we stop searching for an answer, we stop attempting to move forward and begin to move backwards.

This does not just affect our relationship with our horses, it starts to creep into other areas of our lives, how we see ourselves, our social interactions, our careers…