Some horses are naturally braver than other, and some horses tend to be fairly skittish and flighty. Horses can become more confident when they are exposed to many different things – when they associate positive

experiences with the different objects/ environments.

Getting your horse to touch different objects is one way to build confidence. Provided the…

Let me explain what I mean about having natural leadership ability and the importance of this when working at liberty.…

Ive been thinking (you can smell the smoke from there can't you) that I need to focus on the things I can change and let go of the crap that I can't. (sounds AA-ish, I am actually 7 and a half years sober.)

I'm not even going to talk about the "crap" I cant change right now and focus on what I CAN change.

**I am tired and unhealthy. I am, what I have recently found out, a "bad" vegetarian. I have been this way for about 3 years. I cut out meat but havent added any vegetables.…

After a hectic week and a couple days of rain, Brody and I were both ready for some playtime. Wanting to make the most of it, I popped in my “Level 2 On Line” DVD for some inspiration and heard Pat Parelli talking about the importance of fun, for both human and horse. It’s like he’d read my mind—working on various exercises had begun to feel like……

So, we've been working with little Maggie on the longe line, with sliding side reins, then she moved on to long lining, which is tough and requires quite a bit of finesse. So, last night, I gave it a try. It's way harder than it looks, lemme tell ya! But, you can see immediately what you've messed up. And, conveniently, you tend to do the same things wrong on the ground that you do in the saddle. So, I get to see what the impact of what I do is, there's no cheating…

My darling Maggie has been in some intense training of late, with me riding on weekends and her getting training during the week. She's progressed to long lining and it's going quite well. So, then it's up to me to keep everything moving forward, but I hadn't had a lesson in weeks. Now that doesn't seem like a long time, but really, we're trying to move forward and I don't want to be hindering progress.

So, last night, I rode and had a lesson. I KNEW IT, I was NOT riding quite…

2. Protect Your Horse:

While protecting yourself and your space, you need to protect your horse. This means protecting your horse from any human, animal, or objects that could hurt him.

This responsibility starts as soon as you enter the paddock – you need to make sure that no other horse…

5 Easy Exercises to a Calm and Confident Jumping Horse

There are many reasons why horses might be rushing or refusing fences. To review the most common reasons for horses rushing and refusing fences please read my article 'Rushing and Refusing Fences' by…

Well, my trainer had her second ride on little Maggie yesterday. Maggie tried her patented move, 'The Maggie', a clever combination of buck, leap and rear. Now I've never really managed to enforce a consequence with that move, you know, laying in the dirt, with my ankle dislocated, bleeding, it wasn't something I was up to. Maggie found out about consequences!

And today was ride #3. Well well, someone's a very smart horse! She was very good, very gorgeous and very contrite. My…

Typical for southern Alberta, nothing is typical in weather. So, this weekend we had 25C and 22C or so. And after the crappy summer we had, I HAD to get outside with little Maggie.

Friday was work in the arena, 25 minutes because that's as long as I could be VERY specific and demanding with her about being forward and answering the aids promptly. She did well. This was my first ride after my trainer was on her Wednesday.

Saturday, pure decadence, I went and…

Ah my little Maggie, aka Muffin, aka Muffinator, aka Magnolia, aka Maggie Mae.

Wednesday I wasn't feeling well, so my intrepid trainer rode Maggie. This was her first schooling ride on her. So, what did we learn? Doesn't react properly to the whip (hind legs move, but she sucks behind the leg), doesn't bend in her body, doesn't really take contact on the right rein, probably because she doesn't really take contact on the left rein....

We've made progress getting…

I've been on vacation, and that was quite nice. After the long weekend I took my mare down to Lethbridge (plus 3 cats), to visit Mom and Dad and the other three horses. My big girl is great in the trailer, but every time I put her in, I worry. I suspect part of it is just me being a worrier, part of it is that I've had some tires blow with her in the trailer, and had to change them. Now that went well, and I have a full set of new tires on the trailer (please people, after 5 or 6 years, just…

Today was a beautiful day. I tried to work all my horses but only got a few done. Its all good though.

I did ground work with Fergie, (Painted Beauty), (my newest baby a 3 yo paint. The filly from my late paint mare, B (My Bayou Beauty). I got her completely green. So I am starting from scratch.)

I lunged Fergie in the arena with a western…