Responsible Horsemanship

04/05/2025

04/05/2025

Training tip Tuesday:

DO ALL THE MAINTENANCE.

It’s spring and our season is coming at us full steam ahead! As I head to a barrel racing slack this morning I wanted to touch on the things I do each and every year before I get going down the road!

1. Do the maintenance on your rig - check your lights your brakes, have your bearings packed. Check your tires for signs of dry rot or strange wear patterns. Check your trailer floor for signs of holes or wear and tear.

2. Have your horse seen by a qualified performance horse vet. Have a full lameness work up done. Get their teeth checked. Float and Inject if necessary.

3. Maintain yourself. Yes, you. Eat healthy, take time for the yoga class, ( wellness ) workout with your friends, or hire a trainer (megan walker) to become as strong as you can be. Your back and your horses with thank you!

03/17/2025

Unlike humans, horses don’t have collarbones. Their shoulders are held to the rest of their skeleton via a sling of muscles and ligaments instead, often referred to as the “thoracic sling.”

Why is this important? We often ask our equine athletes to perform complex movements that require tremendous strength and coordination, and horses carry the majority of their weight in their front end. Therefore, it is imperative that the bulk of the muscles that support the front end are kept healthy and conditioned, and the horse is trained to use their “motor” — that is, engaging the large hind end muscles as much as possible to avoid excessive weight bearing on the front end.

If the front end of the horse is consistently overweighted or not at an appropriate level of fitness, repetitive biomechanical stresses get transferred down the leg to the smaller ligaments and tendons that were not designed to bear this weight, which can then lead to injury.

Brought to you by the AAEP Horse Owner Education Committee.

03/16/2025

Well presented. Really like the term Following Hands

Horses can be trained to carry the bit comfortably in the correct location without the aid of a noseband by a rider with steady, light, Following Hands. This is simple to explain but challenging to reach the careful contact with the mouth that does not interfere with the horse's balance and movement as you follow the movement of their head with the reins.

To teach a horse correct bit placement a rider keeps the bit where it belongs with their use of the reins, seat and legs. When the horse stretches their head and neck forward, as shown in the two lower pictures, the rider follows that stretch motion with the reins. (lower right image is Rodney Jenkins)

If the horse brings the head backward and arches their neck to evade the bit, the rider uses their seat and legs to push the horse forward into a position where the head and neck are correctly balanced, and the bit is moved into the correct position. During this push forward from behind the bit, the rider follows the horse's head forward with their hands.

This training requires constant awareness of and feel for what the horse is doing with their forehand at all times. The rider must always be following the natural extension of the neck and head with their hands. We do this because horses use the head and neck as a primary means of maintaining their balance and we must not disturb their balancing process. We must follow it and adjust to it.

We learn Following Hands by first learning passive contact, pictured at the top, where you hold a set of reins while someone else holds the other end of the reins. You let your arms go limp while you hold onto the reins with your hands. The other person moves your hands and arms by moving the reins while you passively hold them. There is a video of this exercise on my YouTube channel

If we consistently and correctly use Following Hands when training a horse, eventually the horse will become acclimated to the correct bit position because we have made it the most comfortable position. We will have shown them, not forced them, how to discover the optimal bit placement with our light hands. And we have not tried to solve this challenge of correct bit location with an unnecessary piece of equipment like a noseband.

Check out my new YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/

03/12/2025

01/24/2025

01/11/2025

Here is your Monday Mindset:

Treat the horse like you want them to be: like they are inherently good and aim to please.

Because they are and they do.

If you treat them like they’re naughty, or sticky footed, or bad, or what have you, you’ll manifest that. And then you’ll put something into them that’s likely not there in the first place.

Do not treat your horse as if they’re out to get you, out to do things due to spite. They cannot think or reason in this way. When you do that — you bring a negative energy to the table that’s absolutely off-putting to the horse and anyone around you.

These are just my observations as someone who has been at building foundations in horses for almost 30 years.

Now, go smile, ride, rub your horses, and always reward the try.
❤️❤️❤️❤️

01/06/2025

12/02/2024

I hate this fad- and yes it is a fad.
For hundreds of years we put the billet points up over the scapula which meant the scapula could glide easily back-and-forth underneath the billet points.

 Now everyone tries to put the saddle behind the scapula, which means the scapula just runs into the saddle with every step.
Plus, this puts the saddle so far away from the wither that now it sits down hill and can easily slide left or right.
Your horse’s upper thoracic is much stronger than lower thoracic and lumbar. Keep your saddle up over the withers where we’ve put saddles for CENTURIES!!!!! 

It is impossible to put the saddle so far back that the shoulder doesn’t hit the tree points.
Have someone lift your horse’s front leg so the knee (carpus) is the height of the elbow, plus pulled forward, and THEN try to position the sadddle behind the scapula…. It will look absolutely ridiculous. 

04/29/2024

https://fb.watch/rLt_2tksDv/?mibextid=Nif5oz

03/22/2024

I really like the clear and simple presentation of this information. Excellent short read with great info.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=911932637389368&id=100057179210737&mibextid=Nif5oz

02/28/2024

Great info as we head into spring.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=894995959083036&id=100057179210737&mibextid=Nif5oz

01/21/2024

Butter's Thoughts

Time.....
Time is man's most valuable asset. All men neglect it; all regret the loss of it; nothing can be done without it.

Voltaire

01/07/2024

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=769377341895686&id=100064702805224&mibextid=Nif5oz

So often people will stand in the barn aisle and say how all their riding struggles are theirs- they know the problem is them as a rider and not the horse’s fault.
BUT  when they are in the saddle, they seem to totally forget what they just said in the barn aisle. 😭

When things go wrong in the arena, you can hear them say “she won’t bend!” or “he’s not taking my outside hand,” or “omg, get off my right leg!”

If you are stuck in your progress, or having fights with your horse, I’m going to take a wild guess that you are focused on what your HORSE is doing wrong instead of being focused on what YOU are doing wrong!!!

 Instead of saying “my horse won’t bend right!” you should be asking “which of my body parts is blocking my horse from bending to the right?” or, “what do I need to do in my body to help this horse bend right?”

If your horse won’t accept your outside rein one direction, go your good direction and analyze your own body to figure out what the difference is on the side that is working, because 90% chance that it’s YOUR one sidedness- not your horse’s- that is causing the issue! (I mean, it could always be something major like a broken off wolf tooth. If you think it is something physical with that horse, this is why it’s always good for us to ride multiple horses- if we have the same issues on every horse we ride we know it’s us. And if every rider has the same issue on that horse, then it likely it’s something up with the horse.)

Whatever it is that your horse “won’t do”, it’s probably you. Sorry, not sorry to be the bearer of good news, but it’s a lot easier to control and change your own shortcomings than it is to fix or control someone else’s. So be happy that you are the problem! It’s a lot easier and more pleasant to learn to step into your right stirrup than it is to get in a fight with your horse and wrench desperately on the right rein ride after ride, hoping for improvement!!!

Also, if your horse is always good during lessons, but you pick a fight when you ride by yourself, TAKE MORE LESSONS!!! Waaaay back a lifetime ago, when I was a heck of a lot less emotionally mature than I am now, I had a horse that I hated to ride if no one knowledgeable was around, because I would so easily pick a fight with her. If I had eyes on me, it kept me a lot more grounded and a lot more patient and that made me more likely to ask myself quality questions about my own riding instead of just blaming the horse and riding accordingly.

If you fight with your horse ever- that is a you problem!!!!! If your horse is heavy, that is a huge problem. I guarantee a Buck Branamann, or a Charlotte Dujardin would not have those same problems.  They might have to take a couple hours to work through the resistance that you already put in there, and that process might not be pretty, but within five rides, they are probably going to have a prettty willing horse!! So if every time you ride, things are getting worse and not better, yes, you are ruining your horse/ you are creating resistance/ you are wrecking that horse’s trust. FIX IT. And the only way to fix it is to fix yourself.

If things are really really bad, I suggest you take lessons on lesson horses and have someone ride your horse for a little while. It’s kind a like you and your spouse both going to your own therapist before you even attempt couples therapy- you both need to break out of your toxic cycle before you can create a new better dynamic.

But even if your problems are quite mild, you still need to ask yourself how to improve your performance by studying your own seat, and your own aids, and your own timing. The only way to influence the horse is through our own body.

So let’s say you are made aware that your horse is bending to the left in the base of his neck, but not at the poll joint. You might be able to dismount, and do some in hand work to make it easier to communicate what you want. But once you climb back on you now, have to ask yourself what it is that you can do in your own body to help your horse have more correct lateral flexion. Your focus always MUST come back to yourself. 

12/20/2023

https://fb.watch/p28yB5BDeM/?mibextid=Nif5oz