Joking aside, maintaining a good relationship with your farrier is crucial for your horse's well-being. It's a two-way street built on respect, consideration, and clear communication. Want to ensure your farrier enjoys working with you (and keeps coming back)? Then avoid these common etiquette blund...

The following are the “6 Rules of Horsemanship” I teach my students.  Incorporating these six deceptively simple rules in your everyday horsemanship will prove to maximize the time you spend with your horse, increase your rate of progression, and eliminate much of the frustration you may experience ...

Regardless of discipline, preferred breed, or level of training, some riders consistently improve themselves and their horses while others languish.  The degree of success can be measured by the habits the riders form; great horsemanship comes down to a series of great habits.  Amongst the riders th...

When seeking refinement and precision in our horsemanship, we desire a horse that is light and responsive to the leg aids.  It takes seemingly no effort to guide them, control their energy, or position their body.  However, we often see riders kicking and pushing their horses with their legs.  We of...

One of the primary goals of our horsemanship is to help our horse to develop in his strength, suppleness, and balance. In our endeavor to success with this goal, it is important that we keep his mechanics in mind.

When a horse is on a bend his inside hind leg is the driver of the body – it steps de...

Horsemanship is a Journey… and it’s a journey unlike any other.  It’s all about personal discovery, increased awareness, and self discipline.

When I say personal discovery, I’m talking about knowing what our limitations really are, instead of what we think they are.  Fear – or compliance – or lazin...

A topic that comes up frequently at clinics and during lessons is the rider’s aids.  How to ask for this movement or where to put the hands for this maneuver… it seems many riders get very stuck on how much to use which aid, where and when.  Without getting into specifics about each particular thing...

When it comes to riding and handling horses, safety comes third.

Yes, you read that right.  Safety third.  Surely some of you are shaking your heads at me for such a suggestion, but don’t misunderstand my intentions, please.  Safety is a pretty big priority – sorta like breathing and eating.  The t...

When we think of Dressage, we tend to think of riders in white breeches and top hats mounted atop leggy warmbloods performing high level maneuvers like canter pirouettes, tempi changes, piaffe, and passage.  Oh yeah…. and they’re riding in long-flapped black saddles that keep them held snug into the...

From what I see in barns and arenas all around the world, the reinback seems to be the most underutilized and improperly ridden gaits/movements that the horse has to offer. When developed “properly,” (meaning, with understanding from the horse and biomechanically true) both on the ground and under s...