Lunging, lunging, lunging! It is spelled so many ways and has so many meanings for people.
I’ve watched people lunge horses with a purpose, others with a crazed look in their eye (the person, although the horse too…), even those who are completely bored and not really doing anything except holding the line as the horse [...]

Update 01.21.2010 — I was written requesting one of the images I displayed below be removed from being displayed on my blog, and have replaced it with a ‘censored’ image in it’s place. The link will direct you to the page where the photo I linked to can be viewed. Please note that I do [...]

What is it to be a real horseman? Can you be a horseman even if you’ve never before been involved with horses? Can you be involved with horses every day and still fail to be a horseman?

In a perfect world the horse is connected to us through the reins, meaning that the contact we’ve established on the reins serves as the ultimate communication tool. There is no tension, simply touch and with it the power to execute energy through the horse at a moments notice.

When we think of training a horse, it may or may not be apparent that without relaxation everything else is a compromise. The horse can never fully give himself to your requests if he is tense or nervous. And, interestingly enough, tension is often what many methods of horsemanship are built upon. Perhaps that is [...]

The hard-mouthed horse is a topic that is common, and very relevant, in training or retraining horses. It is something that has been claimed to be fixable through countless flexions of the neck and jaw, a change of bits, nosebands, and various techniques.

What is the importance of the seat, hands, legs in the aiding of the horse? I am often sent information (in the form of articles), read online discussions, have pilfered through countless books, listened to other clinicians, speakers, trainers, etc as they describe and indicate the use of the aids. If you are like me, [...]

I’ve posted quite a bit on the whole Rollkur issue… this post will not delve into it in just the same way, nor is it focused solely on the Rollkur / hyperflexion problem. To be entirely honest, Rollkur / hyperflexion isn’t even *the* issue, rather we’ve again missed the whole problem that is being superficially [...]

I propose that no horseman is perfect. Rather, the whole idea of exemplifying one individual over another is rather preposterous. Instead, are we at risk, with such a statement, of confusing a horseman’s skill at riding with his personality and social popularity?

Happy Monday! I hope your weekend was as beautiful as ours was here in southern Wisconsin. Sunny days and glorious temperatures…