Janet Jones, PhD, Author at Horse Network

Belly Deep in Snow

Horses’ brains need some variety in their activities. Because of that, I bring trail horses in for arena work at times, send jumpers out to explore the neighborhood, and teach...

Ouch! Equine Injuries

Equine injuries, drats! True came to me in pasture turnout the other day with two bleeding wounds—a double puncture and scrape to the front of his knee and a scrape...

Mindset and Consequences

I love questions that get my mind whirling, and someone asked me a good one the other day: “How many repetitions are necessary for a horse to learn something?” Well,...

Adding to Simple Gymnastics

Our footing is fixed, and True’s ready to continue with jumping gymnastics of the kind I described a few weeks ago. These are best explained in Jimmy Wofford’s classic book,...

Grounded

True and I have been working on hopping a wide variety of low jumps from a canter and (independently) starting over easy one-stride gymnastics. I had hoped to tell you...

Keep It Simple

I don’t mean “keep it easy.” Easy and simple are two different things. Nowadays, it’s common to start young horses over fences by setting obstacles that are needlessly complicated instead...

Avoid Drills

True and I have been cantering low hops over the past few articles. Soon we’ll raise them and get to some two-foot obstacles—still quite low, but a little bit more...

Use Low Hops to Fix Basic Problems

True is getting more reliable by working at a trot and canter over low hops not much more than a foot high. I hope your horse is, too. Before we...

Raising Canter Poles and Finding a Distance

True and I have been cantering single and double ground poles lately, as described in the last couple articles. He is very good now at cantering a single pole, and...

Pole Patterns

To add interest and build confidence, I like to introduce young horses to ground pole patterns once they’re comfy trotting and cantering straight poles in a line. You can find...

Canter Poles

True is now comfortable and relaxed when trotting ground poles one at a time, in successions of four or six, flat or raised a few inches, and in various patterns....

Back to Jumping

Some of the early articles in this brain-based training column were devoted to teaching True to jump. I got away from that goal temporarily for many reasons. Most important, I...

Soothing Anxiety or Rewarding Relaxation?

Let’s chat about training by non-edible reward a little more. It’s more effective and longer lasting than most other forms of training, motivates the horse to perform, and enjoys scientific backing....

Encouraging Equine Motivation

I advocate training by non-edible reward as often as possible. It’s effective and long-lasting, and it encourages a horse’s motivation and builds his trust. But training by non-edible reward means...

The Deeper Lessons

In Horse Brain, Human Brain, and in all my columns and posts, I allude to layers of lessons for horses. Too often, we think of only the surface aspect of what...

Quoth the Raven: Arena Wildlife

We all have our quirks, right? One of mine is the belief that arenas are for horses and riders. Period. Well, all right, ground handlers or instructors are tolerated if they don’t...

Ghost Noises

“Ghost noises” is my term for sounds caused by agents that horses can’t see. For example, the other day someone was stacking pallets next to the outer walls of the...

Turnout Turmoil

Turnout is a risky proposition for performance horses: it’s great when everything goes well, but it can lead to serious injuries when there are problems. I insist on it for...

The Butter Canter

True is progressing nicely in many ways and is still sticky in others. I’ll write a full assessment for you soon, and we will go back to the topics of...

Indoor Arenas

So much of brain-based horsemanship depends on forming a bond of mutual trust between horse and rider. Every day, I am reminded that my methods of teaching a horse a...

Author Archives: Janet Jones, PhD