Author Archives: Janet Jones, PhD

Be careful if you ever get into a “discussion” with other horse people about the shod foot/bare foot controversy. Perfect strangers have scolded me loudly and in public at horse...

Lateral work is helpful in strengthening and suppling the equine body, and in teaching the horse more advanced moves in performance. Most people start moving a horse’s shoulders and hips...

Last week, we talked about teaching a horse to trot with you in groundwork, with crisp forward movement when you request it. But he also needs to back up when...

Last week, I introduced the basics of teaching True to stand still and respect human spatial boundaries on a halter and lead. Once he understood those foundations, we moved on...

My Dutch Warmblood True came to me at age three with good halter and leading skills thanks to an excellent breeder, but I began groundwork with him on Day One....

Horses are playful animals, and my young warmblood True is no exception. He loves to play with his equine buddies in pasture, galloping around, kicking and bucking, chasing them up...

Grrr…. Need I say more than the title of this post? Spring is so lovely—temps warm up, pastures get green, months of dirt can be washed off—but oh, the wind....

My green warmblood True and I have started riding around a 275-acre ranch after our work in the arena is finished. It’s a nice way for him to cool out...

Uh-oh! Our boy True has discovered mares. Most of his buddies so far have been geldings. When the occasional mare walked past, he was curious and attentive. But only recently...

The human prefrontal cortex loves progress. Forward, forward, forward. Set the goal and move inexorably toward it. Sometimes you can’t go as far forward as you’d like in one leap,...

Young horses demand certain types of nutrition and veterinary care that are a little different from adult equine needs. My young Warmblood True has been very healthy. I attribute that...

Flying lead changes are on my short list for True at this point in his training. We’ve been doing a lot of simple changes, shortening the number of trot steps...

Aww, sometimes horses are so darn cute. I know that sounds anthropomorphic, but hear me out and judge for yourself: True’s been separated from his injured pasture mate for a...

True loves to share the arena with other horses: “Woo-hoo! Play time!” Mares are especially exciting because they’re rare where he lives… and, well, because they’re mares: “Hey, baby! Wanna...

Working with young horses means dealing with frequent shying. After two years of near-daily work under saddle, True is only now beginning to be more trustworthy in terms of shying,...

True and I don’t take much time off during the winter because doing so requires so much re-conditioning in spring. Time spent re-conditioning during the riding season is time stolen...

Ground manners in any horse are very important and often overlooked. Why? First, they transfer to mounted work. A horse who’s been taught to pay attention to you, follow your...

My green Warmblood True and I have been experiencing a lot of snow lately and don’t have an indoor. We manage to walk on long hilly driveways, practice lateral maneuvers...

It was snowing and blowing yesterday, so my young Warmblood True got the day off and I worked on a photo gift for my father. This required sorting through 170...

Sometimes the hardest part of horse training is training the human. This problem shows up in many ways—we humans often reward at the wrong moment, apply different cues at once,...