Channel Archives: Learn

I usually start young horses with the round pen before transferring that knowledge to the longe line. Like the “Discovery Ride” described in an earlier post, my first round pen...

I know I keep banging on about horse-related expressions and words that have made their way into everyday language, but it fascinates me. I had a list of words I...

By now in this weekly column, you might think I never ride my young horse! I do, almost every day, but it is important in brain-based horsemanship to establish a...

Since horse racing has been around for hundreds of years it makes sense that many of the expressions we use in our day-to-day life stem from the racehorse world. I’ve...

Recognizing signs of stress in our horses is important for both their welfare and our safety. Unfortunately, this can be a tricky task, because their behavior doesn’t always match their...

At one time or another, most of us have had the experience of riding a horse that’s haunted daily by the corner of doom.  No matter how many times he...

How many of us have had the image of the Training Pyramid ground into memory? Whatever our sport, if we are any good at it and wish our horses to...

Young horses use their mouths a lot, and my three-year Warmblood True is no exception. As a baby, he wants to chew on his halter, his reins, his lead. Anybody’s...

Saturday, May 6, 2023, was a big TV day for horse lovers, royalists, race enthusiasts and eventers. With Badminton Horse Trials, the Kentucky Derby and a King being crowned, the...

Whether you ride for pleasure or performance, spring is an exciting time that offers a fresh new start. And we know your horse is like family, so as with any...

One of the many reasons to use brain-based training is that it builds trust within the horse-and-human team. Think about it in human terms—we trust those who understand how we...

“The lady doth protest too much methinks.” A life lesson from Hamlet that I realize has nothing whatsoever to do with horses. But it’s a brilliant way to ascertain if...

Question: What areas of horse behavior would you personally like to see studied to a greater extent and why? Renate Larssen: I am personally very excited about the prospect of...

Whew! There was a moment just before the release of Horse Brain, Human Brain when I thought my work on the book was done. Instead, it was released three weeks early during...

Never in a million years would I have thought I would voluntarily take on a Shakespeare quote to decode. Yet here I am, several decades from the perils of high school...

Listen to the rhythmic breathing of a horse at the canter or feel the heaving sides of a horse blowing after a heavy work out and you’ll have a sense...

Last week, I promised to explain the importance of canter balance in training young horses. Imagine throwing 10 to 15% of your body weight up on top of your shoulders....

This week I’ll do away with discussing my higgledy-piggledy process of how these posts are created and focus, instead, on this setoning business I discovered last week. The word seton...

One of the most important things that I have learned as a trainer and competitor is that success in the sport really comes down to strong flatwork.  As competitors, not...

Intrinsic motivation is an ongoing discussion within the horse training community, particularly among positive reinforcement-based trainers. The idea that horses can experience intrinsic motivations and flow states similar to humans...