Channel Archives: Learn

I remember the first time I ever sat on a horse. I was completely terrified! But I was also completely in awe of these majestic, gentle creatures and begged my...

What if I told you that with patient, conscientious placement of your hands on specific areas of the horse's body, you can bring about profound change in his physical and...

Healthy weeds. It sounds like an oxymoron, but it doesn’t have to be. You see, we, humans are quick to label any undesirable-looking plant as a weed. But to a horse or...

How well do you handle the pressures of equestrian? Do emotions in your riding prevent you from achieving your goals? Do they prevent you from enjoying your experience in the...

Your immediate response would probably be, "Sure, why not?" That may well be true, but you might be surprised to find out that a true food allergy has never been formally...

What a difference a year can make. Back in April of 2015, Olympian Will Coleman finished 6th overall at the Rolex Kentucky CCI4* on his then 12-year-old Irish Sport Horse...

Sam Pegg is a Grand Prix rider. His brother, Michael, an FEI course designer. Together, with business partner Basheer Khan, they are Ten Sixty Stables, the training-showing-horse-dealing-course-designing-trillium-show-running operation from Uxbridge, Ontario...

Mark Rashid has made a name for himself by interweaving principles of the martial arts into his horse training and his teaching. A second-degree black belt in Yoshinkan aikido, he...

"I wish my horse could just tell me what the problem is!" Have you ever uttered this phrase? If so, you’re not alone. So many times, we wish our horses...

In 1996 I participated in a Natural Horsemanship clinic given by the late Tom Dorrance. Even though he was a cowboy, well over half of his students rode English. Tom...

When I was a kid, we used to call it “parade gait”…the bouncy jig our ponies performed when we all lined up in an open field before racing each other...

I HATE FLIES. We’ve all said this, right? And I’m sure our horses would shout it from the barn tops if they could. Try as we might, it just seems...

This article was supposed to be a new installment in my Liberty Training for Amateurs series, however, I've been consumed by a terrible tragedy. My father, avid equestrian James P....

Insulin resistance (IR), defined as a failure of insulin responsive cells to take up glucose under normal levels of circulating insulin, affects an estimated 12-15% of horses. IR is typically...

Of all the wonderful breeds on parade at this week's Equine Affaire in Ohio, few can draw a crowd like the Gypsy Vanner. Hailing from the British Isles and into...

There are a few things to consider before hopping on your horse without a saddle and bridle. First, your seat and leg should be proficient riding bareback to the point...

I’ve been asked a couple of times if I think that horses have emotions. People have wondered about animal emotions for a long time. For example, Charles Darwin compared facial...

What are you grateful for? That might seem like a strange question to ask a rider in a performance article, but it’s one well worth exploring. Research shows that the...

Rider and writer Melinda Folse is just like most of us: juggling work, family, and horses is standard procedure, and with all that she’s trying to balance in her life,...

I left the ring with a huge grin on my face and signaled my student with a thumbs up as we made eye contact. I knew she was nervous about...