"Visualizing lameness is an art," Dr. Larry Caudill tells me on a bitter winter morning at the Thoroughbred Training Center in Lexington, KY. Nearby, a cavalcade of hooves pepper the pavement...
With all the joint supplement options out there it’s difficult to make a choice. As a general guide, upper level athletes and horses working on hard ground or over difficult...
Say you’re a passenger in a car and that car gets into an accident. Maybe it slipped on black ice and collided with another vehicle. Or the driver fell asleep...
That’s right. As FEI/USEF dressage judge Janet Foy says in her book Dressage for the Not-So-Perfect Horse, “No one will die if you make a mistake. No one has had...
I’ve spent a lot of time around a lot of performance horses over the years. Many of them have been English sport horses—show hunters, show jumpers, and dressage horses—but barrel...
Visualization is a tool that is often recommended to riders in order to improve their performance. Let's make sure you're doing it correctly, shall we? 1. Focus on effectiveness by generating...
Most of us recognize that horses communicate with each other via body language, but did you know that you can learn his “words” and “phrases” and use them with horses...
In our recent post, "When Your Fear Is More Than a 'Confidence Issue'” Laura Strassman examines her personal struggle with fear and anxiety while riding and the strategies that she's found...
OK, I gotta tell you a story. It’s a story that people have forgotten. Long before there were dewormers, horses and internal parasites (worms) got along pretty well. Horses had...
When aren’t we seeking a breakthrough? That “aha!” moment when the lesson clicks and we and/or our horses not only get it but can do it (whatever “it” might be—square halt,...
It’s normal to get butterflies before a jump lesson, or feel tingly and nervous setting out on the cross country course. It’s even normal to be a bit anxious in...
Grass or Alfalfa? Timothy or Orchard? Grain hays? Is Bermuda safe? It might seem simple enough, but there is plenty of room for confusion in selecting a hay. Legume hays,...
Each year, the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale becomes the epicenter of the global thoroughbred industry. Pedigree analysts pore over thousands of pages as conformation experts dutifully examine every inch and...
Here is a common misconception about mistakes: they are nasty. Not true. What would you miss without them? How about learning, growth, and risk experience. If your mistake formula is mistakes...
It doesn't take an expert to know that horses are fragile creatures. No matter how much time you spend with them or how many preventative measures you take, horses can still...
Elisa Wallace knows a good horse when she sees one. Problem is, she's capable of bringing out the good in every horse she encounters. So it was no surprise to find Wallace...
We all blame “habits” for our behavior, both good and bad. And most of us understand that the more we do a certain behavior or think a particular thought, the...
Can changing the way you think change the way you ride? In a word, YES. When you train mentally, you are engaging the newest part of your brain, the frontal...
Anyone who has been fortunate enough to get a glimpse at the inner workings of Millar Brooke Farm knows that the devil is in the details. But here’s a little...
