Channel Archives: Learn

Young horses are notorious for trotting clumsily into a canter. It’s hard for them to balance the weight of a rider and still get all those feet in the right...

The question of “social license”—acceptance or approval granted to a particular group from the community at large—is all over the equestrian sphere at the moment. When our sports involve another...

Baby season is upon us, so I thought a post about the mare-foal bond would be suitable. The first thing we need to understand about the relationship between a mare...

My discovery ride also flagged my three-year-old Warmblood True’s inconsistent trot pace. Fast, slow, medium, whoops way too fast, and so on. This is a very common problem in young...

Horses’ teeth have always confused me. There is no definitive tooth count, many of the teeth have strange names, some have no discernible purpose and one type is untrustworthy. So,...

We’re not talking about grooming a horse here. Or priming a young person to take over the family business. We’re talking about the other kind of grooming.  The predatory tactic...

Flies are more than a nuisance—these insects can transmit diseases, cause bacterial infections and trigger equine allergic dermatitis. They also leave behind parasitic larvae that can fester into painful, difficult-to-treat...

A couple months ago, I described my first discovery ride on my three-year-old Warmblood True. He had only just arrived and, in that ride, he displayed a few basic needs...

I work at an animal shelter a few days a week and the other day one of the cats came back from the vet after he’d been neutered. I’m aware...

On with the Discovery Test in the round pen from last week… My second round pen peeve is the whoa. Here, my three-year-old Warmblood True fails my test. Some youngsters...

I saw a mural the other day and I’m not going to lie it was a poor rendition of what I can only assume the artist thought was the essence...

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...