Category Archives: Brain-Based Horsemanship

True and I have been cantering single and double ground poles lately, as described in the last couple articles. He is very good now at cantering a single pole, and...

To add interest and build confidence, I like to introduce young horses to ground pole patterns once they’re comfy trotting and cantering straight poles in a line. You can find...

True is now comfortable and relaxed when trotting ground poles one at a time, in successions of four or six, flat or raised a few inches, and in various patterns....

Some of the early articles in this brain-based training column were devoted to teaching True to jump. I got away from that goal temporarily for many reasons. Most important, I...

Let’s chat about training by non-edible reward a little more. It’s more effective and longer lasting than most other forms of training, motivates the horse to perform, and enjoys scientific backing....

I advocate training by non-edible reward as often as possible. It’s effective and long-lasting, and it encourages a horse’s motivation and builds his trust. But training by non-edible reward means...

In Horse Brain, Human Brain, and in all my columns and posts, I allude to layers of lessons for horses. Too often, we think of only the surface aspect of what...

We all have our quirks, right? One of mine is the belief that arenas are for horses and riders. Period. Well, all right, ground handlers or instructors are tolerated if they don’t...

“Ghost noises” is my term for sounds caused by agents that horses can’t see. For example, the other day someone was stacking pallets next to the outer walls of the...

Turnout is a risky proposition for performance horses: it’s great when everything goes well, but it can lead to serious injuries when there are problems. I insist on it for...

True is progressing nicely in many ways and is still sticky in others. I’ll write a full assessment for you soon, and we will go back to the topics of...

So much of brain-based horsemanship depends on forming a bond of mutual trust between horse and rider. Every day, I am reminded that my methods of teaching a horse a...

A friend and I were walking along the other day with our horses. I had just rinsed True with water and a jelly scrubber—I rarely use soap because it strips...

Mr. True North outdid himself this week! With a series of calm attentive rides, he finally mastered the art of distinguishing between aids for the leg yield and aids for...

True fell in love with the little bay mare in an adjacent turnout about six months ago. “Fell in love” is a human phrase, of course. True stood as near her...

British equestrian Charlotte Dujardin withdrew from the Paris Olympics on Tuesday when a video showed her abusing a horse. The discovery marks a moment of deep sadness for horse lovers...

My own horses watch closely when they see me riding a horse in training. One of my former horses ran the fenceline whinnying for an hour the first time he...

Brain-based horsemanship offers a thousand reasons to slow down with horses, to give them more time to assimilate new knowledge. But every now and then, my human prefrontal cortex tells...

A lot of people ask me what sort of fly mask True wears and whether I leave it on at night. The answers? None and no. But you might be...

Too often, we forget to consider the basic building blocks of a horse’s training. I’m not referring to signals for “whoa” and “go” or to direct reining left and right....