Spring is the traditional time for young horses to get started under saddle, or mature horses to get a pre-season tune-up. Spring must be coming soon because my horse training roster is full and the waiting list is growing! With all the trainers out there, how do you know who is right for you and [...]

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Findings from Krasnyi Yar, the Kazakh site inhabited by the Botai culture, suggest that domestication of horses occurred 1000 years earlier than previously thought.  Traces of milk and meat in unglazed pottery and evidence of bit use on jawbones date back 5500 years ago. These new findings are cause for reexamining current theories on the [...]

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Breakthrough day for June!  This formerly stiff-as-a-board but quick-as-a-whip little mare learned to release to the pressure of the bit.  We’re not talking turn or tuck her head.  We are talking release negative tension throughout her entire body. This elementary lesson is June’s first step towards losgelassenheit. …Before you say “gesundheit” let’s pull our dictionary! [...]

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The Horse Whisperer. Both history and the pop culture notion of natural horsemanship paint an image of the silent, mystical horseman whose mere presence calms the wildest equine outlaw. By using skills invisible to the average human, the horse whisperer inspires the most savage horse to willingly submit and perform any feat. People attributed this [...]

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Natural horsemanship pops up in the most unexpected places! Mark and I stopped in at the National Conservation Center for their Autumn Conservation Festival. The Center is located almost next door to Mark’s house, which we’ve been prepping for sale throughout the summer. Throughout the early 1900′s, the Center acted as a bustling Cavalry Remount [...]

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I had the horse trailer hooked up and loaded by the time Mark got home from work. We grabbed the horses and a chilled bottle of Monavie and headed down the road to meet Scott and Noel at the Antietam battlefield for an afternoon trail ride. I brought Lucy. We believe so firmly in building [...]

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Today’s question is from Jeannie and Chris of Hedgesville, WV.  “If a horse isn’t a natural leader (on the trail), can you train him to be one?”

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A French study recently reported that use of food rewards in training horses leads to faster results and a better relationship with people.

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The first time I visited the Maker’s Mark Secretariat Center at the Kentucky Horse Park, one of the directors asked me, “who’s your guru?”

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Whitney, our natural barefoot trimmer, was out today. I always feel like a pioneer of old hosting a wayfarer on farrier days–what news do they bring from the far-reaching corners of the horse world that they frequent? Today’s news centered around feral horses and natural horse training methods.

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