Looking for the SUMMIT?

Register for the Best Horse Practices Summit, a conference on best horse practices and equine research, bringing together educators, researchers, horse owners, as well as working, professional, and recreational riders, for presentations on best practices related to care, handling, management, training, and riding. Register today! […]

The True Cost of a 30-day Start

Editor’s Note: Amy Skinner is a regular guest columnist and has been a horse gal since age six. She will present with fellow trainer and rider, Katrin Silva, at the Best Horse Practices Summit. Skinner rides and teaches dressage and Western. Skinner has studied at […]

How to be a Good Student

Mud Management

This week, we hear from 2019 Best Horse Practices Summit presenter Alayne Blickle. Alayne travels internationally to promote her work around Clean Water for Horses. At the Summit, she will present on an array of concerns surrounding horse property management. Here, she writes on dealing […]

Cribbing: What’s Good to Know

What is a smile or a handshake? The answer is like a Matryoshka doll with another doll inside it and then another doll inside that one. Sure, they’re gestures of welcome. But neurologically speaking, they are the manifestations of a bundle of voluntary and involuntary […]

Katrin Silva: Friend or Means to an End?

Editor’s Note: 2018 Best Horse Practices Summit presenter Katrin Silva grew up riding dressage in Germany before moving to the United States at age 19 to learn to ride Western. She’s been riding both disciplines for the last twenty years and is a regular guest columnist […]

Clicker Training: Thumbs Up or Down?

Editor’s Note: In conversations, interviews, and observations of scores of horsemen, I’ve come to understand that ‘pressure and release’ or negative reinforcement, is an extremely effective method for working with horses. Since horses use negative reinforcement on each other, it’s easy to understand. Understand more […]

Emergency Homework for Horse Owners

Dr. Rebecca Gimenez Husted was a popular presenter at the 2018 Best Horse Practices Summit. She provided some horse-owning particulars for preparedness here. For more information, visit her organization TLAER or Facebook page. We have a great library of Emergency topics here. Husted writes: Ready […]

Quick Emergency Rescue Tips

Dr. Rebecca Gimenez-Husted was enthusiastically received at the Best Horse Practices Summit, held earlier this month in Durango, Colorado. She is the president of Technical Large Animal Emergency Rescue. After the conference, she wrote: It has been a week since we were synthesizing together – […]

Can We Talk? Western & Dressage Chats