A Dressage Vote for Pilates

We hear this week from Katrin Kuenstler, a German rider living and teaching in Australia. She weighs in on Rider Fitness and Core Strength. Read more about it here. Kuenstler writes: I am a dressage rider, riding instructor and Pilates instructor and can only say […]

Amy Skinner moves to Bar T

For years, our readers have enjoyed the news and perspective from horsewoman Amy Skinner of Essence Horsemanship. Through dozens of guest columns, Skinner has conveyed wisdom and thoughtfulness that belie her age (she’s 27). Read her articles here. This year, Skinner took her talents and […]

Another Core Insight from Katrin Silva

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. Read her article on Contact here. Silva has competed successfully through fourth level […]

Core Strength Requires Understanding

Beth Watson is a physiotherapist living in Perth, Australia. Here, she lends yet another excellent point of view to our focus on Rider Fitness, especially core fitness. Clinician Wendy Murdoch suggested in a recent article that “core strength is counterproductive to good riding.” We disagree. […]

A Nod of Thanks and A Look to 2017

We want to take this moment to thank you, our readers, for another great year of support. Thank you! Thanks to you, we defined ourselves as a premier purveyor of top quality articles concerning horse science and good horsemanship. Our features reached readers of all […]

When Being Negative is a Good Thing

When it comes to working with horses, our very humanness can get us in trouble. Take our use of language: Do you consider “negative” to be bad and “positive” to be good? When working with horses, the opposite is often true. I’m talking about negative […]

Go for Mental, Not Mechanical Gear

Amy Skinner is a regular guest columnist and has been a horse gal since age six. She runs Essence Horsemanship, rides and teaches English and Western. Skinner has studied at the Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art in Spain, with Buck Brannaman, Leslie Desmond, Brent […]

Confidence in Evidence-Based Horsemanship Terms

How to build self-confidence in a horse? It’s a concept to be discussed at next month’s Evidence-Based Horsemanship Seminar, led by Martin Black and Dr. Steve Peters. Peters said giving horses repeated exposure to novel experiences is a great way to down-regulate their fear component […]

Don’t Touch My Horse!

Amy Skinner runs Essence Horsemanship and is a frequent guest columnist for our sister site, NickerNews. Read her columns here. Here, she writes about the need to understand horses’ sensitivity to touch: People who come to my barn are probably befuddled by my posted sign: […]

Another Call against Cross Ties

2018 Best Horse Practices Summit presenter Amy Skinner is a frequent guest columnist for Cayuse Communications. Read more of her columns here. Here, Skinner writes about the Cons of Cross Ties: I recently sold a horse and delivered him to his new barn. I relayed the […]