Mule Notes: Backwards is Forwards

Faithful readers might have wondered about Jolene. The beloved mule, who I’ve come off several times, has gone back to basics with me. Since an incident that traumatized both of us, I’ve only ridden her a few times. Instead, we’ve done a lot of ground […]

What is a Good Seat? Katrin Silva explains

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 […]

The Brain’s “Low Road” and “High Road”

Mechanics know that one big problem – smoke under the hood – is often caused by tiny, less visible issues. To solve the big problem, you need to understand finer points and foundational concepts. The more you know, the more effective you can be in […]

Understanding “Deep Practice”

In The Talent Code, Daniel Coyle discusses the merits of soccer hotbeds in Brazil and training methods of famous pianists. So, what does all that have to do with horsemanship? Everything. As Coyle explains, it all comes down to one microscopic detail, shared by horses […]

Another Core Insight from Katrin Silva

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. […]

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 […]

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: […]

To Master Horsemanship, Stay in the Flow

Thanks to Shelley Appleton for this guest blog post. Appleton is a lecturer at the School of Pharmacy at Curtin University in Bentley, Australia, a dressage rider, and horse training coach. Read her article on Emotion and Intellect in horsemanship. Read her article on successful […]