Disciplining your horse without agression

Discipline is to cause an unpleasant experience for the horse when he misbehaves, in an attempt to correct the behaviour. The horse must learn from the experience, or it is not discipline.
Shouting and hitting is the easiest and most recognised form of discipline by humans, however not by horses. Horses are very sensitive to the [...]

Separation Distress

Horses are a social species. When allowed to live as they would in the wild, they group themselves with other horses and they form herds. Like other prey animals, being part of a herd makes them feel safe. It improves their chances of survival. A horse’s natural desire to be with other horses is very [...]

Bombproofing your horse

Bombproofing is nothing more than giving your horse the opportunity to become comfortable with the objects, places and sensations involved in activities foreign to him.
Take a moment to picture this ideal experience with your horse: He responds to your leg cues energetically, yet calmly as you ride along on the road or bridlewayt. Just the [...]

Stable Vices

Horses are natural pasture animals. Their typical activities include grazing anywhere from 12-16 hours a day, walking, and playing with other horses. Problems can arise in horses that are confined to stalls for long periods of time without access to natural activity – these are called vices.
What constitutes a vice?
A vice is a bad habit [...]

Is your horse happy?

Although every horse owner knows when to contact the vet, farrier or dentist, most haven’t considered what to do when the problem isn’t physical.

As part of everyday horse care, it is routine to look after your horse’s health and ensure his feet, teeth and back are in the best condition possible. However, although it is [...]

Relaxation

Relaxation. It’s just one simple word, yet it holds the very secret to success for not only horse-handler relationships, but also life in general. Most people would agree with this sentiment on its surface, but fail to truly understand its importance when faced with hectic schedules or life’s annoyances. Let’s look at why it’s essential [...]

The ‘hot’ horse

Like it or not everything you do on your horse is either training him or untraining him!
Quiet, insensitive horses are generally very forgiving of rider error but sensitive horses are not. The training your horse received before you purchased him may have driven him crazy and made him what is commonly referred to as hot. [...]

Trust

Trust:
1) To place confidence in, rely
2) To commit to the care of another with assurance
The accomplishment of confidence is complete when two individuals develop confidence in each other in all circumstances. This state of existence is known as trust. Trust between you and your equine occurs when you believe that your animal is acting in [...]

Respect

Respect is earned in small measures, or lost in bulk. If you have no consideration for your equine, you will need to practice one of two extremes. Simply allow your animal to totally disregard your expectations, or always demand perfection. Either way, you will quickly teach your equine that you are not worthy of any [...]

Confidence

The opposite of confidence is insecurity. Insecurity is born out of a lack of positive experience in a given situation, combined with negative thought or imagery. It is easy enough to just say that one should simply get over it and replace the negative thoughts with positive. If we could only make that substitution and [...]