If there is one piece of wisdom I would wish to impart to anyone who trains horses, it would be this: appreciate the small gifts. If your goal is to win prizes and make money, then that wisdom may not be for you; you have in mind gifts the horse cannot provide, save for the … More Small gifts
In riding, as in life, we require confidence in order to succeed. Most of us have encountered those horses that have helped us in that journey. Perhaps it was the horse who knew his job so well that you could leave him to it while you sorted out the mechanics of what you were doing. … More Coffee, Confidence Builder
“Good luck with keeping the place up and finding any time to do anything with your horses!” Those were the parting words of the previous tenant of the first little barn that we rented. We’d been boarding our horses at the same stable for ten years. When a little barn became available, and the boarding … More There Are ‘Those’ Days
“Then comes a revelation, finally feeling that a horse behaves gymnastically correctly, and the new convert displays a fervor the likeness of which has not been known since the conversion of Paul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus.” Charles De Kunffy, The Ethics and Passions of Dressage (pg. 36) Have you had that moment? … More “Then comes a revelation …”
Four weeks ago I had a fall. It was not from the back of a horse, as one might expect. No, it was one of those stupid falls, that in hindsight you know could so easily have been avoided (we always feel stupid in hindsight). At the time it seemed a simple fall, but the … More Four Weeks
Happiness in animals seems to be a popular topic at the moment. There was a recent publication of a study that concluded that snorting was a sign of “positive emotions in horses”, which was just one of the many studies cited in a recent article in Popular Science that asks “Can we really ever know … More What is happiness?
Horse Crazy Once Again 