All of you who responded had such great answers in how to train Brownie the Virtual horse that is so resistant. My blog is attracting kind, knowledgeable and effective horse people that appear to enjoy training for training sake alone.

Most all of you felt that Brownie was no challenge. If you are new to horses, I am sure you will have learned a lot from all these great responses. I want you to look at these solutions as a way to grow your understanding of horses and try out the solutions you would feel you could do on a horse like Brownie. From your success and failures, you will learn easily. Trial and error has always created great horse trainers. People who are not interested in training, and just want their horse to do what they ask him to do, will most likely get frustrated and will often approach the training of a resistant horse with resistance, aggression and asking too much, creating the horse to get worse. What I want to show you here is a video of how badly horses can be approached when in a hurry and full of arrogance.

You might want to skip this … Read more

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Leading a Horse Properly is Important for Performance

It is surprising to me to see well trained dressage horses leading from place to place as badly as they do. Leading is such a valuable tool for the connection and relaxation you have with a horse when you ride, especially a dressage horse.  A horse can be well trained, but if the willingness and acceptance are not there the performance suffers and so does the horse.

When I had my training center in Sanoma California I found out how important it is to a horse’s performance under saddle to train a horse how to lead in hand properly.  My students had noticed that when I had the horse truly trained to leading from the ground in all circumstances, it greatly improved the horse’s performance in competition.

I got so interested in the act of leading a horse as a valuable tool that I got people to form social groups to walk together in nature in order to help improve their connection and relationship with their horse.  This activity was an enjoyable activity for both the horse and the owner.

Walking in nature with friends creates a social activity that horses miss … Read more

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I have been having so much fun back at my ranch training horses with Kai. We have been training from the ground with tack for preparing a horse to be ridden bit-less. We are working with Honey and Maestro. I want to share with you these lessons.

If you are a new reader and have any questions let me know so you can better understand the lessons on bit-less riding. My method offers a unique approach with horses from the very beginning, working first at liberty in an open field or arena rather than a round pen.

The other unique thing about my method is that the rules I follow training horses are different. Most every method agrees to the same rules in how to approach a horse, but almost all the rules you will be following with my method are different. Here is one way in which they are different.

When a horse looses interest or you hit resistance rather than asking again and again until you get what you want, you change the subject to something that your horse would rather do. You never force your horse to give up his resistance or pay any attention to it.

… Read more

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If this is your first time reading my blog about training horses at liberty, I want to give you a very warm welcome. I want to fill you in on what today’s blog post is about. This blog post is a continuation that started two weeks ago. If you start at the beginning, you will know what I am referring to in today’s entry.

It is that time of year again and I am delighted to offer our special Valentine’s Day Coaching Call, Tuesday February 14th, 2012 where the topics will be:

“How to Make a True Heart Connection with Your Horse: Which comes first Respect or Love?
Discussion: What 10 things are on your Horse’s Bucket List?”

The format for our call will be a short introductory piece and some coaching from me followed by an open question and answer session. Please bring your HORSE’S BUCKET LIST as we’ll be sharing our lists with each other on the call. A Bucket List is a list of things your horse would like to do or things your horse would like to have – like my horse wants a never ending pail of grain – he would be very

… Read more

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The weekend is over and I had a new horse sighting that I am so excited to share with you! We have a new horse here on the ranch that is difficult to bridle. He is a dressage horse and will do most anything to get out of having to put a bridle on. He hates the bridle – but still every time he winds up losing and performing against his better judgment and wishes.

So Sad. It reminds me of when I was five years old and taking lessons in dance. My mother drove me 20 miles each way to where the dance studio was. My teacher was an old man that always spoke mean to me and hit me with his cane if I did not dance exactly how I was to perform. The ride to the studio was always miserable, and I dreaded going to what I knew would be an awful experience. The funny thing was, no one could tell that I was unhappy about the experience because I looked happy out on the dance floor. The knots in my stomach did not match the joy that I appeared to be experiencing.

I know this horse … Read more

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For people who are just coming to the site, this is a sample of a lesson that you will experience when you join the Insiders Circle and In-the-Box programs. I am sure you will see, from the comments that my students leave, the kinds of benefits you can enjoy through my programs. If you would like to ask any questions about the courses, please feel free to leave them in the comments section found at the bottom of this post.

There are two separate abilities that help you with horses: one is how to train a horse to do something and another is getting a horse to perform what he has been trained to do. Many people are good at one and not so good at the other. If a horse is trained well in the beginning, it is easier to get him to do what he has been trained to do than having to train the horse from the start. Becoming a horse trainer takes years of practice working around horses and getting guidance from others. I find that the greatest skill to have working with horses in regards to performance is keeping a horse at his best once … Read more

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It was so nice to be able to offer the free conference call on the U.E. Exercises and my free winter program. The U.E. exercises are a perfect thing to focus on for the winter month’s because it requires minimum activity and can be so easily adapted to doing several of the exercises from a stall or paddock.

It is so exciting to reach people from around the world and discover at last, people who are interested in bringing out the true nature of the horse and connecting with them through a personal bond, giving their horse freedom of choice, and a more than equal say in the partnership we share with them. It is also most important that the programs we offer to our horses and students are flexible enough to suit the conditions of the moment and the personalities and abilities of both the horse and their human. I feel I am doing something truly worth while and on the cutting edge for man’s humanitarian evolution.

These exercises were developed from my struggles to find a new way to bring clarity and understanding to the horse about the driving and rein aids given to them by children when they … Read more

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