The Horse PT

04/14/2026

Want to know how I teach horses to be ridden with clicker training? Watch this 🤗

04/07/2026

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“Just get on and ride” is not always the answer.

I’m going to say something that seems to offend people far more than it should…

Not every horse needs to be ridden. And more importantly, not every horse is ready to be ridden.

I’m seeing far too many situations where the answer is still “just get on and ride,” even when the horse is clearly lacking strength, unable to lift through the back, or showing behavioural signs that something isn’t right. Riding is being treated as the solution, when in many cases it simply isn’t.

If a horse cannot organise its body without a rider, what exactly do we think happens when we add weight on top? The compensation doesn’t disappear, it gets reinforced. The tension doesn’t resolve, it either gets masked or it escalates.

This is often where people start to notice problems under saddle. The canter feels difficult, the horse feels heavy, there’s resistance, or behaviour begins to show up more clearly. But these aren’t isolated issues. They’re signs that the horse doesn’t yet have the strength or coordination to carry what’s being asked of it.

Strength, coordination, and correct function have to come first. And yes, a huge amount of that can be developed from the ground. That doesn’t make it less valuable, and it certainly doesn’t make it wrong. In many cases, it’s the most appropriate place to start.

What I find frustrating is not that people choose to ride, but that others feel the need to question or criticise those who don’t. If someone chooses to take the time to build their horse properly, to listen, and to develop strength before adding load, why is that controversial?

You don’t need to justify groundwork. You don’t need to rush back into the saddle. And you certainly don’t need to follow advice that ignores what the horse in front of you is telling you.

Because at the end of the day, this isn’t about what we want to do. It’s about what the horse is actually capable of doing comfortably, correctly, and without compensation.

04/05/2026

Jackson is being essentially “restarted” under saddle with R+ after developing some dangerous (pain-related, but dangerous) habits from his past life.

His feet have been rehabbed back to barefoot, his body is stronger and more balanced, and we’ve been working on training the process of carrying a rider again.

He gets pretty nervous when the rider shifts their weight around much so up until this point I would ride as a quiet passenger and his owner would do the clicking and feeding from the ground.

But last week I was able to feed him from his back for the first time! He was cautious about it but we didn’t have any squirrely moments!

One big step closer to getting his momma safely back in the saddle 🤗

It is a long and winding road when we’re rehabbing horses physically and emotionally. I am so proud of the owners in my life who really take the time to solve the root of their horses’ problems. It’s not easy but it is so rewarding on the other side!!

04/04/2026

03/27/2026

Escape from the horrors of the world with us for a moment 🩵

Nothing better than baby horses to keep you present 🦄🦄

03/27/2026

Many people believe that horses who are over excited, pushy, intense, or even aggressive about food should not be trained with food. When actually, food can be the best solution! Usually these issues come about because the horse feels insecurity about their resources. So addressing this should be our top priority.

We can do this by first addressing their lifestyle. They should have 24/7 access to forage and never have to fight for resources. We can and should provide regular enrichment which provide a variety of foods as well, including the food we use in training. This takes the pressure off our training as being the "one and only" good thing in their life.

We want to ensure our horse feels comfortable when and where we train and they have already eatten and are nice and relaxed when we begin our training. Using protected contact can be a useful tool, we don't want to add punishment into the mix, which would add stress/anxiety. So, you can both feel more safe if you have some sort of barrier between you.

When you train use food that has longer chew time and is of lower value, something closer to their usual food, and have another source of free food available while you train. Chopped hay, hay pellets, soaked cubes all make good options depending on your horse. Feed large quantities of low value food, and work with a fairly high rate of reinforcement. This means you need to break your criteria down into small enough steps you can maintain a higher training speed.

Finally, when training always maintain clean food delivery practices- click when they do the correct behavior, then grab the food, keep your hand closed until you stretch your arm well away from your body to feed away from you, into their space. Train a few safe behaviors, particularly a safe default behavior for them to return to when they don't know what else to do. Standing Facing Forward works well for this (like a dog's sit/stay). As well as head down and back up or touching a target. So they have a safe and appropriate behavior to go to if they are confused or frustrated.

03/25/2026

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Training with brute force requires no real skill.

It requires no patience.

No emotional regulation.

No knowledge of behavior.

No correct understanding of operant conditioning.

All it requires is a willingness to disregard the impact of what you are doing.

I say this, as someone who was taught to train in a very forceful manner.

I did not have to be skilled. I just had to be enough of a bully.

It is much more difficult and requires a lot more skill to actually convinced a horse to want to do what you ask.

This is why so many people are terrified of training with more autonomy and consent.

Because in their current state, where they rely on immense force, they know that horses would not do what they ask if they were given the choice.

If their ability to force and apply as much coercion and punishment as needed was taken away, they cannot be successful.

Not without changing their behaviour and improving their knowledge.

And that would require work that many are not willing to do.

So instead, they refuse. They doubled down. They make excuses.

They mock and degrade the skill set of anyone who is not willing to resort to the same punitive and powerful practises as them.

Because they know their entire existence as a trainer is reliant on justifying excessive force.

That the very fabric of creating behavioural change in horses for them relies on making horses afraid of them.

Making horses afraid of what happens if they do not comply.

If that threat is taken away, they have nothing.

And the thought of that terrifies them.

So, of course they need to defend painful and coercive equipment.

Of course they need to defend hitting
horses.

Of course they need to defend making horses afraid of them in exchange for obedience.

Because without that, they are nothing.

Their “success” was achieved by force.

If they are held to the standard of valuing ethics and how they go about achieving their results, their entire program falls apart.

So, they cannot care about the impact of their methods on the horse.

If you give a man a weapon, and they threaten an unarmed person, they can probably sell anything.

But, that does not make them a salesman.

03/24/2026

Take a short ride with me and Luna 🦄

We are starting to focus in on refining our rein aids and adding leg aids for bend. Our steering initially came from large opening rein aids and I’m now working to make those smaller and more refined while starting to pair some leg pressure with the change in bend as she weaves around the cones (an exercise she knows fairly well now)

The leg aid doesn’t mean a whole lot to her yet, but it will soon! She is one smart cookie!

I can feel her getting so much stronger with this new work on changing bends and weaving cones. The first time I ever got on Luna I was afraid she might fall over when she reached around to take a treat from my hand...

She feels so much more stable and secure with everything we’re doing!

03/24/2026

Spend 6 minutes with me and Mickey and see how we transition from sending to cones to walking in-hand.

Mickey has some old hang ups from in-hand exercises that he didn’t quite enjoy doing before and even just adding a hand on the reins would get him feeling insecure.

By training it this way with R+ we can quickly work through those worries and build new positive associations around wearing the cavesson, receiving a feel through the reins, and having a person walking with him at his shoulder.

Over time we will rely more on the reins and verbal cues and less on my big “point” and the cones and this will turn into what looks more like traditional in-hand work, but all trained with R+ 🤗