horse training

Tonka and I have a relationship based on two-way communication. We both have a say. I trust that when Tonka stops in an alert posture that there is something to suss out. I don’t take that stop as a disobedience. Rather, it’s the start of a discussion. For example, yesterday […]

He’d Rather Canter

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It might seem as if training a horse to jump is about teaching them to takeoff in the right place, at the right speed, and to go higher and higher. Those might be the details and the visible results, but training is actually about asking questions of your horse and […]

Upping the Questions

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Thinking that I’d put my white breeches away for good, I bought Tonka to be my trail horse. But it turned out that I missed the training and fine-tuned connection that I got through dressage. I knew that Tonka would benefit from the communication that we’d find through the training. […]

Training Hurdles From Dressage to Jumping

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It’s hot. Hot and humid. I wilt and get grumpy in this weather. How hot? Before I tell you, let me remind you that I live in Maine. We don’t develop a lot of heat tolerance here. It’s low 80s with 80% humidity. I know that for some of you […]

Gear for Riding In the Sun

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As part of Tonka’s search and rescue training (we’re members of this team), we have to get used to out of the ordinary situations. You can’t train for every scenario, but you can train for confidence around, over and through novel obstacles. Last week a few of us met to […]

Combining Curiosity and the Touch Cue

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I’ve spent the last six years doing lower level dressage with Tonka. He moves off of, and bends around, my leg aids. I close my fingers on the reins and he takes a steady, soft and pliable contact. As horse people say, I’ve installed the “buttons.” I’ve recently started taking […]

Too Willing?

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The girls at the barn have convinced me to “horse show” with them this summer. I have a lot of show experience but not in the hunter/jumper world. I’m used to dressage and ages ago I evented. The H/J shows have a different way of running things, from how classes […]

Training for Flower Box Jumps

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I’ve been exercising using videos. Some cardio. Some easy yoga. I’ve tried at least a dozen YouTube channels and have checked out many others. The instructors are super upbeat, but there’s something they all do that is insidiously counterproductive to their optimistic you can do it tone. If only these […]

Turning Don’t Into Do

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This is Tonka’s happy face when he heads to a jump. Up until now, Tonka and I have done dressage and trails. We’ve tried to keep all four hooves safely on the ground. That said, we’ve been doing ground pole exercises to strengthen his stifles, and he was so cheerful […]

How High, Tonka?

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