Training Theory: Relax

The “RELAX” portion of an exercise serves a very important purpose. A huge amount of training involves overcoming anxiety. Entering and exiting natural states of arousal is critical to building a horse’s ability to understand and tolerate unexpected events. Horses have a threshold (tolerance to stress) for anxiety-inducing events. They can sometimes build up anxiety… Read More Training Theory: Relax

Training Theory: Relationship

Like the proverbial Nuns in parochial schools of old (whose educational approach was based on intimidation, repetition, and rules), a trainer can demand a perfect performance from a horse. But as surely as form follows function, emancipated performance follows Relationship. The inspired performances of Frederic Pignon and Magali Delgado have started a Relationship movement. Relationship… Read More Training Theory: Relationship

Training Theory: Cold Blood vs Hot Blood Horses

What is the difference between a Cold Blood Horse and a Hot Blood horse? In my experience, horses can be loosely divided into three categories according to their temperaments. Generally speaking, the Coldblood Horses are the draft breeds. This includes such well-known breeds as the Percheron, Belgian, Clydesdale (right), Icelandic and Shires. They were developed… Read More Training Theory: Cold Blood vs Hot Blood Horses

Horse Basics: Pasture Etiquette

Horses are natural herd animals and very insecure, uncomfortable, even unhappy, when not in the presence of other horses. There are many communication signals used by horses to understand each other’s intentions. Understanding horse communication is important for horse training, as most techniques try to closely simulate a horse’s natural communication skills. Lead (dominant) Mare:… Read More Horse Basics: Pasture Etiquette