It was at the dark ages of VHS, long before the dawn of cyberspace, and I’d heard there was such a thing as a horse training DVD. A few barn friends and I watched one, and were horrified at the techniques and laughed at the backward sales pitch. But the only reason that was … Read more
If you have been reading along for the last 1300 or so weekly essays of mine, you know sometimes I get testy about words. I decry those insensitive people who “desensitize” horses. I have no respect for those who hijacked the word “respect” to justify disrespecting horses. Both of those word abductions have sent me … Read more
Want to know the smallest thing you could change in training for the biggest improvement? I usually say doing a logical, effective warm-up, but it’s more specific because that smallest thing happens before the warm-up, thru the warm-up, and until the halter comes off at the end. Have you ever noticed that the first of … Read more
Quality above quantity.
It’s an obstacle course, by golly. And there’s a pedestal, by golly. We both see it, but one of us acts like it’s a meteor from Krypton. The lead gets tight, the handler doesn’t notice because the world has fallen away. Now the handler is nothing but pedestal, pedestal, pedestal. Horse thought balloon: (what’s wrong. … Read more