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Food for Thought: A Scientific Argument Against Using Treats in Horse Training
Sugar cubes. Peppermints. Carrots. Carefully sliced pieces of apple. “Cookies.” Admit it: We all have one. A favorite treat. When your horse comes trotting up in the pasture, it feels good, right? When he turns and looks over his shoulder after a square halt, your heart melts a little. When he walks, trots, and stays […]
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Quick Quiz: Which Horse Is Bending Correctly?
Look at this image. Can you spot the differences between the horse on the left and the horse on the right? Which one is a horse that is bending correctly? If you guessed the horse on the right is bending correctly, you were right! The horse on the left shows how in an incorrectly […]
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4 Years After a Book Exposed Harmful Effects of Tight Nosebands, the World Finally Wakes Up
“Researchers studying the physiological impact of nosebands on horses competing in international equestrian competitions including the Olympics are calling for new regulations to reduce potential pain and distress from the equipment,” Nicola Davis reported in The Guardian on May 3, 2016. “The scientists found that horses’ heart rates were raised and they struggled to chew […]
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Dr. Gerd Heuschmann, Author of the Bestselling TUG OF WAR and the All-New BALANCING ACT Featured in TheHorse.com Article about Rollkur
“In the mid-2000s the German veterinarian Dr. Gerd Heuschmann, working with German Olympic dressage champion Klaus Balkenhol, created headlines when they publicized the findings of Heuschmann’s anatomical and biomechanical studies of hyperflexion,” writes Jennifer Bryant in “Rollkur: Dressage’s Dirty Word,” a recent article on TheHorse.com. “Heuschmann said that hyperflexion not only fails to develop the proper […]
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Thoroughbreds in Dressage in the NYT–Reminding Us All of Their Great Potential as Equine Athletes…As Well as the Great Benefits of Dressage Training
On June 15, “The Rail” horse-racing blogger Leslie Knauf described how two sports perhaps perceived far apart on the equestrian spectrum—racing and dressage—have in fact long been interwoven. “The highly contained nature of dressage,” Knauf writes, “with its collection and extension of the horse’s three gaits — walk, trot and canter — within a relatively […]
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“Polo Mouth”—Is It Time to Reconsider Riding Technique in the Sport of Princes and Kings?
It had been almost 20 years since I’d seen the game played when I recently ventured near a polo field. A childhood friend had handled a string of ponies for a local player, and I distinctly remember the challenge of exercising them (rein, seat, and leg aids were a whole new, well, “ballgame”). To be […]
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2011 Road to the Horse Introduces a New Verb to Horse Training Vocabulary–and a Three-Time Winner
You gotta love the way the English language is changing, moment by moment, via online discourse and the perma-audience social media has established. Case in point is the Facebook feed regarding the 2011 Road to the Horse Legends Competition, featuring TSB author Clinton Anderson, Chris Cox, and Pat Parelli (and hosted by TSB author and […]
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This Holiday Season Help Horses in Need
It is often part of our holiday tradition of “giving” to fill a basket with food or a stocking with toys for a family or child less fortunate than our own. One of the most wonderful aspects of the holiday season is that it inspires each of us to look around at what we have, […]
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