Much of my appreciation for classical dressage training comes from my lessons with Karl Mikolka. One of the (many) things I remember him saying (probably while my horse was having a fit) was, “the horse is allowed to say NO!” I’m not saying that fits...
I had occasion to revisit one of my favorite books, Xenophon’s Art of Horsemanship. Xenophon was a Greek general who lived 2500 years ago. This is the first book on horsemanship that has survived the ages. What I love about this book is the chance to take a...
In my Secret Weapon post I talked about how important it is to remain focused on what we want and rewarding that and only that. Read it here if you want to be reminded about it or missed it the first time. In her article in Psychology Today titled, Trainers with...
Lots of rain and mud means I’ve only managed to say hello to my girls at feeding time. On nicer days I’ll visit, groom and massage. Actual riding is a distant memory. Ha! So posts have been thin at best as I await the inspiration of spring and more riding...
Hey, how cool is that? Katherine Blocksdorf, the Horses Guide on About.com has written a nice review of my book and given it five stars! You can read it here. If you have read my book, too, you can add your own review to hers. If you haven’t read it (what??) you...
Here’s the thing about using clicker training for stuff that the horse is afraid of (demonstrated by some escape behavior), like using electric clippers on whiskers, if you try to click ‘for’ letting you approach with the buzzing thing you are...
Those who have hung around me for some time will know that I’m very fond of saying, “If the horse knew what I wanted and believed he was able to do it, he’d BE doing it.” I used to say “…and was able to do it…” but...
I thought I would follow up with my own observations of the experience with Danke and the massage therapist. As you may recall (and if you missed it you can read about it here) Danke was not OK with having Heather standing on the hay bale while she worked on her croup...
By Heather Davis I am a certified equine “massage” therapist, applying principles of touch to encourage horses to release old neuromuscular strain patterns and relearn how to exist without previously held pain and resistance. Much of my work is informed by...
Recently my husband and I decided it was time to get rid of the burn pile. We have a small excavation project coming up that requires we finally burn the darn thing. The burn pile consisted mainly of small cherry trees we had to remove when we decided to bring the...
