I call myself a dressage rider. So why am I using my Western saddle more than my dressage saddle? There's a practical reason: it fits...

"Sit tall in the saddle, Hold your head up high Keep your eyes fixed where the trail meets the sky And live like you ain't afraid to die...

Dogs and their owners start to look alike after they’ve spent enough time in each other’s company. Something similar is true for horses...

Forest fires are burning all around New Mexico right now. My horses and I are not in danger, at least not yet, but I know many people...

Riding horses is a two-way conversation. The technical knowledge of how to talk to your horse, about what you want him to do is one part...

“My horse has a hard mouth!” I’ve heard well-meaning riders use this phrase to justify their need to pull or fiddle on the reins “to get...

Horses don't get wrinkles, which seems unfair. I prefer not to think about old age, but not wanting to think about it doesn’t stop the...

I think of good riding as having three main ingredients: a good seat, a lot of feel, and a coherent system of training based on solid...

I’ve always been proud of being a hard worker. For many years, decades even, I thought working more was always better than working less....

How we talk to and about our horses is important. This is especially true when things don’t go as planned, like when training sessions...

Back then, dressage scores mattered to me. A lot. Ten years ago, I had lost my way in the horse world. I was entering my forties. I was...

May has been a busy month for me: two horse shows on two consecutive weekends. For years, I’ve struggled with whether I still want to...

How I sometimes wish we could explain things to our horses this way! If you want to become a better rider, you will need help. Books,...

When I was younger, I used to think the more I practiced the things I wanted my horses to learn, the better they would go. I believed...

“The verb “to be” can be misleading, because we cannot be by ourselves, alone. “To be” is always to “inter-be.” If we combine the prefix...

The road to a well-trained horse is not a single, clearly marked path. It’s a maze, paved for the most part with good intentions, but...

Competitive situations can be intimidating. I should know. Last summer, I entered a couple of horses in a good-sized and therefore,...

When I was younger, I worked mainly as a colt starter. I did not charge enough money, which forced me to take on more horses for training...

The barn: a place for escapism, or something more? We are living in a time of global crisis: a pandemic is raging, the climate is...

I recently started working with a student who rides a lovely quarter horse gelding. The two of them have been a pair for years. On the...