Everyone knows a horse who won’t load. It’s a common problem for horses because it’s actually quite a big ask – we’re asking herd-bound open-space animals to load into a small, rattling, moving box, often on their own. But they CAN learn to love it, if it’s trained positively. This video shows Revel, a rescued […]
Positive Trailer Loading Read More »
Dealing with wounds and aftercare from surgery and so on, is part of any horse-owners life. This video shows my rescued Arab, Khalil, with a wound on his face which needed cleaning and dressing. This could easily have turned into a battle since it was painful and potentially quite scary for Khal. Luckily (and this
Treating a Wound With Reward Based Training Read More »
I love working with my horses at liberty. Add in some jumps and it’s a thrill to watch the combination of power and grace from the horse and to witness their joy and connection to me. This video shows my Warm Blood mare, India, showing off her pretty incredible free-jumping skills. This is hands-down
Amazing Liberty Freejumping! Read More »
🎶 Deck the halls, tree and stables 🎶 Falalala la lala la la Who decorates the Christmas Tree at Hope Pastures rescue centre? The rescued ponies and donkeys of course! Hannah worked with the staff at Hope Pastures to teach these cuties some tricks to add Christmas cheer to the stables. “It’s pretty heartbreaking to see the state
Ponies Decorate the Christmas Tree! Read More »
One of the things I always longed for was a horse who loved to ride as much as I did… A horse who came eagerly up to the mounting block, practically nudging me onto his back so we can ride off into the sunset together… A horse who gallops under my trapeze so I can
Amazing Mounting Montage – Does YOUR Horse Love to be Ridden? Read More »
Teaching any movement to your horse is fairly straightforward when you’ve taught all the elements needed to create it – things like weight shifts, flexions, moving the shoulders and quarters independently and so on. By breaking it down and teaching each movement separately, you can then combine them any way you like. Of course, using
Teaching the Pirouette – First Steps. Reward Based Training Read More »
Lily was found as a stray wandering the streets of the city of Leeds with a foal at foot. Luckily, Hope Pastures rescue centre was called to help out. They both arrived at the centre very frightened about everything but the foal soon built trust, confidence and joy and was rehomed successfully shortly after weaning.
Build Trust with a Rescued Pony Read More »
Young horses can find wearing a halter and leadrope pretty scary at first and can panic and pull back and fight against it. Which is exactly what this lovely 3 yo mare was doing… Until reward-based training made it clear and fun for her! It was a bit of a challenge – I was given
How to Teach Your Horse to Lead Read More »
Rescued equines need plenty of help to build trust in humans, whether they’ve never been handled or have suffered abuse. Reward-based training is the best tool I’ve ever come across for doing this and I’ve worked with hundreds of rescued horses over the years. Even so, these two stripy girls challenged my training… Zambi and
Zonkey Training: Touching the Un-handleable Equine Read More »
There’s often a particular horse who drives the search for finding another way to train and connect and overcome problems. For me, that horse was Toby. He started showing lots of problem behaviours early on in our relationship such as bolting, bucking, refusing to jump, not loading and so on. He really pushed me to
Problems to Performance – Hannah and Toby’s Story Read More »
Getting connected in the saddle is a combination of using rewards to teach your horse behaviours and help him to understand your cues and aids as well as improving your own seat and balance, which your horse responds to naturally. For example, you can encourage and reward your horse for relaxing, lowering his head and
Riding with Connection: The Rider’s Seat Read More »
This video shows how Helen used Connection Training to change her pony, Charlie, from running away from people in the field to coming to call! There are lots of reasons why horses might not like to be caught from disliking what happens next to separation anxiety to a bad history with catching. Charlie arrived to Helen
Can’t Catch Your Horse? Read More »
