Alternative Horsemanship™ the Remote Horse Coach Articles and Advice Blog

7 Questions to Improve Time with your Horse

I believe people can learn from many different forms of shared horse knowledge (even if it is what not to do,) BUT I find without a clear foundational basis, the constant barrage of "dos and don'ts" that drastically differ in shared horse training approaches, theories, and methods can be exhausting for the student to filter through.

Horse Learning Help - When we Stop Powering Through

When we Stop Powering Through

Samantha Harvey riding and ponying horses

I had remote coaching students on multiple continents this week- and the general theme was discussing breath... The students' backgrounds were drastically different, as were their ages, and horse experience.

My students who are most “successful” in their horse learning are not always the ones to reach “the end results” fastest. Instead, they are the individuals who are more interested and curious in learning how to develop the skills to communicate and work with the horse, rather than resorting to seeking quick fixes, or creating stories to explain away resistance or unwanted equine behaviors.

Replacing Fear Cycles in our Horsemanship

The fear of "getting it wrong" can overwhelm people into doing nothing. Avoidance is a common "tactic" in both insecure people and horses.

Horse Behavior: 5 Physical Assessment Opportunities

When learning or experimenting with a new way of communicating and interacting with the horse, people can unintentionally develop intensity in their facial expression, the tension in their posture, increased energy, and tight movement.

Horse Learning Tips

Horse Learning

Irrelevant of where in the world one is, there is always learning opportunities... Even if "just" from the horse's communication and behavior.

In Conversations with the horse, we are asking them to mentally "search" for what is being presented, and then to physically act upon those thoughts.

The Effective of your Horse Communication

I find that sometimes making comparisons outside of the “horse world” helps folks better see/believe when they are with their equine.

In many training approaches, the moment a horse does something unwanted, the response is correction. The focus is only on stopping, blocking, and criticizing the equine behavior, to “teach him a lesson.” This leads to what I call “surviving” the experience/ride.

Horse Help- Improving your Equine Communication- Eliminating the Brace

Improving your Horse Sense- The Three A's

Chasing the Horse Dream

I meet horse people wherever I go in the world, whether or not I’m traveling for work or by random happenstance. More often than not, I hear stories of how they chose to leave the mainstream rhetoric/perceptions of working/thinking/interacting with horses to explore and develop their individual quality long-term equine relationship.

Improving Horse Rider Balance- Raising Awareness

It all starts with Awareness

I just finished doing a 12 hour drive drive. I encountered horrendous fog, hail, pelting rain, light snow, sun, strong wind gusts, and just about any other weather you can think of.

Throughout the drive, I would audibly exhale, reset my fingers on the steering wheel, notice the tension in leg muscles from the incessant shift through the high mountain, twisty road climbs, and "open" my toes in my shoes, I'd observe if I was "hard" staring at the road or if I could zoom in and out at various degrees on the details of the surroundings. I "checked in" with my shoulders- if they were scrunched up and together toward my neck, or if I could rotate the muscle onto the scapula and "open" my chest to have a soft breathing. I noticed if my tongue was "stuck" on the roof of my mouth or rested without tension...

Hurried horse behavior problems

A lot of humans anticipate "what will happen" when with their horse.

There is a fine line between being aware of your surroundings and things that are occurring at the moment, but also not fixating on potential unwanted outcomes.

I suggest that folks notice their own thought patterns. Whether it is occurring before they are with their horse or in a moment with the equine, to learn to notice when their mind gets "stuck on a thought."

Horse Skills and Improving the Equine Partnership

Nothing is too “basic.”

To demonstrate how repetitive interactions or behaviors can lead to mindlessness, I’ll sometimes ask students if they’ve ever been showering and suddenly stopped, and thought to themselves, “Did I already wash my hair?” People will chuckle at the “guilt” of realizing they might have had a similar experience...

Learning New Horse Skills- the Uncomfortable Learning Curve

Letting Go: Why Learning a New Approach Can Feel So Inconsistent

When learning horse skills, many people focus on the mechanics to get the horse’s obedience or compliance, with little to no self-awareness of how their mindset and behaviors will influence the equine's responses. Anticipative, hopeful, or distracted thoughts decrease the ability to reset breathing and release tension in real-time, limiting one's adaptability to help the horse.

Horse Learning without Guarantees

The only consistent thing I have found to be true is humans ARE seeking connection.

Repeatedly, social media videos that “do best” show the horse that is willing to interact with people, offering an emotional connection. The promise gives viewers hope, triggering interaction… A great motivator for change, or to “activate” people- whether to react, sign up, or buy into a belief system- is to engage the human emotion of hope.

Tips for the Insecure, Anxious, Anticipative, or Timid Rider

The timid/unsure rider comes from a place of feeling "surprised" by what the horse does or feeling ineffective towards their horse.

I'm very aware that this time of year can stir up a particular kind of mental static. It’s the inner critic, tallying up the "not yets" and the "I should haves" with your horse.

Let's name it: Horse Guilt. It’s that feeling that you didn't do enough, "fix" enough, ride enough, or progress enough.

Guilt is not a motivator; it is a paralyzer.