Make Every Moment Count: Getting More from Your Limited Time with Your Horse

 

If you have limited time with your horse, the goal isn’t to cram in everything at once, it’s to use your time intentionally, with clarity, and an emotional neutrality. Below are some reminders to make the most out of time with the horse.

Horse Rider Tips: Improving Balance

 Horse Rider Balance

Many times folks don't realize that they are sitting crooked in the saddle. If they are off-center, they tend unintentionally to "grip" or create a brace on the side that they are less connected with the horse. This lack of centered-ness affects the communication, timing, effectiveness of an aid, and the quality of the ride.

Horse Riding in Real Time

Riding in Real Time

During moments of unexpected or unwanted equine behavior the human often tries to understand why "it" is happening. The reality is while their brain is desperately trying to process and search for understanding the horse's behavior (often feeling like they are guessing,) they don't recognize how long they are leaving or "abandoning" the horse with their lack of communication while trying to sort their thoughts.

Horse Rider Tips: Resetting Breath

 Tips for Resetting your Breathing and Releasing Tension at the Halt

Without realizing it, many riders hold their breath quite frequently when interacting with or riding the horse.

Horse Riding Tips: Letting Go of Physical Tension

 Riding Tips - Letting go of Physical Tension

A rider's physical tightness usually starts with clenched seat bones. This tension creates rigidity that travels up the spine between their shoulder blades, into their neck and shoulders, down the upper and then forearm, ending with gripping in their fingers on the reins.

Horse Skills Help Self-awareness Tips

For people who are new to my teaching and training theories, there are many questions and frequently a great deal of pondering and brooding as folks start to question “the way they’ve always done things” with their horses.

Tips for Improving Your Horse Skills

 Tips for Resetting your Breathing and Releasing Tension at the Halt

 (Mounted or Unmounted)

Without realizing it, many riders hold their breath quite frequently when interacting with or riding the horse.

Riding Tips - Letting go of Physical Tension

A rider's physical tightness usually starts with clenched seat bones. This tension, creates rigidity that travels up the spine between their shoulder blades, into their neck and shoulders, down the upper and then forearm, ending with gripping in their fingers on the reins. From the seat down, there's often a shortened leg position, with an outward turned knee and toe, and a clamped hamstring and calf.

Reactive Riding - Horse Help & Tips

 Reactive Riding

When people sit down in that saddle their brain tends to focus solely on themselves. Instead, if they treated their horse-like they were "on the same team" and told the horse what the PLAN was ahead of time, the horse would have a better chance of offering the desired response toward the rider. 

Improving Rein Management Skills- Decreasing unwanted Equine Behavior

 

Rein Management Skills

Join Alternative Horsemanship for this live stream discussing many of the common rein-handling issues riders have creating unwanted equine responses.

Saturday, March 9th, 5pm pst
Replays available

Click HERE to join the Locals Community and participate in the semi-monthly livestreams for Subscribers.

Spring Preparations for Upcoming Horse Riding Season

Preparing for the Spring Riding Season

Looking ahead to the upcoming riding season, whether you ride for pleasure or are a competitor, you can strive to offer a supportive partnership towards your horse. I will touch on two concepts that you can start considering, without even having to battle the outdoor winter conditions!

Tips for Improving the Equine Partnership

"Letting Go" to Feel of the Horse

Learning the commonly taught mechanics to work with a horse from the ground or how to ride can be a challenge. It is also what most folks limit their horse education and goals to, with no understanding of the horse or his behaviors.

"Letting go" of one's emotional chaos, hopefulness, unreasonable expectations, and mental distractions before being in proximity to the horse, allows acknowledgment of what the horse is experiencing during the interaction. This then gives the human guidance on what needs to be addressed to help the horse better.

"Letting go" of self-imposed or society's traditionally taught hurried, repetitious, patterns, have-tos or "horse training rules", allows for unexpected Opportunities that can often become trust-building experiences between the human and the horse.
The more we learn to "let go," the more present in the moment and available we are to observe, experiment, and adapt which is then mirrored in the horse's willingness toward our requests.

New Year, New Horse Goals, and New Intentions by Alternative Horsemanship

New Year, New Horse Goals, and New Intentions

Human Intentions influence everything - creating either a positive or negative outcome with the horse.

I often hear people fixate on the long list of all the things they don't want their horse to do, rather than focusing on how they will help their horse accomplish human goals.

Horse Rider Mindset Motivation

Mindset Motivation
I often share this quote as I work to educate folks to be more supportive of the horse.

So much of what dictates the quality and success along the horsemanship journey is based on the openness of the human putting themselves "out there" to be present. 

No critique or judgment towards themself. 

Letting go of comparing oneself with what "others" are doing. 

Horse Skills & Tips : Breath and Tension

 Tips for Resetting your Breathing and Releasing Tension at the Halt

Without realizing it, many riders hold their breath quite frequently when interacting with or riding the horse.

This unintentional simple act creates continuous containment of the horse due to the rigidity the human then carries in their body causing constant chaotic, miscommunication with the horse.

Connecting the Groundwork with Horseback Riding

Connecting Groundwork and Riding

One of the challenges in offering instruction is to communicate clearly with students AND horses. As I overhear, read, or watch many “horse training” sessions/clinics I find that there’s a general lack of “connection” in the student’s ability to understand how the “here and now,” especially in how the quality of their groundwork is, relates to their future ride.

Empathy and Equines

Empathy + Horses = Weakness

There is a constant human imposition upon each other and horses...
Unrealistic ego-based demands without having accountability as to how a person's clarity of thoughts and intention, quality of communication, adaptability in energy, accuracy of timing, and everyday mindless interactions, are constantly "teaching" horses unwanted responses that people then criticize and chastise the equine for.

Horse Rider Tips- Anticipation and Unwanted Equine Behaviors

The urgency of the stories in our head...
So many good-intentioned equine enthusiasts unintentionally get pressured and distracted by the "story" of
*last time...
*that one time...
*what if...
*what others think...
*I hope...

Rider Skills Finessing the Feel Livestream

 Refining Biomechanics Part 2

Finessing the Feel

Discussing limiting contributors that affect the rider’s ability to have sensitivity, awareness, and availability towards the horse's communication. 

Watch the Livestream in the Alternative Horsemanship Locals Community 

Saturday September 23rd 9am pst

Watch Now

Replays Available

PC Cassandra Kendall Art Bonita 

4 Horse Rider Tips with Alternative Horsemaship

 4 Horse Rider Tips

Are you breathing?

When riders focus they tend to hold their breath. Talk. Tell your horse what you are doing (literally, it also helps you keep track.) Sing to him or whistle. Anything!

Breath is the most underrated aspect of interacting with our horse. It affects our softness and specificity, mental clarity, muscles, and the effectiveness of our aids.