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...

Horse Behavior: Engaging the Mind before the Movement

 Dear Sam: Horse Help Horsemanship Series

Horse Behavior: Engaging the Mind before the Movement

Alternative Horsemanship the Remote Horse Coach discusses the importance of separating engaging the horse's mind from his movement to diminish unwanted common equine behaviors that create mindless, chaotic, excessive, movement.

Click to watch on the Alternative Horsemanship YouTube Channel

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Horses Pressure & Release Part 2

Pressure & Release Part 2

The reality is that many riders feel like they are begging for the horse to acknowledge them. Other folks’ approach is to “make” the horse do something through physical dominance; this fuels the horse’s defensiveness. Then there are riders who learn to work “around” the horse, limiting what they ask of them to avoid potential resistance or conflict.

Pressure and release… The missing language of a quality equine partnership Part 1

 Pressure and release… The missing language of a quality partnership Part 1

A majority of unwanted horse behavior stems from the animal responding with defensiveness toward any form of pressure. Spatial and physical are the most common types of pressure people use to communicate with horses. If there is physical resistance and mental distrust towards pressure, this can lead to a wary partnership between horse and human.

Groundwork and Horses

 Dear Sam: Horse Help Horsemanship Series

Groundwork: Help or Hindrance

Alternative Horsemanship the Remote Horse Coach discusses the perception of groundwork, and whether it is helping to improve your equine partnership or decreasing the horse's trust.

Click to watch on the Alternative Horsemanship YouTube Channel

Are you teaching the horse anticipation and fear?

Are you teaching the horse anticipation and fear?


Most people never consider how the horse responds to just the sight of tack or notice if there are Quality Conversations while tacking up.

Each aspect of the equine interaction influences the mental reasonableness and physical softness that follows.
While the norm (often out of convenience) is to tie the horse while tacking, the degree of bother or concern a horse may have while doing so, is frequently suppressed.

Horse Interactions : Human Goals vs Quality Partnerships

Goals vs Quality
It is very easy to fall into a pattern of setting goals and getting fixated on accomplishing them to feel successful with the horse.
In more scenarios than not, the goal is frequently prioritized over assessing if there's quality during the interaction with the horse.

I will often hear people excitedly telling me about how much they have accomplished with the horse.
Then as I watch their equine's behavior and see things like: chomping on the bit
pinned ears
tails swishing
fidgeting or excessive movement
"grumpy" faces
physical tension
rigid nostrils
wide eyes
inability to stand still (mentally and physically)
avoidance at being caught/ led/ tacked/ loaded into the trailer loading or mounted
or if every time the halter is removed the horse goes running off

Helping the Highly Reactive Horse

Dear Sam: Horse Help Horsemanship Series

The Highly Reactive Horse

Alternative Horsemanship the Remote Horse Coach discusses the overlooked contributors in everyday human patterns and interactions that create highly reactive horses and unwanted equine behaviors.

Click the link in the comments to watch on the Alternative Horsemanship YouTube Channel