Alternative Horsemanship™ with Samantha Harvey the Remote Horse Coach shares horse training and horseback rider coaching, philosophies, and approaches she has developed over three decades. Offering horsemanship clinics worldwide, distance horse coaching instruction, equine consultations, equine re-education and rehabilitation, colt starting, and lessons. Follow her #alternativehorsemanship on all social media platforms.
Join Alternative Horsemanship with Samantha Harvey the Remote Horse Coach in the 5-day #Equi-Quality Challenge to improve the Quality of the Equine Partnership.
Each day Sam will share a Daily Tip that you can incorporate into your horsemanship. Join her on INSTAGRAM and participate in each of the day's topics to enter to win a free 1:1 Coaching Session.
Recent Testimonial: "Here’s a happy update. I took your multi-part web series on trust last spring and it made all the difference in the world. Seeing you work with other horses was the key for me. I’m not completely there yet, but Sunny is way more trusting. I can call her out of the field, call her over, gently move her around, better control in the round pen, etc. I’ve done a lot of riding in the pasture practicing turns, whoa, and even backing-up. No punishment, just encouragement. She’s good in the pasture even if she can’t see the other horses.
I’ve gotten a few riding tips from friends and am doing better in the saddle. Very little pulling on her mouth. I take long trail rides and her fear level is way down. Yesterday we rode through some tightly spaced trees and had no problems at all. My biggest challenge is to slow her walk on the return trip. Sunny pretty much knows when we’re looping back and that’s when she starts rushing. However, we had a breakthrough on that yesterday. Hardly any rushing on the whole ride. Thank you so much for helping me build this relationship with my horse." Bill USA 2021 Horsemanship Behavior
Alternative Horsemanship with Samantha Harvey the Remote Horse Coach shares her perspective on why only directing or controlling the horse's feet leads to a variety of unwanted behaviors in the horse. She discusses how learning to influence the horse's thought and then movement is a frequently missing piece in the foundation of an equine partnership.
Dear Sam: Horse Help Horsemanship Series
*Intention- Quality replacing Hopefulness in achieving Goals
Alternative Horsemanship with Samantha Harvey the Remote Horse Coach shares her perspective on how hopeful interactions with the horse lead to potentially dangerous scenarios with the horse and decrease the chances of accomplishing horseback rider goals.
Alternative Horsemanship with Samantha Harvey the Remote Horse Coach shares her musings on recent horse trailer travels across the country. She shares her perspective on how to handle the mental stress and anxiety of hauling horses long distances and what to do when unexpected scenarios arise during the travels.
Uneventful Mounting
Rose arrived defensive and anticipative about most things during the human/horse interaction.
Saddling her would cause her to get twitchy, tight, and buck like she was in the rodeo.
We did a LOT of digging out of her old "coping" patterns and helping her learn to stay mentally present and physically reasonable.
There is always a moment where I can feel a horse is ready to mount.
This was what it looked like after that moment when Rose was asked to line up at liberty at the block for the first time.
For her, the slow, intentional steps are opposite from her rigid, reactive self that first arrived.
No treats, nor any driving, or yielding to pressure. Rather an invitation for her to participate.
This moment has NOTHING to do with lining up but rather is a reflection of all the previously established "tools" in our Conversations and how we communicate that has meaning to the horse.
For many horses, asking them to think first, then move in slow, specific steps almost causes more concern as it counters their natural response to flee when unsure.
Soon though you see the levels of concern dissipate as they learn to check-in with the human if the person offers specific supportive communication to the horse.
In Rose's case, because so much of her past was about humans attempting to contain her, when I'm reintroducing her being ridden in a thoughtful manner, presenting a scenario like this creates a new experience for her.
Did I do this the second ride? No. Every time will be different.
Alternative Horsemanship with Samantha Harvey shares her final thoughts on working with young horses such as BLM mustang filly Calamity Jane. She addresses the human mindset and how it affects the quality of the interaction and preparation of the horse for future learning.
