Clairety Horsemanship

Clairety Horsemanship Training based on learning theory to help people understand horses and horses understand people.

06/03/2026

Simple 3-step exercise to begin teaching a horse the walk pirouettes, or improve your current pirouettes.

05/20/2026

Registration is open for lessons September 2026-June 2027! Exciting new rider level program available. Link in comments.

05/05/2026

What goes through a horse's mind when he won't load? Does he know you're in a hurry? Or is there something he doesn't understand?

Our Lord came the first time with salvation, humble, and riding on a donkey. He promised to come again soon with justice...
04/04/2026

Our Lord came the first time with salvation, humble, and riding on a donkey. He promised to come again soon with justice, victorious, and mounted on a white horse. This weekend we celebrate his victory over death, and look forward to his coming again!

Is your horse happy? There are two measurable markers that allow you to determine your horse’s wellbeing! They are calle...
03/30/2026

Is your horse happy? There are two measurable markers that allow you to determine your horse’s wellbeing! They are called ‘affective state’ and ‘arousal level’. Learn how to use these two markers in the latest Video Theory Lesson!

03/25/2026

Ever been told to half-halt, but didn't know what your coach meant by that? Yeah, me too... Until it was explained to me like this!

That mythical dressage creature, the half-halt—defined! Equitation science is so good at quantifying what is happening a...
03/23/2026

That mythical dressage creature, the half-halt—defined! Equitation science is so good at quantifying what is happening and why, to help us clarify our cues to our horses and our teaching to our students.

There are as many ways of explaining how to ‘half-halt’ on the internet as there are horseback riders in the world. These five variations are the ones I hear most often.

1. Leg and rein cues together.
2. Driving seat and restraining hand.
3. More leg—but the horse must not travel faster.
4. Stepping weight into a stirrup, either in a pattern or at a strategic biomechanical moment in the stride, with or without checking the rein.
5. An undefinable ‘set of cues’ because ‘each situation is different’.

Notice most of these employ more than one cue at a time, typically variations on ‘go’ and ‘stop’ cues. The 10 First Principles of Equitation Science speak directly about how cues should be used.

But what is the purpose of the half-halt?

Interestingly, this is where people agree. They all use different words for it, to be sure. Some want to collect, others prepare, another supports, a fourth redistributes weight, and one more rebalances.

From those descriptions, we can deduce that the horse receiving the half-halt is no longer doing something he once was. He is ‘no longer balanced’. He has ‘fallen in’ or ‘fallen out’. He has ‘gone flat’. He is ‘not ready’. We could say it another way—the horse is not holding himself. He has lost self-carriage.

The 10 First Principles of Equitation Science also speak directly about self-carriage. That information on self-carriage and cues provides all we need to define and teach the half-halt. Read more 👇

03/17/2026

Do you have short legs? Watch the latest on my YouTube channel to learn the secret of getting horses to listen to you anyway.

03/12/2026

Check your email—summer lesson registration went out this morning!

03/10/2026

Approach Conditioning is a desensitization technique that is a ton of fun for horse and trainer! Winnie figured out in about 10 seconds that she got to chase this thing. She was having so much fun I didn’t want to tell her I had to go get another horse!

Address

Sherwood Park, AB
T8C1H5

Website

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC2Wmlmg2JnMdiwKS_olHXNA

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