Jennywren Horsemanship

03/25/2026

Really great thoughts right here….

Not the horse's fault is not an excuse for bad behavior.

I hear this all the time—“It’s not the horse’s fault, it’s the owner’s.”

And every time I hear it, I understand what people are trying to say… but I also cringe a little. Because while that statement might be technically true, the way it gets used is where the problem starts.

Let me explain it the way I’ve come to understand it through real life—not theory, not opinions, but outcomes.

I once had a neighbor who raised their kids in a very specific way. If the kids did something wrong, all they had to do was apologize. No consequences. No accountability. No correction. Just say “I’m sorry,” and everything moved on like it never happened.

That system worked… until it didn’t.

One of those kids grew up and committed murder.

And what stuck with me wasn’t just the act—it was his reaction afterward. He genuinely did not understand why he was going to prison for life. In his mind, he had followed the rules he had been taught his entire life: do something wrong, say you’re sorry, and move on.

But real life doesn’t work that way.

Now, was that entirely his fault? Or was it the result of how he was raised?

You can argue that all day long.

But here’s the part nobody argues about—the consequence.
He still went to prison.
He still paid the price.
And the victim still paid the ultimate price.

That outcome didn’t change based on where the blame started.

Now bring that same line of thinking over to horses.

Horses don’t have the ability to sit around and decide right from wrong the way we do. They are a product of their environment, their experiences, and the decisions made around them. In that sense, yes—many behavioral issues can be traced back to people.

But here’s the question I always come back to:

If a horse, because of how it was raised or handled, hurts or kills someone… does it matter whose fault it was?

Does that change what happened to the person?

Does that change what has to happen to the horse next?

No, it doesn’t.

That horse may be put down—not because it’s evil, not because it “meant” to do anything wrong, but because it has proven to be unsafe. Because the risk is too high to allow that behavior to continue.

Fair? No.

Real? Yes.

And that’s the part people don’t want to sit with.

So let’s bring it down from the extreme example to something much more common—because most of what I deal with isn’t life-or-death situations. It’s the everyday behaviors that people excuse.

The horse that crowds you.
The horse that pins its ears.
The horse that refuses to move forward.
The horse that pulls, braces, or checks out mentally.
The horse that uses resistance, anxiety, or avoidance to get out of work.

And someone says, “Well, it’s not his fault.”

I agree.

But what now?

Do we just accept it?

Do we excuse it?

Do we allow that behavior to continue because the origin of it wasn’t the horse’s decision?

Because here’s the reality—whether it’s the horse’s fault or not, that behavior still creates risk. It still affects safety. It still affects usability. It still affects the horse’s future.

And the horse will still pay the price for it.

Maybe not in the form of being put down, but in the form of limited opportunities, constant frustration, or being labeled as “difficult,” “dangerous,” or “not worth the trouble.”

That label follows them.

That outcome follows them.

And it doesn’t care whose fault it was.

So when I hear “it’s not the horse’s fault,” what I actually hear—whether it’s intended or not—is an excuse to avoid dealing with the behavior.

Because if it’s not the horse’s fault, then people feel like they shouldn’t have to hold the horse accountable.

But accountability and blame are not the same thing.

That’s where most people get this wrong.

Blame looks backward.
Accountability looks forward.

Blame asks, “Whose fault is this?”
Accountability asks, “What needs to change so this doesn’t happen again?”

In training, I don’t spend my time worrying about who created the problem. That doesn’t help the horse standing in front of me today.

What matters is this:

What has this horse learned?
What behaviors is it using?
What responses have been reinforced?
And how do we retrain those responses into something safe, consistent, and productive?

Because at the end of the day, the horse has to function in the real world.

It has to be safe to handle.
Safe to ride.
Safe to be around people.

Not because it’s fair.
Not because it deserves it.
But because that’s the requirement to exist in our world.

Just like people.

If a person grows up with poor guidance, bad habits, or no accountability, we might understand why they act the way they do—but that doesn’t remove the consequences of their actions.

The same is true for horses.

So when I work with a horse that has developed bad habits—whether it’s fear-based, resistance-based, or simply learned behavior—I’m not punishing the horse for something that wasn’t its fault.

I’m teaching it a better way to respond.

I’m replacing what it has learned with something that will keep it safe, keep people safe, and give that horse a better future.

Because here’s the truth that doesn’t always sound nice, but it is honest:

A horse does not get a pass on behavior just because it didn’t create the situation.

It still has to be retrained.
It still has to learn new responses.
It still has to meet the standard of being safe and manageable.

And if it doesn’t, the consequences don’t go away—they just get delayed.

So yes… it may not be the horse’s fault.

But that doesn’t change the responsibility we have to fix it.

Because ignoring it in the name of fairness doesn’t protect the horse.

It puts it at risk.

And in the long run, the horse is the one that pays the price for that misunderstanding.

03/25/2026

HERE IT IS!

We're adding $7,000 in cash to our prize pool 💰 — up from $5,000 last year — on top of our regular year-end awards!!!

That's more money on the line, more reasons to compete, and more reward for the time, effort, and heart you pour into this sport.

None of this happens without the people who show up — our members, our sponsors, and everyone who believes in what we're building here. You're the reason we're able to keep growing, and we don't take that for granted.

If you haven't grabbed your 2026 membership yet, now's a great time 👇
🔗 https://www.ultimatehca.com/join

Here's to making this our best season yet. See you on the course. 🤠

Stay tuned as we have more exciting announcements coming soon!

03/02/2026

That squeaky saddle sure tells a story. Dark came sooner than the work finished. So under my small arena light, I hear and feel the progress in my training horse that my own eyes can’t see. Rhythm, cadence, softness, lateral and vertical flexion (horse happy ears and a gorgeous Oklahoma sunset). Truly, a horse trainers pure joy. So very humbled and thankful to be a student of the horse❤️

01/27/2026

Really good article. It can be so helpful to visualize our horsemanship and training practices on a spectrum…(instead of through static definitions or lenses).

How we think about horse training is important. My first paid horse training job was on a ranch in California back in 1968. This was when Tom Dorrance and Ray Hunt began teaching a new kind of horsemanship. My boss was interested in these new training concepts.

It was a time of transition between the old and the new. The cowboys on the ranch were old school and not as open to new ideas as our boss. He didn't press them too hard to change. I think he hired me, a 22 year old from the east, because I was young and not so set in my ways and I could ride.

This was long before social correctness. Then the word "domination" wasn't evil or cruel then. I still use that word because that is what I see in herd behavior. Domination is part of establishing the herd's necessary pecking order. For all the socially correct culture cops, I have gone to the thesaurus to give you alternative words to help you get comfortable with this post. The alternative words are sovereignty, control, command, authority, dominion, supremacy, ascendancy, or subjugation.

The training meter below contains my understanding of the possible range of steps in the horse training process. Where a trainer starts training a prospect on the meter varies widely. In my experience most training begins in the yellow Leadership range. However, there are some very low confidence horses with intense needs for leadership that quickly move into Partnership because they want to be directed and to please.

Likewise, on the other extreme, there are some horses, due either to their genetic impulse to dominate as herd leader or as a result of defending themselves from human abuse, that a trainer must deal with. They have to confront a prospect's dominance with their own ability to dominate. All the treats and kissy face in the world won't train these types of horses. With these horses, the trainer must begin in the red Domination range on the meter.

The ultimate goal is always Partnership. How we move a horse from Domination to Leadership, or from Leadership to Partnership depends on the individual horse. They determine the training process. The most exciting transition for me is from Leadership to Partnership. This happens when a prospect accepts your Leadership and then they begin to anticipate your expectations of them as a partner. For example, when you put them on an approach to a jump they know the task and what you expect, but in the approach something unexpected happens and they fix it and make a proper jump as their contribution to Partnership.

The transition from Domination to Leadership is another positive transition. Domination need not be cruel, violent or painful. At its best Domination is using communication techniques that trigger a useful response that most often is instinctive from their brain stem, not from their brain when fear resides. For example, a lion attacks a Zebra's belly. This triggers a flight response just like if you touch a hot stove you immediately withdraw your hand without thinking. If a horse is trying to dominate me on the ground, I will raise my knee into their belly and "be the lion". They stop trying to dominate.

Another form of training using domination comes from the Ray Hunt saying. "Make the wrong thing hard and the right thing easy". This is being smarter than the horse by understanding their biomechanics. When a horse bucks, I just use one rein to turn their head out to the side while raising their nose. This makes it really hard physically for the horse to buck and thus distracts and dominates their impulse to buck.

There are more positive examples of skilled Domination, but you really cannot learn how to move horses along the range of the meter from the internet. You need to apprentice with a pro. I spent many years training polo horses alongside fellow polo horse trainers from Argentina. They train horses faster and less delicately than Americans, who I think train too slowly. The Argentines use a lot of strong voice in training. Because horses have 35% better hearing than we do, the right voice puts the equivalent of a taze of energy throughout their body that disrupts a horse's Domination impulse.

I see too many good horses getting sorted out of a training process because many of today's horse trainers either lack the needed skills to train all types of horse, or because they reject effective training methods, they feel are cruel by human social correctness standards that they misguidedly apply to horses. These trainers are more focused on how the training process impacts their emotions than how the horse needs to be trained.

01/27/2026

How we think about horse training is important. My first paid horse training job was on a ranch in California back in 1968. This was when Tom Dorrance and Ray Hunt began teaching a new kind of horsemanship. My boss was interested in these new training concepts.

It was a time of transition between the old and the new. The cowboys on the ranch were old school and not as open to new ideas as our boss. He didn't press them too hard to change. I think he hired me, a 22 year old from the east, because I was young and not so set in my ways and I could ride.

This was long before social correctness. Then the word "domination" wasn't evil or cruel then. I still use that word because that is what I see in herd behavior. Domination is part of establishing the herd's necessary pecking order. For all the socially correct culture cops, I have gone to the thesaurus to give you alternative words to help you get comfortable with this post. The alternative words are sovereignty, control, command, authority, dominion, supremacy, ascendancy, or subjugation.

The training meter below contains my understanding of the possible range of steps in the horse training process. Where a trainer starts training a prospect on the meter varies widely. In my experience most training begins in the yellow Leadership range. However, there are some very low confidence horses with intense needs for leadership that quickly move into Partnership because they want to be directed and to please.

Likewise, on the other extreme, there are some horses, due either to their genetic impulse to dominate as herd leader or as a result of defending themselves from human abuse, that a trainer must deal with. They have to confront a prospect's dominance with their own ability to dominate. All the treats and kissy face in the world won't train these types of horses. With these horses, the trainer must begin in the red Domination range on the meter.

The ultimate goal is always Partnership. How we move a horse from Domination to Leadership, or from Leadership to Partnership depends on the individual horse. They determine the training process. The most exciting transition for me is from Leadership to Partnership. This happens when a prospect accepts your Leadership and then they begin to anticipate your expectations of them as a partner. For example, when you put them on an approach to a jump they know the task and what you expect, but in the approach something unexpected happens and they fix it and make a proper jump as their contribution to Partnership.

The transition from Domination to Leadership is another positive transition. Domination need not be cruel, violent or painful. At its best Domination is using communication techniques that trigger a useful response that most often is instinctive from their brain stem, not from their brain when fear resides. For example, a lion attacks a Zebra's belly. This triggers a flight response just like if you touch a hot stove you immediately withdraw your hand without thinking. If a horse is trying to dominate me on the ground, I will raise my knee into their belly and "be the lion". They stop trying to dominate.

Another form of training using domination comes from the Ray Hunt saying. "Make the wrong thing hard and the right thing easy". This is being smarter than the horse by understanding their biomechanics. When a horse bucks, I just use one rein to turn their head out to the side while raising their nose. This makes it really hard physically for the horse to buck and thus distracts and dominates their impulse to buck.

There are more positive examples of skilled Domination, but you really cannot learn how to move horses along the range of the meter from the internet. You need to apprentice with a pro. I spent many years training polo horses alongside fellow polo horse trainers from Argentina. They train horses faster and less delicately than Americans, who I think train too slowly. The Argentines use a lot of strong voice in training. Because horses have 35% better hearing than we do, the right voice puts the equivalent of a taze of energy throughout their body that disrupts a horse's Domination impulse.

I see too many good horses getting sorted out of a training process because many of today's horse trainers either lack the needed skills to train all types of horse, or because they reject effective training methods, they feel are cruel by human social correctness standards that they misguidedly apply to horses. These trainers are more focused on how the training process impacts their emotions than how the horse needs to be trained.

01/15/2026

I love this. As the leader and partner to our horse, we hold the ability to train every exercise this way. When we set up every training process this way (from stops to spins, to crossing obstacles) - where the release becomes the focus, we build a natural confidence and “try” into our horses. While pressure might get the job done today, good and consistent release points will help you build confidence and partnership for the long run.

You will always have more success getting your horse to go towards a release rather than away from pressure. All a horse really is ever searching for is peace. Try to be their source.

11/16/2025

Great night celebrating our UHCA member successes last night at the year end awards and banquet in Paola, KS. Congratulations to everyone on a great season. Already looking forward to next year……Check out this 2026 event schedule and come race with us!

Ride. Compete. Connect. in 2026 with the Ultimate Horsemens Challenge Association.

11/11/2025

Congratulations Mike. Sure looking forward to watching your partnership develop with your new horse! You both look very confident and relaxed together👍

07/15/2025

There’s a line a lot of people cross with their horses… and most dont even realized they’ve done it.

It starts from a good place.
They love their horse. They want a connection. They want to do right by them.

But over time, that desire to connect starts to blur things.
It gets emotional. Sometimes even obsessive.
And before they know it, they’re not seeing the horse for who the horse actually is, they’re seeing only what they want to see.

And that’s where the whole horse-human dynamic begins to break down.

Because when we lose sight of the truth: the nature of the horse, the reality of how they’re wired, how they think, how they learn…
We can’t lead.
We can’t build a reliable partnership.
We can’t give the horse what they actually need to thrive.

And here’s the hard part.
It’s not because people don’t care enough. It’s because they’ve lost sight (or been mislead) to what truly matters and works.
They idolized the horse to the point that their decisions, their expectations, even their communication… it’s all distorted.
It’s not healthy.

They’ve placed the horse so high on a pedestal that they’ve started relating to them through a lens of human emotion and fantasy…
Rather than truth, understanding, and responsibility.

Now, anyone who’s spent a life with horses knows how much of a spiritual experience it can be at times.
How moving. How sacred.
But horses are not divine.

The horse is still… a horse.
A prey animal.
Beautifully simple. Honest. Present.

And if we’re not grounded in that truth, that horses are not idols nor divine, our desire for connection can actually get in the way of real partnership.

Because the more we understand the true nature, design and creation of the horse…
The more we honor their nature instead of projecting our own emotion onto them.
And the stronger the partnership we share with them can become.

As professionals, we see this all the time.
We work with clients who care deeply. Sometimes so deeply, that they lose clarity.
They come in caring deeply, but no boundaries. Passion, but no process.
And it’s our job to help bring the relationship back into alignment.

Because true partnership requires more than love.
It requires leadership.
Clarity. Consistency.
And a deep respect for the nature of the horse, not just the dream we’ve built around them.

We weren’t meant to have idols.
Not horses. Not people. Not anything that clouds our vision of the truth.

Because at the end of the day, truth is the only thing that actually leads to freedom.
In life. In faith. And with our horses.

And when we operate from a place of truth about who we are and what the horse actually is…
That’s where the real connection begins.

-Colton Woods

📸 Dusty Frame Photography

05/15/2025

05/15/2025

Stall fronts are in!!!