Boonville Stables

05/18/2025

Peaceful moments at Boonville Stables. There’s something magical about giving our horses the space to just be — graze, breathe, and move with freedom. ✨

03/06/2025

“Horses regularly trained with ground work are more relaxed when ridden”

A recent study of dressage horses in Germany that looked at rein length and tension revealed a surprising finding: horses who were regularly trained in ground work/in-hand work had lower heart rates during ridden work than all of the other participating horses. This wasn’t what the researchers were investigating, but it was clear in the results. From this, the researchers concluded that, “Perhaps horses trained in ground work had more trust in their rider.”

So why would it be true that horses who regularly learn via ground work/in-hand work are more relaxed? There are a few possibilities.

1) Horses trained regularly with ground work are more relaxed because their trainers are more relaxed. It’s possible that humans who take the time to teach their horses from the ground are less goal oriented and more concerned with the process. They may be more relaxed in general and foster this same relaxation in their horses. As you are, so is your horse.

2) Horses trained regularly with ground work have trainers who are more educated about a horse’s balance.

Their horses learn to move in correct balance which allows them to be healthy and sound in their bodies and, therefore, more relaxed. Physical balance is emotional balance.

3) Horses trained regularly with ground work understand the trainer’s criteria better. They have mastered the response to an aid before the rider mounts and know the “right answer” already once under saddle. They don’t experience any conflict when the rider asks for a behavior because the neural pathway has already been installed. They are more relaxed about being ridden because it rarely has caused confusion for them.

For us highly visual humans I think that ground work is often a better way to begin exercises because we are much better at seeing our horse doing the right thing than feeling it from the saddle. Often, my feel in the saddle is enhanced by the fact that I have watched my horse perform an exercise over and over in our in-hand work. It feels how it looks. In-hand work is also a good way to teach our horses because our own bodies are often more in balance when we are walking beside our horses. With the ground under our feet we are able to be more relaxed if something goes wrong and less likely to be so busy wrapped up in our own balance that we give our horses conflicting or confusing aids. It’s a good place to figure things out. I am a huge fan of in-hand work.

I’m glad to learn research revealed ground work is good for horses. Horses with a low heart rate are relaxed and relaxed horses perform better and live longer. In this day and age of people starting horses under saddle in under an hour and increasing monetary rewards for the “young horse dressage program“, everything seems to be done in a hurry. The entire horse culture seems to privilege “getting up there and riding your horse”. But as one of my favorite writers and accomplished horsewoman, Teresa Tsimmu Martino writes, “In today’s horse culture there are clinics that brag about starting a c**t in a day, as if the quickness of it was the miracle. But old horse people know it takes years to create art. Horses as great masterpieces are not created in a day. An artist does not need to rush.” We need more scientific studies like this one to encourage us to slow down and take our time with our horses.

So why were the horses in the study more relaxed? Likely it was a combination of all three factors – a relaxed trainer, better overall balance and clear understanding of criteria.

These are things that matter to your horse, and yes, will allow him to trust you when you ride. Take some time to slow down and work from the ground, learn a bit more about equine balance and teach new things in-hand before asking for them under saddle. You can take your riding to a whole new level and help your horse become more healthy and relaxed in the process.” - by Jen of Spellbound Horses

02/04/2025

This might shock some riders. Four or five decades ago horsemanship included a primary concept of matching riders and horses by body type. Today few people have heard of it. Matching the conformation of the rider with the conformation of the horse was based in the physics of balance and movement, or compatible biomechanics of each to create an optimal whole mass between the two.

When you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. To achieve optimal balance with a horse it is better if the rider "fits" the horse. Imagine if the second rider in from the left were to ride a 14.3 H Welsh, The Welsh would have difficulty balancing the rider in every gait. Or what if the rider on the far right rode a big draft cross or a big Warmblood. It would be difficult to achieve unity of movement because the light weight rider would be like a fly on the horseback with too little body mass to effectively engage the horse's powerful movement.

Likewise, a person with a short torso and long legs would do well to ride a horse with a large barrel to take up their leg, and a short legged rider would be better off riding a narrow chested horse for a better fit. We used to match riders with horses. Now everyone, regardless of their body type, seems to want a big Warmblood or other trendy breed because that is the current fashion. In this fashion based standard for selecting horses, the small rider gets tossed around on their trendy large horse. Then the rider needs a saddle with an extremely high cantle and all kinds of blocks on the flaps to compensate for the mismatch.

And that is my point. I see a lot of riders compensating for a mismatch with their horse instead of riding simply in unity with their horse.

I see this mostly in dressage but in other disciplines as well. Modern riders are slaves to fashion in horses, equipment and attire. Who set the horse culture goal to be uniformity and not effectiveness? Everything comes down to unity between horse and rider, and unity comes down to shared balance and movement. Mismatching horses and riders fights against the commonsense physics of balance and movement and that makes unity much more difficult to achieve. We need to stop using fashion as the basis of our decision making when it comes to horses and riding.

08/11/2024

The art of dressage

"Your Best Self," an excerpt from Paul Belasik's latest book, Dressage for No Country:
What if dressage was instead about reaching a place where you are near the “best idea” of yourself? You might not be famous, but your horse likes and respects you, people like and respect you. You work hard, but you’re not nervous about the outcome. How you feel about your work won’t change much because of some judge’s opinion. You are less concerned with how you measure up to an external yardstick because you are seriously engaged in how you meet standards established by your own tests. When you are riding, training, or teaching, you are so focused, you are often unaware of time. Even when a session is difficult, you feel right with your horse. The stiffness in your back seems to have disappeared. If you get frustrated, you can quickly recover your attention. Your emotions can’t seem to get a foothold; the anxieties in your life seem suspended for a while. What you do together with your horse seems like cooperation; a mutually beneficial dance, and not like a continuing argument.
Have you ever seen pictures of people swimming in the ocean, their hands clasped around the dorsal fin of a dolphin as the dolphin carries them along? They feel excitement, fear, joy— their faces say it all. They can’t put into words the rapture they are relishing, a suspension of any editorializing or sarcasm. It is a powerful jolt of pure experience, in that moment of communion with nature itself. Even though the positive effect of that connection can’t be entirely explained, most people acknowledge it is important. We ride horses. Do we find ourselves forgetting how ridiculously amazing that is?

07/24/2024

04/24/2024

https://youtu.be/FA31AUUL9TM?si=obrsLsbVnKADaUlw

Ever been to the barn with a non-rider? Ever tried to have a conversation about your horse with someone who’s never been around horses before? Yeah? We have,...

04/18/2024

Great visual! https://www.facebook.com/100064593733662/videos/798368570197981

02/24/2024

After the deluge…