SacredConnections - Horses, Healing & Holistic Education

12/19/2025

When Pigeon hit her threshold.

12/18/2025

Exactly why I’m doing the Spanish Mustangs, especially Blue, the way I am.
Blue can get supersaturated with stimulus and become overwhelmed easily and react to his overwhelm.
Pigeon, she is naturally braver and better at regulating her own nervous system. But still we put in a ton of work to teach them how to stay grounded and non-reactive.
I’ve said it before, we don’t actually desensitize horses, we train the nervous system.

12/17/2025

12/17/2025

Pigeon finding it.

12/17/2025

12/17/2025

Blue’s response to my attempt to lead him with his tail.

12/17/2025

12/17/2025

Merlin has been teaching me to back him up with just my perineum. I realized John Saint Ryan tried to teach me this, but I just didn’t get it at the time, as it’s opposite to how I was taught by stockmen, we roll our pelvis the other way to back. I played with it, but it didn’t click until Merlin showed me the other day. He showed me rolling that point was enough. He was asking be to save my legs and upper thighs and everything else for the lateral movements I ask him for

We don’t get it until we get it.

I’ve been thinking about JSR a lot these oast few weeks.
Sometimes we don’t have to spend a lot of time with someone to be significantly impacted by them.
I’ve been chewing on different teachings he shared with me.
I’ll be continuing to learn from him for the rest of my life.

And a reminder that good horsemanship outlast us, it stands the test of time.

I hope John is riding the best mounts in heaven. And I hope he chuckles at my sloppy and slow attempts to pick up what he left us.

12/17/2025

These two young Spanish Mustangs…
Blue gets the award for being the most inherently responsive and sensitive fresh young domestic horse that I have started. He’s not the most sensitive I have ridden or trained, Kiger Col was way more reactive, Yakima Mustang Ava was something, unknown Spanish gaited horse Paco was just like Blue, and Denver was way more difficult and even more astute than these guys.
Basically, the horses that were more sensitive came from the wild or had gone through abuse, or were Paso Finos (which Blue and Pigeon have have some of those genetics).

But these two. I barely suggest it and they are already doing it. Blue is almost wiggly, he yields so quickly when I shift my leg or position a little. He moves and yields trying to figure it out, he’s like riding a little salsa dancer. He feels everything and is ready to meet it or respond to it. He is a gymnast, I can’t emphasize that enough.

And Pigeon, she was the first youngster of my career to tell me that a bosal had too much feel for her. Right from the start, she didn’t like me using the reins to cue her through the bosal. She told me right away, “Do it with your body, and pretty much only your body.”

So it became a dance of how light can I present this and have you meet me in it.

Pigeon is doing awesome! She is loving working with me and riding under me. She is calm, happy, willing. She is carrying her part now, fully being my teammate. I barely use any pressure or cue, and she is very happy and an honest work partner.

Which is so great. Because these are two of the feistiest, quickest, most agile, smartest, most astute domestics I have worked with.

Two weeks ago, a local woman came to my barn to check out Remi. She recognized Blue and Pigeon from their previous barn. She also mentioned that she has known about 6 horses purchased from their breeder, and that none of them had ever been trained to be riding horses. She said they were too hot, too reactive.

Well, I can understand why others fail. They horses have to be finessed or someone will be eating sand.
You do something one time and they think it’s the new pattern, it’s even in there as a default (for good or bad). There is little to no room for mistakes with these horses.

Luckily, I recognized them right away for who they are and have been handling them accordingly. And luckily, I have a road map of what I did with Kiger Col to make him a grandma trail horse safe, also informed by those hot unknown gaited Spanish horses from the kill pen Paco and Denver, Andalusian X Thoroughbred Riocco, all the Iberians and even more the gaited Spanish blood horses, have prepared me and allow me to approach these two horses with a game plan and confidence.

And Merlin. My sweet Merlin has been the perfect horse for me to ride, he’s been giving me the perfect course of lessons to prepare me to do better, even more right, by these two youngsters.

See Merlin is phenomenally sensitive—I truly believe he’s a horse version of what we call autistic. He is oversensitive to a dysfunctional point in a way (it can torment him in his own non-riding time) and is also prodigal.

The theme of the barn the past few months was “doing less to do more.” Merlin has given me a tuning so that I better understood and immediately recognized when Pigeon told me the bosal was too much. I recognized it for what it was. It the past, especially when I was younger, I might have thought she was protesting or fighting. But Merlin further tuned me to have the right awareness to hear her.

More on that in another post.

12/17/2025

I’m making her seem way more mellow than she is. That’s the goal. No pasa nada. Because she is really something! I’m really loving working with this fiery gal, and she is really loving it too. Which was also the goal—to get her fully enrolled in the job. Because she is an awesome teammate to have, and you definitely don’t want her to be on the opposing team from you.

12/17/2025

Leading Spanish Mustang Blue from his tail, or at least trying to. John Saint Ryan showed me this with Andalusian X Riocco, to help him loosen up his rear end and entire demeanor. I’m trying to remember all the things John told me, and how to change directions. After our riding time today, I took Blue for a walk outside and then thought of this as a bonding or further syncing experience for us that we dont need to take too seriously—a fun challenge.