Get Grounded Equine

08/23/2025

Everything is built from two foundation default positions. First, in the rapport phase of relationship based training, moving at liberty side by side. Second, the default stand. These two basic concepts are offered by the horse as she explores trial and error ways to a target of positive outcomes, (not cued, not demanded, not asked). The behaviors are captured, shaped and reinforced. This approach knits a very cooperative mindset during the skill building process.

08/09/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/175xCg8yeN/
This is a page from a writing by a client who has a lot of deep passion for mustangs. She invited me to do several interactive sessions with her 9yr. mare she adopted last year. The experience provoked a lot of deep transformative thought for me. I wanted to share this page as the part starting with 'Healing the Inner Terrain' so eloquently put words to how I think and feel in my work with horses. The whole piece is by Tenaya Jewel and you can pm me for a link to the whole writing.

Send a message to learn more

08/08/2025

When things start clicking!
Heath did his first fluid quick change.
He also picked up the jog from a nice slow walk.
Lastly, getting a nice solid stop from my exhale. Hip Hooray!
Heath tends to throw too much forward and struggled to be controlled and thoughtful when moving out. Quick changes in the context of obstacles seems to be helping him move more thoughtfully.

08/07/2025

There is nothing more core to relationship based horsemanship than an experience that communicates “I see you, I understand what you did, and we can move on that together”. Reinforcement is at a high rate in this video because we are shaping a new behavior together. As the influencer of movement, I am hoping to establish some muscle memory related to yielding the shoulders away from me. It’s my job to understand the bio-mechanics involved: that there needs to be a combined weight shift back and onto the right front, that the left front forward and nose tipped to the right precedes a step over to the right. This mare has the ability to pay attention to multiple marker(click) points, gaining my respect for her intelligence. This is my moment to show her I am trustworthy, that I am paying attention to her in a very detailed way, and she can rely on me to take the time necessary for her to put it all together. Don’t worry about the high rate of reinforcers and think I am creating a monster. Duration between reinforcers gets built into the process once we have reached a flow state together.

08/06/2025

True Foundation Skills
People often forget there are 2 parts to comprehension, often being focused on physical comprehension such as w/t/c skills. Mental comprehension deals with the cognitive processes of understanding, thinking and reasoning. The mentor horse picks up a canter creating a thinking dilemma for the green horse. A series of confidence building exercises has gotten her to the point to turn her head and ear towards me while she thinks about what just happened. Side note: How about that walk/canter transition of the mentor horse?!!

08/01/2025

Antecedent Arrangement for New Experiences
These 2 yearlings are having their first experience being sprayed with a hose. Rather than tying them or holding them with a halter and lead, the experience has been arranged in a context of getting to a high value snack. The spray is light, held steady in one spot where they need to walk into it in order to reach the snack. They are free to walk away and rearrange their positions in relationship to the spray. It was really cool to see how they built their own confidence with it at their own pace.

07/25/2025

https://vimeo.com/1103891920?share=copy =105.083
The kinds of interactions that impact our bodies and nervous systems creating Relationship Cohesion.
1. Intentional Touch
2. Co-regulation and Grounding
3. Synchronized Behavior
4. Mindfulness and Partner Acceptance

Working on these skills forms the real path to feelings of success. The pony in this video developed his quiet cooperative skills through Relationship Cohesion practices.

Physiological practices that develop Relationship Cohesion
We are privileged to live in a time where we can approach our interactions with horses in a more transformative way. Even though essential utility has faded, we still seem to remain in a ‘work’ mindset. Get Grounded Equine has evolved into all of these nuanced practices, with years of relationship grounding practices…way before I realized that is what they were.

The flavor of your energy, your vibe, your thoughtful intent is the key to foundational rapport. Get Grounded Equine has spent 15 yrs. building relationship based…

07/19/2025

The Concept of Moving Together
What does ‘moving together’ look like in centaur mode? Sometimes, as the rider: it’s your job to be quiet, to refrain from micromanaging and overusing the aids, to focus on feeling to stay balanced, and let them guide themselves through the discovery. They have thoughts that should not be interrupted and they need to see we trust their judgement and know when the time is right.

07/18/2025

The use of any training reinforcer, regardless of being appetitive or aversive, will long term fail if it is isolated from appropriateness. This means you must have other skills, other understandings, other layers of awareness beyond making a request of your equine and backing it up with a reinforcer.

07/08/2025

Directing Movement vs. Moving Together
One speaks to competition and the other speaks to cooperation. The highest form of moving together with another involves a deeper level of resonance and emotional connection that can only come from a mindset of mutualism. Much like improvisational dance, the dynamic movement feeds on the openness of both. Approaches where one controls, confines, and mechanically habituates the body of another is counter intuitive to the flow states, the resonance that we seek. Let’s try to remember, with every behavior, be it physical or cognitive, there is a thread of connection to emotions, to how the experience feels. We will not find our true selves through intrusive manipulation of another, even if we deceive ourselves in thinking we are physically bettering the horse. ‘Moving together’ is a space filled with curiosity and self expression of both. It’s where we tell the horse who we really are and truly want to know them. The path to understanding bio-mechanics should not be to control and manipulate, rather to help us formulate our own development and self control towards cooperation. The aids should not be the context of physical/emotional development rather the aids are present to help us to develop together through the context of real environmental arrangements: natural and man made obstacles.

06/25/2025

Proposing engagement? Someone is trying to get my attention.😃

06/18/2025

Tell Us What You See
Honing in on marker point training skills naturally refined my observation skills. This ‘honing in’ significantly pushed out reliance on common narratives as a guide for making training decisions. Prematurely explaining or generalizing behavior can greatly hinder the learning process. Think about the limits of observation if our minds are weighted in ‘perform for me’ and obedience. What if our focus shifted more to curiosity of behavior and recognizing behavior patterns that come from interactions with us and novel objects? Now, here is an opportunity to take a moment, put your narratives aside, and deepen your observation abilities. Share with us what you have observed in this video without explaining it.
Note: This is a phase where the reinforcer is given at a steady rate. Like all, this horse will eventually learn long periods of duration between reinforcers.