Brittany Kupferer Horsemanship

04/25/2023

Love this!

We are excited to announce that Mike Major, two time Road to the Horse Champion, has joined Mustang Heritage Foundation as a Special Projects Advisor to our Board of Trustees! Welcome to the team, Mike!

03/31/2023

03/02/2023

🙌🏼

" Equitation is the art of looking good on a horse. It has little to do with being good on a horse". Kresney Ann
I give clinics on horse training and development all over the world. We work on many of the keys to the development of a well trained equine. Steering, speed control, stopping, spinning, lead changes transitions, gaits and movement as well as softness, positions, and gaining mental focus. I'm the clinician that watches the horse and helps you figure out how to build your dream. Or at least clean up your nightmare.
Not once in all my years of teaching have I ever given a riding lesson. That's someone else's job. It's always been my goal to make the horse look good, and sometimes in the process, it may not look pretty from an equation perspective. So what. Do I know how to look good on a horse? Of course, but I save that for when I'm showing. Up until then it's about riding in whatever way gets it done.
Sometimes my heels are up, sometimes I'm off to one side. I might be shoulders forward or back. Hands up, down, right or left. Standing up, sitting down, back arched or slouching. Basically I'll do whatever I have to in order to get the horse to free up, move the part I'm working on, and find the place or position I'm trying to get to .
I know that my position can affect so many things from their chin to their tail and from their back to their feet. That's called riding. To me training is about being good on a horse. Who cares what it looks like.
Occasionally however, I will get the student or attendee who is so hung up on equitation that it actually creates a problem for the horse. They think that if they have excellent posture and balance that the horse will suddenly be able to make magnificent changes. If only that were true my job would be so much easier. Wouldn't it be great if all we had to do was put our heels down and shoulders back, that suddenly our horse could do all the physical acrobatics that we hope for.
So my equitation advice at clinics is pretty basic. As long as you don't fall off, you're probably riding. So when does it become important to ride pretty? When your horse is fully trained and you're at the show. It causes the judge to watch the horse and not the ugly way you're riding. Up until then, and even in your warm ups and between shows, it's ok and even effective, to ride ugly. If your horse isn't riding pretty, it's not going to matter if you are.
My wife Kresney Ann said it perfectly in a lesson the other day when a student was having all kinds of issues with her horse and was mostly concerned if her heels were down. "Equitation is the art of looking good on a horse. It has very little to do with riding good on a horse ".

11/07/2022

💯

Yesterday we went to a roping and took as many as would comfortably fit in our stock trailer. They don’t get better staying at home!

If you aren’t sure if your horse is ready to be hauled to town, ask yourself two questions. Can they get on the trailer? And, can they stand tied without breaking their halter or the fence/trailer? If you’ve got those two things then you might consider starting to expose them.

One thing to consider if you, ”feel bad” leaving your horse tied for long periods of time…what would they be doing otherwise? Probably standing in their pen doing absolutely nothing, learning absolutely nothing.

Tying will help them learn to be patient and a horse learning to be patiently tied might be one of the most important skills a horse can learn.

I’ll leave you with this, and it will likely ruffle some feathers…we don’t follow the idea of tie them for 3 minutes the first day, then 4, then 5, etc. In our opinion it teaches a horse to, “hold their breath”. Instead of learning patience they learn to hold onto anxiety for longer and longer. You’re building their anxiety muscle instead of their patience muscle.

Same with trailer rides. Our preference for a horses first trailer ride is about 2 hours. Most of them can’t stay worried for that long so they learn to relax without us interfering in their learning process. Sometimes as a horse is learning to be patient and relax, every time we engage with them we restart the anxiety.

Haul them early and often! Feed and water them tied up and LET THEM LEARN to be patient. Stop getting in their way when they are working through things.

09/10/2022

Just want to show off my student Alexyus and her awesome gelding Rebel! They have been doing amazing in their liberty lessons! 🤩

08/09/2022

What is "flooding", and why can this concept be harmful?

In recent years the term "flooding" became a buzzword among many horse people. It started out with a distinct meaning; it was a helpful term to define overloading a horse's stimulus to the point he or she would end up mentally shutting down and going into flight mode, or introverting his emotions, instead of successfully working through pressure.
However, now it's tossed around so flippantly as an easy criticism by everyone and their brother that it's almost become harmful to the industry and good trainers who are doing a good job.

Just because someone is progressing with a horse faster than you know how to, doesn't mean they're flooding it.

Just because a horse is pushed beyond its comfort zone, doesn't mean it's being "flooded".

Just because a horse is naturally expressing nervousness or confusion during training, doesn't mean it's being "flooded."

Just because someone roped a mustang, instead of spending a month trying to get it to let them touch its nose, doesn't mean it was "flooded".

Just because you don't understand another trainer's process, doesn't mean that trainer is "flooding" horses.

Let me tell you how you can tell if a horse is being flooded or not.
Simply put, a horse who's being negatively flooded will progressively become more anxious and shut down about a particular obstacle or exercise over time.
Whereas a horse who's safely being pushed beyond his comfort zone, with the right feel and timing, will continually make progress toward confidence and relaxation.

You'll never truly know how to feel the distinction if you never make the mistakes that will teach you. On a weekly basis, I see people who have such little experience, ridiculing trainers who are making a positive impact on the lives of hundreds of horses.

You cannot become a great horseman, without first being a poor one. There's no way around it. As long as you're truly putting the horse's future and wellbeing ahead of your ego, you're on the right path. So let's stop constantly criticizing those who really have put the time in. I know it makes us feel better, and you may look holier on paper, but when the rubber meets the road, or the tarp meets the horse, you begin to find out that things aren't as simple as the buzzwords make them seem.

From the very first step of the very first exercise, our goal is to build confidence and relaxation in the horses we work with. The faster we can do that, the better.

Just because one person spends a year trying to instill trust and confidence with their horse, and another trainer does it in a matter of weeks, doesn't mean the slow training process was better. It was just slower. You don't get bonus points for slow.

Now that's not to say that there aren't some horses that require much more time to reach the same level as other horses. We regularly have horses in that, because of how they're wired, require a much slower foundational training process than the average horse. And that's okay, each horse let's us know how much it can handle. But I'm not really addressing that issue, so much as I'm talking about different training approaches as a whole.

My point is that fast isn't always bad, and slow isn't always good.
Slow and correct is better than fast and wrong, but fast and correct beats both.

The horse will always tell you if he's been flooded or not. Reassess and readjust as needed.

Let's keep our egos out of the way and the horse will always win. 👍

-Jacqueline Zacharias

04/06/2022

03/26/2022

Effective riding and equitation… Where do YOU sit?

Ask anyone who starts colts or rides performance horses, sitting pretty isn’t always where it’s at. We don’t want our shoulders ahead of our knees, ever, and we certainly don’t want to hollow our backs. One of the unfortunate aspects about judged hunt seat eq and western horsemanship, is the preponderance of riders who adopt the bubble butt! This unfortunate affectation blocks our forward flow and tends to 'hollow out' our horses, as well.

We become something stiff under which our horses labour, rather than a partner who does her best to help.

Don't get me wrong. Throughout the course of our riding lives, it behooves us to perfect our basic position. To have a knowledgeable pair of eyes from the ground point out our asymmetries (and yes, they exist within us all!), our leg position, where we plug our seat bones into the saddle, where our eyes lead and where our head, shoulders and elbows must be for optimum use by the horse. So, equitation is a fundamental part of horsemanship that does not go out of style, the minute we leave the junior ranks.

As we evolve as riders, however, form must allow for function. We have to be ready to change, smoothly and quickly, to ride anything livelier than a bar stool!

Our hips have to be ready to ride ahead of our shoulders, if necessary, to momentarily allow our seat and our forward intentions to be felt by the faltering horse. We must be ready, with a strong base of support, for our legs to keep us steady as we rise from the saddle, folding forward to allow our horse complete freedom as he jumps. These two everyday extremes must be practiced until they are instinctive.

Correct equitation is a keystone to good riding, yes, but there comes a point where, if we wish to progress beyond being mere passengers, our 'feel' and effectiveness must rise.

This brings to mind an equitation championship I watched many years ago. The judge asked the finalists, all excellent riders aged 14 to 17 years, to canter individually up the centre line and then, to perform an emergency dismount. Only two of the riders were willing to perform the task. The remainder were either in tears or appealing to their coaches to pull them out of there. I sat there, gripping my coffee, siding wholly with the judge. It was unorthodox but entirely reasonable of him to expect these beautiful riders to know how to safely get away from a wreck.

Sadly, they, like too many of us, were schooled only for moments of perfection. This sort of equitation is painted on; it is merely skin deep.

If you are teaching or paying for lessons, remember this. There comes a time when sitting pretty isn’t enough! We must evolve. Equitation is the basis, the absolutely solid foundation on which we build. As riders, we need the goal of becoming effective, of being able to make adjustments, knowing how and when to isolate our body parts.

Equitation must grow from merely sitting pretty, to knowing how and when to take the position that will best help each horse.

📷 Maggi McIvor.

02/19/2022

Knowing is Not Enough

It’s amazing the knowledge that has spread about horsemanship. It’s quite remarkable how many people understand the basics of how a horse thinks and the techniques to accomplish so much with a horse. So then why would people that know and understand horsemanship theories and principles struggle to accomplish certain things, or take their horse to a professional trainer? Well…I guess knowing just isn’t enough! Some people “know” certain things but still can’t teach it to their horse because we must LIVE it, DO it, and PRACTICE it!! That’s where the true understanding of the theories and the ability to do them, comes from. Let’s look at a couple examples where we can see the difference in knowing something, and actually being able to do it.

When you write your signature can you duplicate it very similarly just about every time? I bet you can and I bet it takes very little effort. You pick up the pen and swiftly sign your name like you’ve done it thousands of times. I think it’s fair to say that you KNOW how to sign your name. That is something you know, understand and can replicate. Ok…now put the pen in your other hand and see how close you can get your signature to look like the one you always do. And for those of you that are freakishly talented at signing your names with both hands we’ll up the ante! Go ahead and put the pen between your toes and sign your name! Good luck! And if you pull that one off, please send me a video! Knowing how to complete this task still must be paired with your practiced hand or it’s not as good.

Another good example is when I rope or do rope tricks. I have a high level of understanding for what the rope needs to do in order to catch or twirl through the air. I have amazing feel and timing with a rope…but when I put it in my left hand, all bets are off! I look like an advanced beginner, regardless of the knowledge in my head.

Some people may argue that with horses it’s different…and I would agree…it’s MUCH harder to train horses than it is to sign your name or do rope tricks. Being an expert in horsemanship theory, but an unpracticed expert, is really not that great 🤷🏻‍♂️. But of course it is better than someone who has never studied or practiced horsemanship at all. To be clear, what I’m getting at is how important it is to PRACTICE the things we learn. Storing them in the back of our brains so we can later judge others for how they are doing it, “wrong” isn’t as admirable as some people think. Criticizing others who post their practice and progress videos (while you post none), doesn’t make you better than them…most of the time it just makes you mean, and causes less videos to be posted. And I get it, sometimes people post dumb stuff, sometimes it’s downright hard to watch. But if they aren’t asking for advice then that means they aren’t mentally open to reviewing any. So the free advice you are giving will be devalued to UNWANTED free advice. Talk about the low of lows!

To be honest, when I was practicing is when I realized how hard it really is. It’s what has helped me to judge others less and understand their struggles more. Clinicians and top trainers would make it look so easy, and all I did was go home and wreck my horse. But truth be told you’re going to wreck a few in the process of figuring things out. Don’t stress too much though, they’ll just be wrecked in the way of not quite figuring out what you’re trying to teach. It’s pretty unlikely that you’re going to scar them for life, but much more likely that they’ll just do the exact opposite of what you’re after. But in the wrecking and rebuilding process is where you’ll build your own skill! You’ll mess them up and fix them and pretty soon you’ll stop messing them up! Or at least you’ll mess them up in different ways and then you’ll build new skills! Isn’t that exciting?! Well…it was for me 🤷🏻‍♂️. It’s progress we’re after, not perfection.

I’ve met a lot of experts in horsemanship theory. I love their confidence, excitement and understanding of horsemanship when I talk to them. It’s like a beacon of light that helps me feel like there are a lot of us out here that are really wanting to help the horse. And then I see them at the end of the leadrope and it’s as if they’re trying to teach something they know but they have to teach it to someone (or something 😜) that speaks a totally different language. Their eyes get big and they don’t know where to start. They make the most basic of mistakes simply because they haven’t practiced these theories they poetically preach! This stuff takes hours upon hours of practice (compounded over years with tears and days become decades). It’s what separates the true experts from the experts in horsemanship theory.

Want to know the true story of where this article started? Well it’s 10pm so I’m writing this before going to bed. But earlier in the night I was trying to practice a knot. A knot that I’ve done before but sometimes I can tie it and others times it just doesn’t look right. In the first 15 tries I got it right twice 🤦🏻‍♂️😂. It was mildly inconvenient but I knew I’d figure it out because let’s face it…I’ve been down failure street more than a time or two 😜. Generally the only true failures are when someone gives up before they figure something out. I did end the night by tying the knot correctly several times in a row and I made a caveson for myself to see if I like the style of it. But I can’t tell you how many times I tried and tied and my knot was not right. And that makes a not knot, and when it’s not the knot you can’t end the night! Sorry…didn’t mean to share my knotty not knot thoughts with you all…so anyways, It reminded me so much of getting better with horses. Working on ourselves with horses can be incredibly frustrating. Especially when we have watched or received hours of expert coaching so we know what we want but can’t seem to pull it off…YET.

Here’s my advice…just keep trying and don’t give up! You’ll find sometimes the answers just pop up. Other times we go digging and ask around before the answer we seek shows up. I recently watched a new movie and loved a quote they used, “if you sit in the question, the answer will find you.” I’ve had certain questions in my head for years before I finally found an answer I liked. Then a bit more time passed and I expanded on my understanding of it even more! But the key is time. I like to be patiently impatient. Hunting for an answer but not getting upset when it doesn’t show up right away…I know one day it will.

Just remember, knowing is not enough. If you want to help others, show them! Lead by example and not by explanation.

Until next time, if you get in a jam,
Just Bend It!!

📸: Karen Perry, with Delilah looking back like, “what is this clown doing?!”