Equine Connection Freelance Training

11/01/2026

Just the wisdom I needed to come across my feed this morning…

“When you first start to learn about how to teach horses to be soft, balanced, relaxed, and forward, you will feel a little overwhelmed at what it takes.

Your friends might be out on their young, or green horse, or older horse with history, charging about in groups.

You will be walking squares, and side passing, and getting that back up just a little better.

Others will be out trying to force their horse through something, trying to beat the clock, or impress a judge.

You will be correcting slight balance inconsistencies whilst walking, trotting, and loping on a loose rein.

Some will be reefing their horse to a stop, hauling on it for a turn, and spurring it to go, trying to work a cow.

You will be helping your horse to better understand that accepting the bit and following a soft feel is much better than avoiding it, or leaning on it to protect himself.

Riders you know, might be trying to make their horse go near something they are worried about, and you will be busy teaching yours that something is ok.

They will be focussed on blaming the environment or the horse’s past for their failings.

You will be busy working on what needs working on with the horse you have in front of you.

One day you will see them running the energy off their rushy, braced, confused, tolerant horse so they can ride it, from the back of your soft, relaxed, confident, brave, balanced, energetic, sound, amazing horse.

And you will know how to improve on that, not make it worse.

There is no magic training, or magic equipment.

That is all.

Ok that is not all.

Those others that I talked about will probably tell you how fortunate you are to have lucked upon a horse with such a great temperament, or that you would find things different if he were a hotter breed.

Chances are, most of them won’t even know enough to recognise the way your horse carries himself or moves as an improvement.

Don't expect any praise.

Your enjoyment should come from your own sense of achievement, and the fact that riding horses that operate like the one you trained is addictive.”

- Ian Leighton Horsemanship, 2015

10/31/2026

I made a “spooky” obstacle course at Sage Knoll Farm today and the horses were more interested in playing in it on their own! When you encourage horse’s curiosity, things like this are fun, not scary lol! Enjoy the show 😂

10/24/2026

FOLDING THE HIND LEG…

When we talk about riding back to front, or riding the hind leg, or engaging the hind leg, or ‘collecting’ the hindquarters, sometimes we’ll say, “Get the hind leg under.”

But in the before picture, the hind leg is plenty under.

It’s also completely straight in all the joints, basically acting as a crutch, almost pole-vaulting the horse’s body mass over it, right into their shoulders.

There’s no folding of the joints, no spring action, so there’s no shock absorption, and no ability to change the horizontal thrust into anything vertical, or allow maneuverability around the hindquarters, not to mention, there’s no ability of the hind leg to compress and brake for transitions.

So the horse gets stuck running themselves into the ground in one direction.

This is what is meant by ‘pushing versus carrying’ hindquarters.

Horse and rider learning to fold the hind leg isn’t about doing advanced work for it’s own sake… it’s about longevity and protecting the joints, not to mention comfort for horse and rider, and the practicality of being able to maneuver within and in and out of this gait.

No amount of front to back work, whether it’s thoracic sling work, or getting a horse into a frame, will fix this.

And there’s only so much preparatory work we can do in walk and trot to affect the way the hind leg functions in canter.

There’s a reason why almost every classical master prescribed counter canter and shoulder-fore in canter… to increase the folding of the hind leg, allowing the horse to ‘squat.’

The ability to do this is hard won, especially with horses who are built downhill, or move quite stiff in the hind joints.

This mare finds this work really, really difficult, but really, really rewarding. She gets quite emotionally unregulated when she can’t figure out how to balance herself in canter, which makes her brace even more, creating a cycle of tension.

The inability to fold the hind joints is what plateaus a lot of riders when they get into canter work.

We can be fooled by the shortening of the gaits in walk and trot that we have ‘collected’ the horse, even when the hind legs stay braced, but we can’t fake it in canter without turning the horse into a unmaneuverable 2x4.

Not to mention, as the only gait with natural bend and asymmetry, it will highlight the holes in our training or our horse’s development every single time…

Canter humbles you.

10/21/2026

This is a huge part of why I stress proper hoof care in tandem with my postural training. Hoof balance and body balance go hand in hand, and when both are addressed, we can have healthy, happy horses! We have all become so accustomed to seeing horses with long toes and low, under run heels that we think it’s normal, and don’t even notice the abnormal compensatory postures the horses develop until we either go down the rabbit hole to learn about it, or our horse’s body begins to break down… I cannot stress the importance of this enough!!!

10/18/2026

NERVOUS SYSTEM REGULATION AFTER MEDICAL TRAUMA

I don’t usually take the time to share about my daily training/rehab outcomes on social media, but I think the world needs to know what Remy has shown is possible.

Remy came to my farm with significant medical trauma. He would completely panic at gloves, needles, or the smell of rubbing alcohol. This massive Dutch harness would spin in circles in his stall and try to squish you like a bug when triggered. If you felt for his vein with your hand or pinched the skin in his neck to prepare for an IM shot, he would shake and do everything he could to get away. You would be dangling from his halter at high speed if you hung on.

My first approach at trying to train him out of this trauma response honestly failed. I began with attunement only, backing off at any part of the process of vaccine preparation whenever he showed signed of tension. He built trust and stopped panicking. I thought we were on the right track. But when we progressed towards giving shots and pivoted to counter conditioning every step of the process through food rewards, he was very anxious inside and just tolerated what he could to earn a treat, while feeling betrayed. I couldn’t quite meld the attunement and the consent with this application of positive reinforcement with the layer of trauma and the fact that I was training an inherently uncomfortable procedure. I would ask his permission before initiating each try by asking “neck?” But he was split in 2– the half trying to be a good boy and earn a reward, and the part that felt utterly out of control, vulnerable, and in danger. It didn’t work. I went back to the drawing board.

I started over, this time completely consent based. I was unsure about this at first because why would a horse ever willingly participate in getting a shot. It hurts, and there’s nothing in it for them as far as they can tell. But I had to take a different approach for his health and wellbeing. It’s not practical to have to give dormosedan gel before every injection. What if there was an emergency? We owed it to him to teach him to at the very least tolerate shots, but as long as he was getting triggered, there was no possibility for mere tolerance…

I started with a totally benign object, a ball on a stick, asking him to target it with his his face, then upper neck, then lower neck. Click, treat. At first I had it telescoped out several feet, and gradually shortened the distance. Interacting with the part of his neck where IM shots are given has been really tricky, and sometimes even petting him there or brushing had been a trigger. But in my second time going through this training, I always went slow enough, determined to never touch on the panic feelings and always have him feeling like he’s playing and problem solving through a totally new activity and situation. Eventually I could hold the ball in my hand and he would step over and push the base of his neck onto it.

Then I switched the ball out for the capped needle and syringe. Because of the nervous system state brought on by his fun neck targeting, he seamlessly integrated the syringe to my surprise. Then I practiced it with a cotton ball. Then a cotton ball soaked in alcohol. Then one after the other. Then I added capping and uncapping the needle. If he didn’t move towards it, it never touched him. He got to choose. Also note here that we had previously done a lot of training to help him with his food anxiety— we had resolved his over arousal around food and anxiety about it being withheld, so he could actually think and be present during clicker training.

Today, I had a syringe with his flu/rhino vaccine. During our usual practice, I uncapped the needle and left it uncapped. He pushed his neck onto the needle, I pushed the plunger, and he had NO NEGATIVE REACTION! We were over the moon! His person was standing on the other side and I didn’t tell her when I was going to do the real shot. I didn’t want her energy make Remy suspicious. After I gave it to him, I said “I just gave him his shot!” and Kendall was shocked because there was no change in his expression or disposition. You couldn’t tell the difference between the capped practice and the actual injection being given!

It goes to show that pain and triggers are so context specific, in particular to mood and nervous system activity. If we are feeling safe and having fun, things like getting bitten by a fly or stabbed with a needle don’t hurt so much. But if we are anticipating something we know hurts and are asked to tolerate it, it makes it even more stressful and painful, especially if there’s trauma there !

I was very interested by how much more smoothly the vaccine administration went in this method, at liberty and with the horse entirely in control, EVEN with a horse who has historically been impossible to give shots to without sedation. Even when I give vaccines to very well behaved horses, they brace their necks to an extent, knowing what’s coming, and that makes it all the more uncomfortable, even if they cooperate. I really believe this is a better way to do shots for all horses, and will be adopting it for ALL the horses in my program at Sage Knoll Farm.

I am so grateful for the horses like Remy who teach me to open my mind and be creative and find new approaches. 💕

10/11/2026

Liberty Festival 2026 💕

10/09/2026

I got to watch the amazing Griffin and his wonderful mama Alaina Alderman compete today at the Liberty Festival! They’re such a harmonious duo, and I feel so blessed for the opportunity to work with Griffin for my arena presentation tomorrow on the Art of Classical In-Hand Work🥰

10/08/2026

My third presentation at the Liberty Festival will be on Mindfulness with Horses.

When I teach my students how to do the postural work, what inevitably comes up is that even if they do all the physical actions "perfectly", if they are not grounded and congruent inside themselves, it's very challenging for the horse to feel safe inside the questions, and respond to us accordingly.

Our ability to be present in our own bodies and in shared moments with our horses is the key to anything and everything we might want to do with our horses.

We see again and again that horsemanship is really a cultivation of our truest nature so that we can show up for the horses, and has very little do about any skills that are unique and specific to interacting with the horses themselves.

It's asking ourselves if we come to the horses to escape our lives, or to live in wholeness. The later is where the healing is, for our horses and for ourselves.

10/07/2026

My second presentation at the Liberty Festival this weekend will be an arena demonstration on The Art of Classical In-Hand Work!

I considered bringing a horse that I have been training/rehabbing, but I decided it would be most valuable to present my process with a horse I have never worked with before, as I often do at my clinics. I'll be showing how I connect with and evaluate each horse, and let them guide me through the postural work and classical gymnastics as is nourishing for their unique minds, bodies, and spirits.

My work is not about perfecting and performing exercises and movements; it's about finding the version of each movement that is healing for the horse in front of me, and having a conversation through that movement. This conversation is the art.

Big thanks to Alaina Alderman for offering me your horse Griffin! I can't wait to meet him and see what I can offer him on Saturday!

10/06/2026

The first seminar I'll be teaching at the Liberty Festival is all about how the nervous system, posture, and biomechanics are inextricably linked. You'll come out of this lecture understanding why we cannot have tunnel vision and look at physical posture; we cannot ignore the emotional and mental characteristics that come with it. And also, that our horse's emotional and mental wellbeing are indeed necessary for healthy posture and movement. The focus of my work these days is postural rehabilitation-- helping the horse find emotional regulation, mental understanding of us and their domestic world, and a physical posture that promotes health, comfort, and longevity and opens up infinite possibilities for what we can do with our horses in partnership. Hope to see you there!