Atcheson Foundation and Performance Training

01/09/2026

I think horse training might be one of the most romanticized professions in the horse industry.

And maybe one of the only professions where doing something a few times automatically makes people comfortable putting it in their job title.

Riding your own young horses is training horses. Helping a friend with theirs is training horses. Being knowledgeable and capable absolutely counts for something.

But being a professional horse trainer is a whole different animal.

It means taking horses you didn’t pick, with problems you didn’t create, owned by people with different goals, expectations and timelines — and figuring out how to make progress with all of them.

It’s riding when it’s 100 degrees and when it’s freezing. It’s managing a barn full of different personalities, soundness concerns, feeding programs, farrier schedules, vet appointments and owner communication.

It’s sending invoices. Answering messages. Making videos. Scheduling lessons. Hauling. Competing. Keeping records. Paying insurance, fuel, help, facility expenses and everything else that comes with running an actual business.

It’s riding the easy ones AND the difficult ones.

And the biggest difference might be this:

When it’s your profession, you don’t just get to train horses when you feel inspired to train horses.

They are waiting on you every morning.

I don’t think that makes a professional trainer automatically more talented than someone who trains their own. There are some incredibly handy horsemen and women who have never taken a training horse in their life.

But I do think there’s a difference between knowing how to train a horse and choosing horse training as your profession.

Social media tends to show the pretty parts — riding all day, winning, nice horses, traveling and getting paid to do what you love.

It doesn’t show nearly as much of the responsibility that comes with making your living responsible for someone else’s horse.

And if you’re young or seriously considering making this your profession, one of the best things you can do before hanging out your own shingle is go work under an established trainer for a summer.

Not just take lessons. Not just ride the fun ones. Actually WORK there.

Show up when they do. Help feed. Saddle. Ride. Clean up. Handle the problem horses. Watch how they communicate with clients. See what happens when one gets hurt, a truck breaks down, the schedule gets blown apart or there’s more work than daylight.

Give yourself a few months of seeing what the profession looks like when nobody is making a highlight reel out of it.

You may come out of that summer wanting it even more — and with a whole lot more knowledge about what it actually takes.

Or you may realize you love training horses a lot more when you don’t have to make your living doing it.

Both are perfectly good answers.

For the people who do this professionally: what’s the part of the job you wish you’d gotten to experience BEFORE you decided to make it your career?

08/08/2026

What you put in is what you get out!

It’s so easy to reach for that bagel and coffee early in the morning and start your day but you have to remember what you put in your body, is the energy that you’re gonna get out of it!

I work really hard every day and I have to make sure that I am getting the protein, fiber, and carbs that I need an order for my system to keep going. The picture shown is a typical breakfast for me. Sometimes I will do roasted potatoes to sub the high protein pancakes, and sometimes I will do high-protein Greek yogurt instead of the cottage cheese. One thing that I 100% want to have is at least 30g of protein and also a carb.

We get so caught up on what we feed our horses that we forget to feed ourselves and if we are not able to sustain then what’s the point? Each person is going to be different but also the same. We need protein! We need fiber! We need carbs! Don’t let the health nuts fool you, we need to eat! Home-cooked meals, and Whole Foods is the way to go. Cut the sugars, cut the processed, cut the bu****it your body will thank you! 

Don’t give me that I don’t have time, you have to make time. Meal prep on Sundays or get up early and make it a priority. Trust me, if I can do it, you can too! 

25/07/2026

Let’s talk worms 🪱

They are the masters of disguise and can go without being noticed for months on end. You might have the perfect worming schedule, but sometimes deep in the hindgut they hide.

About 80% of the Horses that I get in will be wormed within 30 days of being in my program. It doesn’t matter if they were wormed a couple weeks prior to coming, which I recommend.

These are horses that look good, feel good, eat good, and overall have a good solid bowel movements. They may have a stray hair here or there that’s a little thicker than others or they might have a couple of sores that I will notice.

The main thing that gives it away around two weeks in, the bowel movements change. Pressure is being added, the horse gets a little nervous, the stomach gets disrupted, and that gut stops hiding the worms that it was protecting. 

As soon as I have a horse that has loose stool, I will go and investigate and sure enough. I will find these tiny red worms. That same horse will have a solid stool in their stall and no red worms. That’s why they are masters of disguise!

This is also another reason why your horse may loose weight unexpectedly in training. If a trainer shrugs if off as just nerves and never investigates, then the worms stay and eat everything that trainer is giving them. Me personally, I don’t want to feed the worms!

So now what? I worm them with a double shot of Panacur, give the horse a day off and get rid of the little trouble makers. Will I worm the horse again? Maybe around 60 or 90 days but the horse will let me know.

I have added a picture of a paper that a vet gave me a very long time ago. Tried and true, I do this every year with my personal horses! Come March I will PowerPac, wait two weeks hit them with a single, wait a month hit them again then start my 3 month rotation.

I have also added wormers and what worms they are good for. You have to rotate your wormers every 3 months and also worm by the season. I think everyone gets comfortable just going a grabbing a wormer off the shelf thinking, “This will work!” When in fact it won’t.

Don’t be afraid to talk to your vet about f***l counts. This will give you very valuable information on if your horse is a high shed(400+ eggs per gram) or a low shed (200 or less eggs per gram) that way you can really fine tune your worming program. 

16/07/2026

Don’t let the hard days win!

Not everyday is going to be easy, there are going to be things that break or things that just stop working. Maybe you didn’t sleep good the night before, maybe you just don’t feel well or maybe it’s just a plain cruddy day.

This c**t had a hard day, but I was there for him to not let the hard day win. I guided him through the tuff spots, I encouraged him when he just wanted to quit and I praised him when he got it right. Was everything perfect, NO, he was just having a hard day and I gave him grace.

When we have hard days it’s so easy to feel like the world is against us begging us to just throw in the towel. Especially if you feel like no one is there to guide, encourage or praise you in those times. In those moments look to God, because he is always there. He is there to guide us with his word, he encourages us with his constant presence and he praises us by divine commendation.

When we don’t get it right he gives us Grace through the Holy Spirit and the sacrifice of his only son Jesus Christ.

Don’t let the hard days win!

16/06/2026

Be kind…..we truly are trying.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but the expectation that your c**t starter can completely transform a horse into something else isn’t fair.

Hear me out.

There is a difference between your c**t starter teaching and working your horse to make a better well rounded partner. Absolutely.
Building confidence, creating boundaries, teaching better skills—that’s our job.

We cannot, however, change your horse or their personality.
Your c**t starter cannot change 6 years of naughty behavior in 30-60-90 days. You simply can’t.

Especially if the owner doesn’t have the knowledge, timing, feel or skill to continue what the trainer is teaching your horse.

Expecting a horse to change who they are at their core is a disappointment waiting to happen.

Rusty is an anxious guy at his core. I will not be able to change that. I can give him proper tools to be better, but I cannot change his personality.

Cinder is bred to be hot, quick and fast. She reacts quick because that’s what her genetic make up tells her to do. I cannot train that out of her. I can hone her skills to be used appropriately and have time and place-but at her core, she will be a hot feely mare.

Legacy is a 3yr old at heart. He’s goofy, playful, and mentally immature. I can train him, expose him, teach him what to do and how to be. He is my steady eddy in all things too. But I cannot force him to be a grown up and not wanna play all the time.

There is a time and place to teach and grow skill. And a time and place to accept.
It has taken me 6 years to accept Rusty as who he is. It can always get better, but it won’t change who they are.

C**t starters cannot perform miracles. They absolutely can create CHANGE. Which can be perceived as a miracle especially when ol Bucky learns how to do a lead change or back up softer.
But if their personality is to “be something”, you’ll either spend their whole life fighting to change it or you’ll learn acceptance and how to work with them.

That adaptability depends on you.

Your c**t starter cannot work miracles. They work c**ts.

**tstarter **tstarting

08/06/2026

Think your warm-up is long enough?
If your warm-up is 5 minutes, it's not a warm-up.
Most horses need 10-15 minutes of walking to loosen muscles and prepare their joints. Rushing it can lead to stiffness, resistance, and injury.
Too short of a warm-up can cause tight joints, abrupt transitions, and immediate intensity. The cost is reduced elasticity, higher injury risk, less engagement, and stiffness. "He feels fine" is an excuse. Adrenaline hides stiffness, but warmth reveals it.
The fix is 10-15 minutes of gradual walking and large circles with long and low stretching. Heat increases muscle elasticity. Synovial fluid lubricates joints. Soft tissues respond better.
Warm up like longevity matters...because it does.
Take the time.
Your horse will thank you.

23/05/2026

How much and what is in your hay bag?!?

Most folks toss a couple of flakes of hay in a bag, stall or pasture but do you truly know how much you are feeding and what? The horses in my program have to eat and here we love to love forage. My program is built around forage, not just good forage but quality, stick your face in it and take a deep breath forage (we’ve all done it)

Forage is the foundation of a horses diet and they should consume at least 2% of their body weight daily in forage. There are 3 primary forage types:
〰️Grass/Pasture
〰️Grass Hay
〰️Legume Hay
Good pasture is a staple in the equine industry! I don’t know of many horse folks that don’t drive by a beautiful well kept pasture and wish their horses were on it. It takes a lot of time, money and effort to have a good nutritious pasture.

If you don’t have access to good pasture, grass hay is your base for forage! It should have a good color and a sweet smell. It is high in fiber, nutrients and has some protein. There are so many varieties of great grass hays and they differ per region.

Legume hay is high in protein and it typically ranges from 14%-26%. It is very energy dense meaning you don’t have to feed as much. It is rich in nutrients and minerals. Calcium is 3xs higher for bone health, development and milk production in pregnant/lactating mares.

Most times you can get a great mix of grass and legume, a perfect balance for most horses. Some buy grass hay and legume separate so they can mix accordingly by weight or by individual horses needs. Then there are some that feed nothing but legume hay (alfalfa) and you have others that feed nothing but grass hay.

At the end of the day, no matter what hay you feed we all need to make sure that our horses are getting the 15-25lbs of forage they need.

Shout out to RED BARN HAY CO. for always having great quality hay!