Saint Anthony's Ridge Horsemanship Center

08/31/2024

Available: Small squares $3 first cut. $4 second cut.

01/27/2024

Now's the time to get a "Hoof it to Healing" retreat booked for the upcoming season! Gather a group of friends, co-workers, or church members to learn insightful things about yourself and others while gaining the tools of good communication. Whether you are looking for a team-building experience, personal growth, or insight into breaking out of destructive behavior/thought patterns a retreat will help you achieve all of the above. Contact Brenda 608.632.5208 with questions or [email protected].

01/25/2024

It's that time of year again to book your Hoof it to Healing Retreat for the 2024 season. Check out the Saint Anthony's Horsemanship Center page for details!

06/05/2023

Apart from the horses back, the horses face is one of the most frequently disrespected spaces in a horses body. Crowded, tickled, slapped, ruffled, pulled on and pushed on, haltered and bridled rudely and carelessly, and generally treated without sensitivity.

A horses face is typically the first place we interact with to start our work- this is where we approach, halter and lead from. From the first interactions here, we can either create looseness, straightness and calm, or we can brace the whole body and create evasion and distrust.

Every interaction matters. Treat your horses face and head with the respect it deserves, remembering that their head connects into their neck and all the way into their back. If we want to ride a swinging back, we can’t forget to treat the head with respect.

03/10/2023

Perspective changes when you see things for what they are. When you see a covering of snow it's not one thing but really a collection of millions of tiny snowflakes working together to make something beautiful. They say no two snowflakes are alike but unique in their own design. I think we as a people have missed the mark when it comes to not seeing our world the same way. We are a group of individuals made uniquely to share our own gifts to make something beautiful as a whole. We have been made for so much more then what we allow ourselves to become. The beauty does not come from standing alone trying to show the world we have something to offer but rather connecting ourselves to something greater. One individual snowflake is not noticed for it's greatness but becomes a blinding force to behold when it joins the others. God always orchestrates our true nature toward the good and as long as we are orientated toward Him our nature stays the course. Unfortunately we humans aren't so good a staying-the-course but thankfully there is always hope. Take a moment today to see how you are made so beautifully in the image and likeness of God and you just may find the possibilities are endless.....

03/09/2023

Man do I love what horse's teach me! God always uses horses to teach me about what I need to learn in my life. This horse (and many other horses and people in the world) struggle from Limbic system malfunction. Which essentially means the fight, flight, and/or freeze mechanism never performs a full loop cycle causing an overreaction to stimuli. I see this everywhere now and am absolutely fascinated with this study. Helping this horse overcome this malfunction has helped me so much in my own life and am now incorporating it into my teaching with other horses and their peeps. One good reason to consider if your horse has this malfunction is because it's impact goes directly to the cells and causes inflammation. A horse in this cycle can't relax enough to hold itself properly for proper biomechanics. Allergies, ulcers, hoof issues, excessive spooking are just a few of the manifestations you will see.

01/28/2023

01/28/2023

Horses Hear What Is Not Spoken

11/30/2022

This subject is a touchy one and a deep one too… but I'm only going to brush the surface because I want you to get curious and explore it yourself!

I want you to ask yourself what respect from your horse means to you… then I want you to ask yourself what you think respecting you or the "lead mare" means to your horse.

Respect seems to be the magic word these days… get your horse to respect you and he will do A B and C no questions asked.

A lot of training programs talk about getting your horse's respect so much that we come to believe respect is all we need to have a safe and successful relationship with our horses…..

I see lots of people struggle with these programs and they start to think if they can get the horse's respect like the lead mare everything will fall into place.

What if I told you that herd dynamics are a lot more intricate than we are commonly taught? And that "being the lead mare" whether it's the way we are taught she is or not … isn't quite a great way to approach horse training.

Why not?

So this is the part I encourage you to experiment with- watch the horse in the herd that gets moved around by the dominant/pushy horse of the herd and see how that horse responds to being moved around, and if that's something you would like to ride and if you would feel safe riding.

What I normally see when this happens is that the horse usually gets grumpy about being moved around, kicked at, bit at, etc.
And will swish their tail, half heartedly kick or bite back, or pin their ears at the other horse. Is this the kind of behavior you are looking for in your horse? Because this is how the horse treats the so-called leader.

I have had people come to me and say- my horse spooks on the trail, I'm his leader and he respects me so shouldn't he be relaxed like me?!

Let's look at it this way…

If there is a large herd of horses out grazing in the wild and a mountain lion is sneaking up on the horse to the left and the "lead mare" is way over to the right and doesn't notice- do you think the horse on the left is going to hang out with the mountain lion nice and calm until the lead horse notices?

No

That horse is going to alert the whole herd of that mountain lion… and now that horse is the leader for the moment.

If you want your horse to be confident on the trail or anywhere…
Your horse needs guidance from you, he needs to know you are trustworthy and understanding of where his thresholds are and how to help him from there. He needs to know you are not going to get in his way, he needs to know you are not going to pull him off balance if he gets scared, he needs to know you are not going to cause him pain.

And most importantly he needs to know what your aids mean, he needs to understand how he is supposed to respond. He needs to be balanced and comfortable.

Even if the herd dynamics worked the way we are commonly taught … the lead mare doesn't ride the horses. She's not teaching them what reins mean, how to be balanced and carry a rider.

Horsemanship is a lifelong journey that takes dedication, patience, determination, practice, skill, open mindedness, and a humble nature. It can not be taught in 30, 60, or 90 days.

If you want to be a true horseman and get true results and have happy horses it's not going to happen by getting your horse's respect.

11/28/2022

The refined use of escalated pressure is not "feel" no matter how subtle it's application.

-Saint Anthony's Ridge Horsemanship Center-

11/23/2022

09/28/2022

When we decide to become present that is where connection begins. "Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10