Warwick Schiller's Attuned Horsemanship

14/08/2025

There's an app you can get for your phone called Equilab. It's similar to a running or bike riding app, tracking your ride or run, showing you where you went, and providing average speed and distance travelled.

Equilab is made specifically for horses, but not only does it show you where you went, it tells you by use of different colours, where you walked, where you trotted, where you cantered, and where you stopped. Humans need an app like that, however horses don't. They are masters are remembering patterns, and details, they know all of those things. And if they can find a pattern of places of less energy expended than other places, they will tend to seek out those places.

In my book The Principles Of Training, one of the principles is called Choose Where You Work and Choose Where You Rest. This principle is about being aware of a horse's awareness of places they rest, and the places they are asked to expend more energy.

One common problem I see is with people who ride in an arena with their friends. They tend to work on the things they want to work on (such as transistions, or 20 metre circles, or whatever) separately, but then when they stop to rest their horses they tend to sit together and chat. This can often lead horses not wanting to leave the other horses when it's time to do some work. Many times people will be hard on the horse, saying he's "cunning" and "wants to get out of work", or in England they will call the horse "nappy", but in fact it's just the horse seeking the most comfortable place, and that comfortable place was shown to them repetitivly by the same peerson who is now complaining about the issue.

I've often said that one of these days I'm going to write an article called "Do you complain about the things you've taught your horse to do", and while that sounds ridiculous, many times the horse learned to do something through the rider just being aware of the pattern they are creating. In this video Im riding Chance, and our intern Molly is riding Rupert, and I was going to share a story with her, and thought I'd capture where I might rest my horse while telling her.

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13/08/2025

Honestly one of the coolest things Ive ever done in my life, possibly the coolest! The Gaucho Derby is back in 2026. If you want to test your limits, like horses and adventure, THIS is the experience for you.

It was so good to see all my gaucho friends in this video, and as I say at one point in it...

"S**t just got real"!

12/08/2025

THE TROUBLE WITH POSTING ON THE INTERNET.

It's difficult sharing things on social media, as the information is going to be interpreted through the lens of the person reading it. They will read something that actually has some basics behind it that the reader must understand before they can grasp the full context of what was written.

The Phillipe Karl quote below is a perfect example.

He says "The riders body is the first aid. The reins are the last resort".

What most readers of that quote won't understand is that you have to train the "last resort" to work well first.

The other two pictures were taken at the Horsemanship Hub - Horsemanship Showcase last year in England, and shows a Phillipe Karl demonstration with his students. They started on the ground, showing the progression of the work, and it all starts with ensuring the responses to reins on the ground works perfectly before going under saddle.

So really the quote says "The riders body is the first aid, the reins are the last resort. But first you need to make sure that last resort works perfectly well"

If you think about Pavlovs dogs, the bell ringing was the first aid, and the meat was the last resort. He didn't use kale, he used meat, because the last resort HAS to work.

Many times at clinics I will ask"what are the primary aids?", but then say "before you answer that, what are the primary colours?"

Everyone will say blue, red and yellow.

I will then ask "what is green?" and they will respond "green is a secondary colour, made of blue and yellow".

I will then re ask the question "what are the primary aids?" and the answer is always am emphatic "Seat", they they will pause and then say "leg" and then when I have that look on my face that indicates there's more, they will hesitantly say "hands?"

Then I will usually pick one person who said that and tell them that we are going to a demonstration this afternoon of a first ever ride on a highly athletic and spirited young warmblood stallion.

I will tell them that they are going to do the first ride on him in the big arena, and they can't use their hands or legs. I will ask them, on that first ride, what will they be able to get the horse to do using only their seat, and at the end of the conversation we decide nothing. I then say because your seat is a secondary aid, because you need another aid to work in order to teach them to respond to your seat aid, similar to you need blue and yellow, if you are going to make green.

I will them tell them there is no Warmblood stallion for them to ride, and that it was just a story to get them to think about things.

When I watched Phillipe Karl and his students last year, my head kept nodding in agreeance at his process, and like every good process is logical, step by step, and most importantly sticks with the Principle of They Need To Know The Answer, Before You Ask The Question.



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08/08/2025

Think I need to add this disclaimer every time I put up a post

08/08/2025

Some thoughts on picking up a horses feet.
Being able to run away, if needed, is one of a horses primary modes of survival. If a horse is in a situation where they feel the slightest bit uneasy, reserving the right to run away if need be, is foremost on their mind.
Which brings me to the subject of picking up a horses feet. Many people try to pick them up very early on, when they haven't established the horses trust fully, and then have issues with it. In that case, you have to remember the horse isn't being stubborn, or belligerent, but is merely saying "I feel the need to keep all 4 feet on the ground, in case I need to flee".
Waiting until your horse is very comfortable with you before working on picking up their feet is a surefire way to be successful the first time you try it.
In this picture you see here, this is the first day I have worked on 2 month old Chance's right hind foot, and you can see he is completely relaxed with nothing on his head.
I had worked on his left hind foot 2 days prior, but he wasn't comfortable enough with me on the right side for me to do it any sooner. It's another example of the Principle of "They need To Know The Answer Before You Ask The Question".

Some thoughts on picking up a horses feet.

Being able to run away, if needed, is one of a horses primary modes of survival. If a horse is in a situation where they feel the slightest bit uneasy, reserving the right to run away if need be, is foremost on their mind.

Which brings me to the subject of picking up a horses feet. Many people try to pick them up very early on, when they haven't established the horses trust fully, and then have issues with it. In that case, you have to remember the horse isn't being stubborn, or belligerent, but is merely saying "I feel the need to keep all 4 feet on the ground, in case I need to flee".

Waiting until your horse is very comfortable with you before working on picking up their feet is a surefire way to be successful the first time you try it.

In this picture you see here, this is the first day I have worked on 2 month old Chance's right hind foot, and you can see he is completely relaxed with nothing on his head.

I had worked on his left hind foot 2 days prior, but he wasn't comfortable enough with me on the right side for me to do it any sooner. It's another example of the Principle of "They need To Know The Answer Before You Ask The Question".

06/08/2025

When we first bought our ranch 2 1/2 years ago, we would sometimes see deer here.But as soon as they saw up, they'd run away as fast as possible.

So over the past couple of years, I've made a point of stopping every time a deer becomes aware of me. If I'm walking, or riding a horse, or on the ATV, I stop every time a deer becomes aware of me (and in order to do that, I need to be aware of them).Over a period of time, these deer have become quieter and quieter.

In this video below, you see Tyler doing some rodent control with a rifle, while nearby deer just lay in the grass and watch.We did not tie the deer to a pole and desensitize them to gunfire. We did not run them around to "respect' us. We communicated our awareness of their flight zone, or as podcast guest Doniga Markegard called it, our "ring of disturbance".

This is the same attunement I talk about with horses. The connection work is not about the warm and fuzzies, it's about communicating awareness and making them feel safe.

Enjoy the video!

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05/08/2025

Some horse training advice here

05/08/2025

When presenting at horse expos, I will often ask the crowd

"Has anyone here ever started a young horse under saddle, and done their first ride outside in a bigger area, either an arena or a pasture?"

Many people will raise their hands.

I will then ask "And how do they ride? Nice and straight and forward, or something different?"

Everyone who had their hands raised is now making a movement with their hands that looks like a fish swimming through water, or a snake making his way across the ground.

I will then say "So you think they are wiggly?" and everyone nods

When I ask why, the people say things like

"They are not used to carrying a riders weight."

"They are young therefore unbalanced."

"They are unsure."

"They are a _______ (insert breed in here, Warmblood, Arabian, etc) and that's why they are wiggly."

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Take a look at this video and see the real reason why they do that, and see how I go about having them go nice and straight and forward and balanced, even on the first ride outside.

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Warwick explains some common misperceptions about why first rides are sometimes unbalanced and hard to sit. He explores the real reason behind it and tells ...

05/08/2025

The case for having horses catch you, instead of you catching them.

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