Best Horse Practices Podcast

Humanship. It's an idea that has been tossed around the horse world for a few years now. During the Cayuse Collaborative Clinic, for instance, we added a bit of humanship by having a noontime session with Trish Lemke on how to be the best person for your horse. It was an introduction to thinking about our intentions and peace of mind whenever we're around horses. Now comes Astrid Larsen. Astrid is...

One of the things Jec and I are working on, here on the podcast, in writing, on social media, at at the Cayuse Collaborative Clinics , is humanship. We think that in order to be best for your horses, you have to be best for yourself. In an oversimplified, generalized way, this means when you interact with your horse, it's best if you come into his or her presence without ego, without agenda, with...

For this episode, Jec interviews Cathy Woods. Cathy teaches yoga to riders and has a book on this intersection of riding and yoga, called, you guessed it, Yoga for Riders. Even if you don't dive into horseback yoga movements, the conversation nicely reminds us that it's all about awareness. Awareness is what makes us better riders. And it definitely helps us appreciate our time with horses. We tha...

For this episode, Jec interviews Dr. Doug Thal of Thal Equine in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I first started talking with Doug a year or more ago. He came highly recommended by Katrin Silva as someone personable and knowledgeable on all things horses and vets. And boy isn't he. Thal created Horse Side Vet Guide, a free online resource for equine medical questions. Oh and this news, hot off the press: Dr...

Welcome to episode 18 of season two and thank you so much for listening. As you have probably heard, our show is an enlightened space for riders and horse owners of all disciplines to learn best practices and to discover ways to better connect with their horses. Plus, we like to feel safe and have fun. And speaking of feeling safe and having fun, we're doing a series of clinics this year with Jec,...

For this episode, I take the mic from Jec and visit with Kimberly Loveless and Kerry O'Brien, horsewomen I admire for their ongoing journey of learning and making progress with their horses. In addition, they have both been generous supporters of the Best Horse Practices Summit. The three of us have been visiting back and forth about positive reinforcement. Years ago, I featured an article that wa...

Welcome to Episode 16 of Season 2 This episode is an On the Fence segment with myself and Jec. We're talking about what horses really want for Christmas. Or Hannukah. Or Kwanzaa or whatever. We talk about education and expanding comfort zones, building confidence and we're giving away a Beyond Horse Massage Jim Masterson's book and DVD set. So contact us if you would like to be in the running. Gra...

In this episode, Ann Firestone of Save Your Ass Long Eared Rescue joins Jec in California-to-New Hampshire phone conversation. Ann has been ardently devoted to this mule and donkey non profit for years. I remember profiling her for NickerNews a decade ago when I was living in Maine. Here's a more recent post .  As the holiday season is upon us, I think it's important to remember that non profits l...

This episode is an On the Fence segment, a time for Jec and me to talk about what's up lately. And lately it has been all about the Best Horse Practices Summit. This is the conference I direct and where Jec presented. The Summit has been in Colorado and Maine and this year we held it at Spy Coast Farm in Lexington Kentucky. Our roster included Jec and eight other presenters, giving academic and ar...

Welcome to Episode 13 of Season Two and thank you so much for listening. As I talk into the mic from my Colorado home office, we're about a week away from the kickoff of the Best Horse Practices Summit in Lexington, Kentucky.  It's exciting and the days are chock full of tending to details: airport transportation for presenters, coffee for the Airbnb's for the presenters. Audio-video fine points....

For this episode, Maddy talks with West Taylor . West runs Wild West Mustang Ranch in central Utah and has been a Best Horse Practices Summit presenter twice. He has scores of videos on his site as well as on YouTube and Facebook . Check out his 2018 and 2019 presentations in the Best Horse Practices Summit video library . West specializes in work with wild horses and uses what he knows about brai...

For this episode, Jec invites Patrick King , the renown clinician and trainer with a very active online presence, but who travels widely, too. They talk about the pros and cons of virtual lessons. It's pretty cool because Jec actually took a virtual lesson from Patrick and part of their discussion is about how that went. I'd heartily agree with them that us horse riders are behind the times when i...

For this episode, Jec invites Dr. Geoff Tucker of The Horse's Advocate to chat about equine nutrition. It's probably our most science-oriented episode yet and it might be challenging for some. I think you will hear that Dr. Tucker's findings agree with some things Jec and I have aired in other episodes. And what he's saying echoes also what Dr. Erika Lacher elaborated on in Season One of our show....

For this episode, I'm taking the reins, like ya do, from my colleague Jec, to talk with Daniel Dauphin . Dauphin is a Louisiana horseman who lives about halfway between Houston and New Orleans. He has an engaging website that caught my attention for the depth of information he puts out there. Most specifically, he's written a treatise on bits. Actually, it is manifested in video, in his More Than...

As we like to say on the show, this is an enlightened space for riders and horse owners of all disciplines to learn best practices and to discover ways to better connect with their horses. Plus, we like to feel safe and have fun. And s peaking of feeling safe and having fun, this episode is about Rider Fear. Maybe it's more common among women. Maybe it's just more openly talked about among women....

In this episode, Jec interviews Larry Whitesell of Baxter, Tennessee, east of Nashville. Larry is renowned in the gaited horse world. What distinguishes him is his interest and pursuit of classical methods. He's well-traveled down the dressage road and a well rounded, well educated horseman. Over and over, Larry reminds us that gaited horses are horses, first and foremost. So relaxation is pretty...

Season 2, Episode Six is a Coaches' Corner with Amy Skinner in North Carolina. Here, Jec and Amy visit about cross training. It ties into our last episode in which we discussed what horses and riders need to know. It comes down to the need to always expand our comfort zones. As Randy Rieman told me, if you're not expanding your comfort zone, you are shrinking it. Dearest listener and reader, think...

This episode is episode 5 (sorry about the error on the audio, in which we identified it as episode 4) and an On the Fence segment – a show in which Jec and I discuss something that's been on our collective and virtual desk, asking to be checked off. Here we visit about what horses and humans need to know. By that we mean the skills and the knowledge that horse and rider need to have in order to,...

In this episode, Jec talks with Dr. Rebecca Husted, president of Technical Large Animal Emergency Rescue , and a past Best Horse Practices Summit presenter. I'm a big fan. As you'll discover, Rebecca is a straight talker and someone who is passionate about doing right by the horse in the most critical situations. I first met Rebecca over a decade ago, when I took her days-long TLAER course in Main...

Jec talks with Dr. Martin Nielsen, a parasitologist at the University of Kentucky and one of our super-fantastic presenters at the Best Horse Practices Summit in Lexington, Kentucky, Nielsen's backyard, in October. Martin has a host of popular YouTube videos that debunk deworming. Deworming is the traditional, not-best-practices method that many of us are familiar with. Perhaps you, too, have orde...

In this episode, Jec talks with Robin Foster , a certified applied animal behaviorist and a professor at the University of Puget Sound in Washington State. Foster cites an i nteresting study on grooming by Lea Lansade, a researcher in France.  There is a broad range of grooming concerns among us. Myself, I put almost no effort into grooming. I might brush where the saddle goes. Or instead, I might...

Even though we haven't really taken a break, we're calling this Season 2. That makes this episode, episode 1 of Season 2. Thanks for carrying us through to another season. Okay, so I wanted to share with you a heat and drought scenario that unfolded with me, my horse and dogs recently. It definitely pushed against the 'what is safe whilst riding in the heat' protocols. Even though it was forecast...

I'm feeling pretty pleased that here we are at Episode 30. Thirty! It was about a year ago when Jec and I first started bouncing around the idea of a podcast. We were decidedly not interested in just throwing one out there for the heck of it or having it be a gab session or a chance to share just our own deal and our own little opinions. Nope, we wanted to be careful with it. What followed was man...

Today, Jec loans the mic to me for an interview with Whit Hibbard, a fourth generation Montana rancher and low stress stockmanship professional. I met Whit many years ago when he was passing through Colorado, giving presentations on low stress stockmanship and livestock handling. There's a strong parallel I see with the shift in handling cows and the shift of handling horses as we move away from p...

Today, Jec interviews Jane Myers. Jane runs the educational website Equiculture with her husband, Stuart. The couple, based in England but also having spent many years in Australia, offer advice on everything from riding to getting along with your horse to horse keeping practices. As for the latter, we're happy to report that Jane aligns quite well with Alayne Blickle , the Best Horse Practices Su...