First Do No Harm

In this episode we talking all things micromanaging our horses performance. If you get told not to nag your horse, if you feel like your always trying to control and fix your horse, this one is for you. Jump over to the stronger bond community and share with us where you find yourself getting caught up in nagging your horse. Join the stronger bond community here Want more ways of working with your...

This was such a fabulous conversation with Megan from holistic hooves where we delved in to managing and working with donkeys who have been deemed too difficult to handle. Megan brings us a fresh light on how we can work together with our donkeys and our horses when we can understand the difference between making a donkey feel safe to be vulnerable around us vs being bullied in to submission. Mega...

The final part of chats with Ben from Harts Horsemanship. We would love you to join us in the stronger bond community and share your aha moments with us. Stronger Bond Community | Facebook Need more of Ben Hart in your life?  Check out his courses: Hart's Horsemanship (thinkific.com) Check out his website and see what he's about: http://www.hartshorsemanship.com/

Part 2 of chats with Ben from Harts Horsemanship. We would love you to join us in the stronger bond community and share your aha moments with us. Stronger Bond Community | Facebook Need more of Ben Hart in your life? Check out his courses: Hart's Horsemanship (thinkific.com) Check out his website and see what he's about: http://www.hartshorsemanship.com/

Ben Hart is one of the UK's leading equine trainers, with a background in agriculture and a family history working with heavy horses. Ben has worked with horses, mules and donkeys all over the world: from mustangs and race horses in California, stock horses in Australia, and working equines in Cambodia and Ethiopia. Ben's use of the science of equine behaviour rather than a one method approach has...

If we are ever going to get in to a power battle with our horses its going to be over trying to medicate them!! In todays podcast I'm sharing with you my history of dealing with a very difficult horse and how finding a better way is taking the pain and heartache out of medicating our ponies. If ever we need cooperation in a stress free way from our horse it is when they are sick!! And if ever we n...

Have you been told by your trainer or peers that your horse is testing or challenging you? Check out this episode for how we approach this concept and how we can navigate the challenges our horses set for us. Loving the podcast and need more? Join our waitlist for to register for our holistic horse handling course in the link below https://www.equestrianmovement.com/holistichorsehandling

Do your training sessions feel like they are fraught conflict and are more a battle for power and control than actual training? That's what we will be talking about in the next season on the podcast. Listen to this podcast for a little insight on how I work around the power battle, trying to take the conversation for power off the table so we can have a more connection based training approach. Wan...

Get your pen and paper out and get ready to take some big actions. We are going to get in to some serious goal setting and planning as we head in to the end of term 1. Setting goals and reflecting are the best ways to not only be accountable for the action you've taken but also realistic. They help you hold tragectory or shift based on what you are enjoying and what is honestly feasable. Without c...

So grateful for your continued supported over the last year and a half. We have loved your questions, stories and feedback. We are taking a 3 week break from the podcast to catch up with ourselves after a hectic start to the year!! Life happens, right!?! But don't worry we have some amazing guests booked for term 2 and will be back in action from April 21. In the meantime, stronger bond workshop i...

As a child getting bucked off happened every time I rode my horse. My mum bought me a book, "why does my horse...?" insert problem behaviour here and the question has plagued me ever since.  In todays episode Sarah and I talk about my 20 year trip down the rabbit hole over this question and how the way we deal with this question continues to evolve in our holistic horse handling program. If y...

There are so many things that come up for us when working with our horses that make us feel unsure, unsafe, doubt whether we are good enough, or if we ever can be good enough. In this episode we go through these conversations and more with Sarah and how she navigates her own personal battles with this as an amateur rider.  Check out our holistic horse handling program , expand your tool kit a...

How well do you think your relationship is going with your horse? I recently got back in to playing pokemon go and it reminded me of some super simple foundational skills of building rapport and connection with our horses. Check out this episode for some basic exercises to build better relationships with your horse if it feels like there's a bit of a disconnect.  What are you doing with your...

How can we be empathic towards are horses without making behaviours worse? In this podcast I go a little in to how I trouble shoot whether I'm assigning an unrelatable human experience to the behaviour my horse is showing or is there foundation here for what they might be feeling that needs to be addressed and supported. Just saying we can't assign human experiences means we can't show empathy for...

Join us in this episode as we chat to one of our stable hands Madie. Madie has had a crash course at the barn ready to take on the her competition career we thought it best she got thrown in the deep end and learnt how to swim. With only a year of riding weekly and working with horses under her belt we learnt that she had some very helpful transferable skills for dealing with challenges at the bar...

Set aside some time to do some paddock chores and listen to this on because it is LONG! One of my stable hands Monique and I chat about her experience with her aggressive to the point of dangerous horse when she first got him and her experience working together with him as well as herd integration, working with a herd and how you know if your passion for horses is still alive and well.  You c...

Join us in this podcast as I share the experience of how I've seen pressure used in the industry evolve over the last 30 years. I am so happy to see the progress we are making in how we can more positively engage with and train our horses and look forward to keeping up with the research to see how it continues to evolve. Want to join the conversation? Jump over to our stronger bond community and s...

Join us for this loaded question!!! Does your horse respect you? We would love you to continue this conversation with us in the stronger bond community. Come join us in the stronger bond community  

Over the last 8 weeks I have shared some tips and tricks I work on with my students to build a stronger bond and a deeper connection with their horses. In todays episode I'm sharing the 2 tricks that I use to "get in the zone" with the horses from a place of connection.  Join our stronger bond community and keep the conversation going here Want to a more connection based way of working with y...

Connection in the saddle is through our body. We need to make sure we are balanced and secure in the saddle and allowing our horse to travel. Connection and control don't work well together. Do you feel safe to let go of your horses mouth? Can you drop the bit walk, trot and canter and still tell the horse what you want? This is where connection in the saddle is. We want to smoothly move from no c...

In this episode we are taking our connection work from the ground and transferring it to the saddle. There are 2 big foundational skills that I work on with my students that are often skipped, especially in the riding school environment, that could be holding you back. If you started at a riding school you might need to revisit your foundations and see if these are gaps in your training Check out...

When we give the horses the power of consent and choice we unlock their true nature. This is what psychological safety is. We're not seeing the version of the horse that is scared and fears humans, fears for its life and fears threats in its environment.  We're not seeing the version of the horse that is tense and braced because it lacks faith, trust and confidence in us. We're seeing the ver...

Episode 5 of the connection series, togetherness. When it comes to working with horses we often have to leave our agenda at the gate and not be emotionally attached to the outcome, just working with the horse we have on the day. In this episode we talk about what it looks like to do our training session together and that sometimes it means doing what the horse wants to do. And if you don't kn...

Thanks for joining us for our connection series. Today we are talking about being a leader worth following. Does your horse look to you to take the lead? Do they have faith, trust and confidence in you and your skills to follow your lead? This has a lot to do with how we can strategically and intentionally structure our training sessions so that the horses build more confidence in us and themselve...

In this episode we are learning about building relationships and communication with communication buttons. The two buttons in use are hugs and scratches and there are a couple of skill sets required.    Do you know where your horse likes to be scratched? Do you know how your horse likes to be cuddled? Do you have a heart felt embrace you can ask your horse for and they can ask you for? &...