Rosie and I have been doing a lot of bareback riding recently. One handy trick when riding bareback is to be able to climb up on a fence or bench and then have your horse line herself up perfectly so you can slide right on. This can be hard to teach some horses because if [...]

I rode Rosie for the first time on Saturday, and she did excellently! Rosie is a mare who I did quite a bit of groundwork with last year, such as desensitization to bareback pads and a big green ball. She’s a smart mare and a quick learner. Rosie was in a foster home for a [...]

Robert Epstein was the keynote speaker for the Art and Science of Animal Training conference this year. (Be sure to read the rest of my notes from the conference as well.) Epstein, who was the last student of B.F. Skinner, researches the creativity process and how novel behavior develops.
All behavior, in some sense, is [...]

Here are four good reasons why you might want to use a mounting block the next time you get on your horse:
1) Using a mounting block is better for your horse’s back.
Jumping up into the saddle is quick and easy for you, but you could be putting a lot of strain on your horse’s withers [...]

Many equine species are able to breed with each other. Although the offspring are usually not fertile, some of them can be quite interesting too see! Most people know that a mule is the cross between a horse and a donkey. (The above mule is a little fellow named Scooby. We used him for riding [...]