as your horse or pony recently started tossing their head up in the air when you are riding? When horses start head tossing behavior, it often indicates one of a few things, which we will discuss in this article. Because head tossing can have a few causes, it may take some detective work…
Not so many years ago, horses and horsemanship were part of everyday life. Because they were so ordinary – a bit like cats or dogs are today- most people understood quite a bit about horses, their likes, and their habits. Today, the vast majority of people don’t get to have hands-on experience with…
In today’s post, I will be sharing some historical photographs of curly horses, which may be of interest to breeders, historians, and enthusiasts of this unique breed. For most of the breed’s modern history, curly horses were not appreciated or enjoyed. Before their unique traits were intentionally bred for, and their hypoallergenic traits were discovered, many of these horses…
At the end of a long winter, horse blankets can be so dirty they look unsalvagable. In fact, you may be tempted to toss your blankets our rather than trying cleaning them, but in this Ultimate Guide to Care and Cleaning of Horse Blankets, I’ll show you how to clean and restore soiled and weathered…
Making a self-dispensing milk replacer reservoir out of a cooler: for orphan calves, lambs, foals, or goat kids My Orphan Long before I moved to Seattle I was living on a medium-sized farm in a tiny town in Missouri and enjoying a childhood dream of raising horses. In the late 2000s, my favorite Mayor had…
How to control the pace of your horse’s gaits- speed up or slow down the walk, trot, or canter with these five tips Most horses have four main gaits: the walk, the trot, the canter (called a lope in Western riding), and the gallop. Within these gaits, horses have a huge variance- horses can be…
Like curly horse body coats, curly horse manes come in many different variations. In this article, I wanted to take a few minutes to discuss the types of curly horse manes and best practices for caring for them. Much of the look of a mane comes down to genetics, however good grooming practices and a…
The transition from trot to canter is a bumpy one for most riders to learn, and for horses, it requires more muscle and balance than other gate transitions. Because of this, and the relationship between the two (inexperienced writers tend to be a little bouncy in this transition and may inadvertently cause their horse to…
When it comes to horse training, nothing is more fundamental than teaching a horse to reliably stop on command – and yet, it’s something that many horse trainers skip right over without a thought. Instead, most horses are trained to stop through body cues and rain cues – like sitting deep in the saddle, stopping the movement…
For the decade that I owned a tack store in Missouri, I received countless odd questions on a regular basis. One of the most common, that my interest in selling horse products meant couldn’t answer with complete honesty while I was a seller of horse grooming products is this question: “is it okay to…
