International Survey on Equine Management is Underway

Just found this this morning; a survey on equine management and how it varies from country to country.

Link: http://www.equitationscience.com/announcements/equine-management-survey

The survey takes about 15 minutes and is being done by the University of Sydney. Its questions include what artificial aids you use to train, how you think a horse should be fed, how you stable your horses, and many other horsey questions.

And, it's international! So no matter what country you live in, please take the survey. It's quite fun. :)

Nacho the Grain Stealrz (and Sham)

Made these a few days ago. The chestnut and white is Nacho, a Shetland, and the black is Sham, a slightly larger Shetland. These aren't as good as the Meena and Squirrel ones, but I still like the pictures. :)

Beauty Trotting

A week or so ago my younger sis got this video of Beauty trotting. Isn't she smooth? :)

Pressure

Use as little pressure as possible; as much pressure as needed.

Recently I've been reading books on horse training and psychology. One if the main concepts is how you view pressure; an interesting thing both physically and mentally.

The books I'm referring to are "Nature in Horsemanship: Discovering Harmony Through Principles of Aikido" by Mark Rashid, and another book written by one of Rashid's apprentices (I can't remember the title; sorry).

We all know what pressure is; either in the form of being dragged across a slippery grass field by a horse, or that mental feeling where you *must* get something done and can't ignore it.

So, let me give you a tip for understanding pressure in relationships and also training. This is: Use as little pressure as possible; as much pressure as needed.

There you go. I've recently re-discovered this after the horse I have decided she would stop lunging by turning towards me; a position you can't drive a horse from. The solution? Watching the horse's hip *very closely* and getting after her with the lunge whip and strong verbal commands.

I didn't really like it. As folks who know me will say, I'm pretty softhearted and not very aggressive. But sometimes it takes aggressiveness to reach the point where both parties are safe and compliant.

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I'm double-posting this on my personal blog, take a look.

Beauty

I have a horse now. :)