Elite Horsemanship Blog

Hope you are all well and enjoying some horse time! I wanted to share with you all some of the variety training that has helped my own horsemanship of late.  Circles can get pretty boring after a while.. for both horses and riders alike.  Over the last few years I’ve challenged myself to find new ways to interact and connect with my horses and its forced me way outside my comfort zone. 

If you want to get the most out of working with your horse, try creating some consistent routines.  I find when working with a large quantity of young horses, unknowingly one the first things I teach them is a bit of structure and routine around their interactions with me. They get caught, handled, ridden, hosed off, tied

I get asked this question regularly both through my EH member community and at my clinics all around the world and it’s a very common challenge people face when training their horse at home. One simple training technique I get my students to try and overcome this issue is the serpentine. The serpentine in my training program is an exercise that redirects your horses energy and starts the process of allowing your horse to travel in a collected frame.

Of course I am not. Well maybe, actually I don’t know…. I don’t even know who I am anymore!   If I had a dollar for every time someone has asked me the question ‘Are you a horse whisperer?’, I would be a rather wealthy.  I always approach the answer to this question with a

Why are humans so fascinated with horses?  What is it about horses that intrigue humans?  Why are some people completely drawn to horses from a very young age, with no apparent background or history with horses?  Why do some humans still want to ride horses, even when they are dealing with crippling fear around what

When it comes to working with horses there always seems to be a gap from where you are to where you want to be, who can relate?  The depth of learning and education with training and understanding horses can feel at times as if it is a never ending black hole. I often hear from

The art of teaching your horse to stand tied up in any environment and wait for you is a valuable skill in your horse journey.  I meet a lot of people in my travels who are frustrated that their horses won’t stand tied up to a fence/float/trailer when we hold our horse training clinics. There

Why do horses perform a certain way for one person and a completely different way for another.  Is it their history together? Is it one persons skill or ability?  Is it luck? Or does the horse just have it in for one of them…. Something that has been happening for a while now is that

G’day Team,I’ve got a question for you…What is holding you back?  More specifically, what is holding you back from achieving your horse related goals? Is it fear? Is it time? Is it confidence? Is it that you are so confused that you’re not sure if you are doing the right or wrong thing with your

Today I want to discuss an important topic with you that I experience regularly, whilst educating people with horses.  And that topic is our relationship with FEAR around horses.  I guess if we are honest about it, we all hold a certain level of fear around working with horses.  This is perfectly normally and to be expected

Ok Team – I’ve got a challenge for you! Lets face it, we all need to spend more time with our horses (me included!) We all need to ride more and I really want to help you make that happen. A Jim Rohn quote jumps into my mind “Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success

G’day Team, I wanted to share a blog post with you all about ‘Presence’ when working with horses.  This is a topic I have been grappling with for a few years now, particularly on how to educate people about the importance of presence and body language when working with horses.  I was lucky to recently

I want to share with you a problem I come across regularly when I help people with horses who brace and panic under pressure.  To start, what we need to remember is that the things we are trying to get your horse to do are so far detracted from their ancestors life in the wild and

G’day All, We’re very excited to announce that we will be releasing an Elite Horsemanship Audio training program soon called Groundwork 101. This audio program will lead you through step by step training sessions that you can listen to whilst riding your horse. We wanted to create an audio program that can provide assistance, direction

Have you ever seen a horse in the paddock bend in half to scratch its hip? Its important to remember when teaching your horse lateral flexion we are not building their muscles or working on their ability to flex, they can do this already.  We are simply training our horse to respond to our feel

I’ve challenged myself recently with the thought that I want to achieve more Rapport than Respect with horses.. This couldn’t have become clearer after looking into the definition of each word. rapport ‘a close and harmonious relationship in which the people or groups concerned understand each other’s feelings or ideas and communicate well.’ respect ‘a

This only dawned on me recently, I had an extended time away from riding horses while focusing on our growing young family and had some time to reflect.  I realised why I felt like some aspects of my horsemanship were failing, it became a job with a strict agenda.  I had to get away from