Mountain Spring Farm

09/15/2025

Horses need to be our partners..not forced..but willing. We need to be "in the moment" with them.

One complaint I hear frequently from riders is “he’s not paying attention to me!”
This is often coming from someone who’s mind is wandering, overthinking, worrying, daydreaming, and the like. If we are not here, and more importantly, if we don’t have a nice feel for the horse to find when their attention is with us, why should they do it?
I often ask riders when they say their horse should pay attention to them - why? Not only does he not “have to,” because he’s bigger and stronger than you are, but paying attention to you over his herd makes him more vulnerable, more at risk, and less safe.

The horse’s main job is to eat and be with a herd for security. When we deprive him of those two things he obviously is going to have some worries and needs to be met. Can you provide security? Can you provide relaxation? Can you provide balance? Can you be in the moment with him?
If not, why should he give you his attention? His security lies somewhere else, and without security, he can’t even begin to care about riding circles.

09/06/2025

Nice!

09/05/2025

Missing my horses..Caprice, De"brick"isar, Riley, Török, Tuck..they all still live on in my heart and thoughts. 🥰 Thanks Sue Locas..for sending that poem..it is beautiful...makes for tears in my eyes..😪

Upon the hill where soft winds roam,
I sit in silence, all alone.
The grass still bends where you once lay,
Your spirit lingers, night and day.

Your gallop sang, your breath was fire,
A living dream, my one desire.
Now only whispers touch the skies,
A glowing shadow in my eyes.

“I miss you,” falls from lips so low,
And through the night, you whisper, “I know.”
Though earth has claimed your fleeting stride,
Your soul still stands here by my side.

No reins, no saddle, just the light,
A faithful bond beyond the night.
My dearest friend, though you are gone,
Within my heart, you still live on.

09/05/2025

Not Naughty. Not Stubborn. Just Threatened.

The way I like to explain horse behaviour is simple: most of the “difficulties” people face with horses don’t come from some deep equine conspiracy against you. They come from one thing: the horse feels threatened.

I found this image of an ape riding a horse. The horse looks horrified - as if Godzilla just mounted up. And the tragic punchline? That’s often exactly what your horse sees when you climb aboard.

We humans love to overcomplicate things. We write essays about "stress releases" and "calming herbs", we argue over whether our horse is "sensitive" or just a "chestnut", and we spend small fortunes on gadgets designed by people with more marketing flair than horsemanship. But when you strip it all back, horses are embarrassingly simple: if they feel safe, they’ll try. If they feel threatened, they’ll try to survive.

Let me explain - and yes, I’ll use this image to do it.

This is the hardest thing for people to swallow: we can make the horse feel threatened.

The behaviour you call “naughty,” “stubborn,” or “difficult” is just your horse reacting to the primate clamped on its back like a panicked cat on a rollercoaster.

- Sit like a sack of potatoes and grip like a crab? Threatening.
- Move in the saddle like you’re auditioning for Riverdance? Threatening.
- Sn**ch, pull, or hang on the reins? Threatening.
- Force their neck into a yoga pose they didn’t sign up for? Threatening.
- Strap on tack that pinches, rubs, or restricts? Threatening.
- Demand pirouettes while they’re already internally screaming? Very threatening.

Before long, your horse isn’t just threatened under saddle - they’re threatened at the mounting block, when the saddle appears, or when you walk into the paddock with that “today’s the day we nail it!” look in your eye.

When horses feel threatened…
- They become hypervigilant, nervous, spooky.
- They turn resistant, anxious, reactive.
- They buck, rear, pig-root, strike, or charge—because when you’re a prey animal and someone feels like a predator, the natural solution is to make them regret that life choice.
- And the chronic fallout of being regularly threatened? That’s a story for another day—but let’s just say it isn’t solved with a new bit and a tub of magnesium powder.

So what can we do?

It’s not rocket science. (Or pseudoscience, for that matter. 😎)
- We teach.
- We train.
- We manage their health.

Above all, we help the horse understand, feel comfortable, and feel secure. That’s it.

Horses are ridiculously easy to train. We love to say they’re “prey animals” as if that excuses everything, but really, so are we. Their gift is being wired to notice threats - and their brilliance is that they learn faster than you can scroll through Facebook. Honestly, they’re easier to train than dogs. You just have to know how.

And that’s why I’m here. Not because horses are complicated mystical unicorns - but because they’re simple, and humans are the ones who make it complicated. Once you learn how not to feel like Godzilla on their back, you unlock the part where they are brave, trusting, and extraordinary.

We’re all just primates doing our best. The shift comes when you learn how not to be the monster in the saddle. And that’s easier than you think.

👉 Check the first comment - I’ll point you toward some resources that actually work.

This is totally counting as Day 15/365 of my notebook challenge—where I spill good ideas straight from my obsessive notebook collection. Collect them, share them, scribble them in the margins of your own life. Just don’t copy-paste (plagiarism is so last season).

⚠️And if the satire stings a little—don’t be offended. It’s meant to both sting and be funny. That’s how we crack things open enough to actually see them. ❤

09/04/2025

Good read..

I was teaching a client recently who was working with a young, exuberant horse, recently backed, and only a few weeks into life at this new yard. Since arriving, the horse had mostly done short hacks with a reliable nanny horse. All great stuff. We're not looking to hammer young joints or overwhelm young minds with endless schooling and circles. A good nanny horse is worth their weight in gold for helping young ones safely experience the world.

The day before our lesson, the owner, keen to prepare, decided to introduce the horse to the arena. The horse had previously been quite anxious when briefly being in there, so her plan was to let him "blow off some steam" by loose schooling in order to acquaint him to the arena. I use the term ‘loose schooling’ lightly—because what actually happened was that she unclipped the lead rope, and the horse launched himself into orbit like a fire breathing dragon and proceeded to hurl himself around the arena at full pelt flinging out some spectacular shapes.

Fast forward to the lesson the next day, and unsurprisingly, the horse entered the arena already on high alert. He was tense, reactive, and ready for a repeat performance. He wasn’t seeing the arena as a calm working space; he was associating it with stress, adrenaline, and chaos. Who could blame him? The last time he was in that arena, he had a full on adrenaline fuelled cardio session.
This might not be everyone’s point of view, but here’s mine. The very last place I want my young horse learning to lose his mind is the arena, the exact space where I want to ride him, teach him, and help him grow in calm confidence.
If the goal is to get a young horse used to the arena, then letting them gallop around in a state of stress and high arousal doesn't teach them to feel safe or connected. It just teaches them to associate that environment with uncertainty, tension and chaos. In other words, we're creating exactly the opposite response to what we need for productive learning.

Running young horses is not my idea of training them.
In my opinion, a better approach would be to bring the horse into the arena and do some very simple, low-pressure groundwork, yielding the hindquarters, moving the shoulders, getting his attention, matching our steps and energy and bringing some softness and awareness to his body. The goal being to build relaxation, body awareness, and his trust in me. Then we can always come back to these learnt exercises in new situations when the horse starts to worry.

We want the arena to become a space of calm, focus, and partnership. This is where the horse learns that they can look to us for guidance when things feel uncertain. That they don't need to go it alone, flinging their body around in a panic. That they can stay with us mentally and physically.

I’m not saying there’s no place for loose schooling or liberty work. With a calm, connected horse, it can build communication, expression, and confidence. But it’s got to come after the relationship is established not as a means to “blow off some steam” so the horse is safe to handle or ride.

Every time we handle or train a horse, we’re teaching them something, whether we mean to or not. If we let a young horse gallop around a new space in a blind panic, we’re teaching them that the arena is a place to be stressed, reactive, and disconnected. But if we bring them into that space with a quiet mind and help them find calmness and direction, we’re teaching them that they’re safe, supported, and able to think even when things feel new or uncertain.

Because to be honest most of us have enough chaos in our lives without adding a four legged rocket to the mix.

08/31/2025

Great drive with little "Nip"..Jem Bobby's Fine Chance❤️

08/25/2025

My best horse summer with Monica, Riley and Icon!

08/25/2025

08/25/2025

Needed a few days to post this...06/30/97 - 08-21-25 Spring's Finale... aka "Riley" born on the last day of Spring and my Spring's Caprice's last foal.... Hard to write the final words for this great horse! The fires and smoke hurried his departure and I know he is breathing free, running with his relatives over the bridge. When I smelled the smoke in the air this a.m. I know I did the right thing. However, that sure doesn't make it any easier. My Riley was the most gentle, intelligent, fastest horse I've ever been on. Being related to Secretariat was pretty evident in this boy. He loved to run! Have so many great memories. The end always comes too soon, but I'm confident he had a good life.. not many horses have one owner ... He was a keeper for sure. I will forever miss his morning nicker when he saw me leave the house, or his crazy huge stride when I called him from the fall pasture... he'd lead the way.. easily ahead of all the others! We had some great shows, great trails and great times... he'll be in my heart forever....🥹🥲 Icon and his pals miss him... still hear them whinnying for him... and I still call him.. old habits die hard. Here's to one of my best horses ever!