CR Horsemanship - Training & Lessons

09/18/2025

Fixing a Horse with Trauma - "Using arousal and homeostasis for learning: Does the same rule apply to rehabilitation for horses who have been traumatized?" ~ Kate, via virtual clinic

Answers from Martin Black and Dr. Steve Peters:

Learning is learning, they all have to go through the same process of sympathetic arousal to learn. But, all horses are going to need different levels of sympathetic arousal in different situations. Having the knowledge and experience... https://martinblack.net/ask-martin/ask-martin-questions-from-ebh-the-good-and-the-bad-of-anxiety.html

09/15/2025

The cooler early mornings are the best! I have 3 openings for indoor board starting October 1st. Room in the TB mares pasture for 2 horses, 1 in the pony mares pen (Diet/IR friendly, medications etc)

09/13/2025

We are now a proudly working with as we have been looking at the products for almost 6 months and what a difference- especially for my ponies! Before and afters to come. We have the smallest sample bags up to the 5kg and the 40lb bags for sale in Leduc! Soon to be at Ranchmart!

09/13/2025

Still have 2 spaces left on Saturdays for lessons with our fantastic Beginner Instructor! 2:30 and 3:30 pm time spaces. Private or semi privates under age of 14. Month to month options, drop ins available pre booked 7 days out.

09/11/2025

Carolla is coming back! October 11-12

Location: Mystic Meadows Equine Centre

Check out ProHorse Training for more info or to see what amazing skills she offers!

She was by far one of the most fantastic clinics I’ve taken in a long time! Super excited to welcome her back.

We will have onsite stabling and pens with proof of vaccines.
More info to come.

09/09/2025

Does anyone I know want a silky rooster? Needs to be picked up today. It’s harassing the chickens and it’s gotta go…

09/09/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14Hnqwpb92Q/?mibextid=wwXIfr

09/08/2025

Great full day of teaching and riding… tested out Wasabi and Backfire Baby and so far so good! First rides on the way for lovely Effie and Morgan 🥰 **tstarting

09/06/2025

Booking for October 1st for Renee on Friday nights! 6 and 7 pm lessons, beginner friendly, youth or adult. Saturdays starting immediate, 2 spaces with our beginner instructor Saturdays- 12:30 spot and 2:30. Leading available for flat and jumping.

09/03/2025

*** Prepare; don’t scare ***

We get one chance to produce young horses correctly; if we rush and scare young horses in their first year or two of their ridden careers, we are setting them up for failure for the rest of their lives. A young horse must be produced so that they always feel like they are succeeding. This doesn’t mean patting a horse after manically charging him at a jump when he can barely canter, and managing to scramble to the other side. It means producing a young horse in a way that he feels confident in everything he is asked to do. It also means ensuring a horse is strong enough, physically, to do what you are asking him to do. A horse must be produced so that he always believes in himself.

Some young horses mature a lot faster than others, and it’s important that we understand which ones are capable of jumping a few small courses as a 4 year old, and which ones won’t be mature enough in body, brain, or both, to jump a 1m track until they are 7.

The main thing to understand with young horses, is that you can never go too slowly. By rushing a young horse, you may ruin his entire future career. I am absolutely not against young horses being out and about competing, but I am against a young horse being taken out to fail. Smashing a young horse around a course of fences is not ok; not only are you not achieving anything at all, but you are being extremely unfair to the horse, possibly even cruel. A green young horse trotting around a small course of fences, being given time to see the fence and pop, is very different to a green young horse smashing through/into fences.

The equestrian world is a tough world, and there are still plenty of purchasers who won’t buy a 4 or 5 year unless it’s jumping around a 1m or bigger track, and so I can absolutely understand why some good professionals are pushed into rushing youngsters through. But these will likely be the ones I described as popping easily around small courses, and not the ones smashing through fences. They will have been prepared properly. If a horse is knocking rail after rail, they are not prepared/ready for what they are being asked to do.

Building the correct muscle to carry a rider and be strong enough to hold a balanced canter, let alone jump, always takes months, and in some horses can take years. The key is to recognise which horses only need several months of ridden work to be strong enough to start jumping (no horse is ready after a few weeks with a rider on board) and which need much longer. A horse constantly knocking down fences is not ready to jump.

The take home message from this is not about at what age a horse should start his jumping career, but to ensure your horse is set up to succeed; taking a horse out and crashing through fence after fence is very likely going to ruin the horse’s entire career, and is not achieving anything. Ensure a young horse is established in body and mind before racing to get out and about jumping courses. And make sure young horses don’t have to carry riders that are too heavy for them. But that’s another post 😉

09/01/2025

I don’t care who’s barn you’re at, but if your horse breaks it, the polite/proper thing to do is fix it.

💬 The Reality of Running a Yard 💬

For a long time, many of us in this industry have bent over backwards trying to keep everyone happy. We patch up broken fences, replace trashed fields, repair stables, jumps and walkers, and somehow it’s often expected that we just “let it slide.”

The truth is, yards don’t run on goodwill alone. Costs are climbing rapidly – hay and bedding prices are already rising and will continue to soar this winter. Yet when we’re forced to put prices up, it’s seen as unreasonable, when in reality most of us are only covering our basic costs.

Our phones ping at all hours of the day and night, and we’re expected to reply within minutes. I’m not going to lie — it’s hard. After 5 years of doing what I thought I loved, there are days I sit down and wonder why I’m bothering when the truth is, I’m not making any money at this.

Would you work for free, and be available 24/7, for everyone else’s convenience?
Would you let me walk into your home and smash your television, then just smile and say “oops”?
Would you let me leave a mess in your garden and not clean it up?

You get my point.

Hay and bedding prices are already soaring, and as yards we’ll be forced to increase costs just to cover our own expenses. Yet we all know the complaints will come. The irony? People often pay more to put their dogs in kennels than they do for full livery.

So many yard owners are subsidising other people’s hobbies, and it’s unsustainable. This is exactly why livery yards are shutting down across the country.

Running a yard isn’t just “a job” — it’s 24/7 responsibility, constant stress, and never-ending maintenance. All we ask for is a little understanding, a little respect, and recognition of the reality: we do this because we love the horses, but love alone doesn’t pay the bills or fix the fences.

🐴