Phoenix Farm & Equestrian Services

10/03/2023

Please share with your horsey friends!

07/23/2023

Excellent article

https://www.horsenation.com/2023/07/17/training-in-the-right-way-what-is-dressage-and-why-do-we-do-it/?fbclid=IwAR0CYic4i2RTOb6ylrNwERSNu3BgJpapcCVpOuWG1sU1DCi51dnXfoCqfbs

"Whenever you see a rider and horse in harmony and balance, performing their jobs fluidly and enthusiastically, you are witnessing the product of horse training and riding in the right way. No matter what, that is a product of what dressage was initially meant to be." Gwyneth McPherson is an FEI rid...

05/28/2023

ARENA GROOMING PATTERNS 🚜

Horse arena footing doesn't stay in prime condition without consistent maintenance. Regularly grooming your arena will keep sand and additives well mixed, and will keep your surface level. Here are some suggested grooming patterns. Change up the pattern each day so that your tractor doesn't create compaction.

LEARN MORE ABOUT ARENA MAINTENANCE 👇
https://premierequestrian.com/horse-arena-maintenance/maintenance-101/

05/19/2023

Absolutely

S***k your baby horse.
I don’t mean beat them. I don’t mean give them a little tug on the lead rope. I mean a rude horse deserves and understands some rudeness right back at them far better than a sweet whisper in their ear.
I mean, when your c**t or filly is running you over or throwing their ass at you or throwing their feet at you or snatching at you with their teeth, S***K THEM. Their mama would never tolerate that behavior from them. The old babysitter gelding in their pasture would not tolerate that behavior. YOU SHOULDNT TOLERATE IT.
They don’t like you because you’re sweet to them. They “like” food, water and safety.
You want your horse to be fed so you bring them food.
You want your horse to have water so you keep water in front of them.
What do you do when you want them to be safe? You discipline them when they are unsafe. You teach them to respect humans and make good choices. When they don’t respect humans and humans get hurt what happens? THEY ARENT SAFE. They can’t be treated when they are sick. They can’t have their feet cared for. If they are hurt you can’t fix them. If something happens to you? What happens to your sweet dream horse? They aren’t going to be safe. No one wants a disrespectful dangerous horse. I don’t care how pretty they are. I don’t care how much money you paid for it. I don’t care what names are on its papers. If it’s a complete s**t, it’s a complete s**t and the good horse owners? They don’t want it! I don’t want it! You know who does want it? The meat man.
If you love that horse, don’t be afraid to give it a s***k when it’s rude.
Credit to the OG author Melissa McPherson White

04/19/2023

Excellent Denny-ism, as always

Rein contact

On the heads of 99.99% of horses being ridden, there is either a bridle with a bit of some sort, a hackamore of some sort, or some other type of bitless bridle.

Attached to that head device, from the bit or from some other contact point, run reins or ropes or some other types of lines, which in various ways feed into the hands of the riders.

Generally speaking, most of this has to do with steering and going at a pace that the rider wants, and with stopping.

Control is the main reason for bridles and their various attachments, and here is where there is an enormous range of degree. We see some horses trussed up like the proverbial Christmas turkey, with lines going every which way, often connected to bits that appear to have been designed to stop a charging bull rhinoceros.

Other horses are ridden in very light to virtually zero contact, being asked to balance and steer, stop and go in far more subtle ways.

I think that a large part of this immense variety must be related to the particular need and desire for control of the particular rider.

Some riders are total “control freaks”. They must “own” every footfall the horse makes. Some do this in rough ways, others through years of schooling, but either way, that control is front and center.

I watch some riders walk, trot and canter, even on the most uneven terrain, on almost floating reins, leaving it up to the horse to figure out how to use its various body parts.

Other riders want to have a horse trained to be within the constraints of leg to hand, but who generally leave the horse alone unless they feel the need to intervene.

Some horses handle constraint, some resent it, some battle to get away from it. Some riders have great tact in the application of control, others want total submission, many fall between the extremes.

Horses are able to be ridden by humans in large measure because they can be controlled, but the application of that control can cause the horses huge misery if it is done badly.

Much of learning “how to ride,” to put it in simplest terms, has to do with how the human deals with reins.