The Heart of Horsemanship

We welcomed a new member 10 days ago. With luck, I captured her with the corner of my eye in a field that was going to be send to the meat lot. Loaded with a shoot onto my incredible haulers trailer - here she is! She arrived quite tired and has been having lots of time to relax and enjoy her new herd. She s currently in a 30 acres pasture with 17 other friends and her favourite friend is Moonlight. Whoever knows fjords, they are known to have a very laid back chill personality. A strong build and lots of “fjord” F150 power 😜. This sweet filly of only 1.5years old surely came across my path for a reason. A bright future is ahead of her! Our first session she wasn’t sure about me entering her space and she thought touch was quite a scary thing but that idea didn’t last long. Her second session wasn’t much because she offered herself to me by walking up to me with her friend. (See comments) We did our third session today and I decided to try some meditation and music. She absolutely adores it and pure magic happened once I started to introduce touch on her face afterwards. I believe in building a strong connection and allowing the horse to express themselves while ensuring they have a well balanced environment. The power of a soft hand in any handling is important especially with ponies or stronger horses. A strong solid foundation is keen for life long success. As she is quite young and is a long term resident, we are in no rush of her training and therefore I decided to train her without tools and see what we can do! Falling asleep on session two and walking up to me sure is quite a huge improvement. She s such a sweet, kind, and forgiving soul. Any name suggestions are welcome! 🌸stay tuned about another surprise tomorrow 🌸

Mellow is coming along so well! He is starting to learn how to pick up his feet. While he halters, and leads anywhere like a champ as well as he has learned to tie, I love to teach them how to pick up their feet at liberty. Anything I can do without tools I will. Why? Connection will bring you anywhere. Force and control will only lead to short term results if any. I look for calmness and connection. This will always lead to powerful results that will last forever! I love that he has so much try and willingness to learn anything new. During our first session I like to focus on the front legs both side only. Even though horses cary 70% of their weight on the front, it s easier and safer for me to teach the front legs only during session 1. This allows the horse to have a feel what it is like trying to balance on 3 legs. We need to remember it s not a natural thing. Join us in his second session of front legs and first of hind legs and watch him searching for an answer, connection, and calmness as he checks in with his nose and lowers his head. This was his second time picking up his hind leg and he held it up for 10 seconds! He stayed connected, balanced, and willing. Liberty work allows him to express himself in a way that is fair to him because we have done lots of things this way, he didn’t decide to take off but rather think true the questions. He has learned with little things how to succeed and is now learning he can keep succeeding with harder tasks. Mellow loves physical touch so for him it s a perfect reword to scratch him and tell him he s the bestest boy in the entire world 😆 Imagine if a horse can feel a fly land. This is the amount of touch I will use. My goal is for them to pick up with a little tap on the leg and use more pressure at the beginning as needed to help them figure out the answer. I want kids to be able to clean their feet and learn the importance of this. Sorry the angle of the video isn’t the best - I try to jungle around what I

Breakfast time! Love working on their nutrition and helping them become stronger so they can bloom and shine 🤩

Here comes the COOL CLUB 😎Mellow, Tarzan, and Diamond. Tarzan was certainly excited about a visit 🙌 feral, starved, hospitalized, these boys have overcome so much and I couldn’t be more proud right here in the moment

Tarzan is looking for a Sponsor! Will you help him? This sweet pony has gone true a huge rollercoaster…. Upon arrival he was extremely weak he barely ate and had a bad emergency a few days later. He was hugely traumatized and his nervous system was very set off. I have been doing a lot of work with him doing some meditation, feet matching, space energy work, music exercises, and today he sure made huge progress, not only did he learn to lead this afternoon with music, this am he also fully agreed that lots of energy is OKAY! Those hugs ment so much to me after all we have been true together- taking the time to allow them to breathe, connect, and play surely pays off! Willing to help us with his ongoing care, please sponsor Tarzan!

When you learn to lead with peace and connection vs control and stress. So proud of you Tarzan! He has been doing much better at his new location. We have worked a lot on settling his nervous system and he sure has made a HUGE amount of progress. Still a long way to go but baby steps are doing their magic 🤩

Legend needs a sponsor! Will you help him? 💚 Here comes the cuteness overload again! 🔥 Growing like a sprout, Legend has been doing incredibly well. He is absolutely loving his winter herd in a huge field, with all his extremely well minded friends, mom, and foal friend. Did he tell you about his bale party he gets to enjoy!? Due to their field location, we can’t easily access it with our tractor and therefore we said to try and let them enjoy life to the fullest with a bale party. Natural stimulation is hugely important for any animal but especially babies/foals. Therefore, we ensure they have lots of space, a good minded herd, and plenty of good food. I m lucky he gets to be at home with me and have his water though right by my window - waking up to hoof sounds walking true the snow surely helps me get up in the morning to go take care of everyone at home and in different field away from home. We currently have 4 herds. I m beyond proud of him for who he s becoming! While he has an incredible mindset, he s just loving people and his independence without mom is becoming big perhaps he s to brave 😅 i can t believe he was feral only a few month ago, emaciated, and traumatized to quite a severe extend with his mom. He sure LOVES his cuddles 🥰 will you be his Sponsor? Did you know Legend is Tarzan s brother!? Watch out for a new Tarzan video tomorrow!

Mickey Mouse needs a sponsor! Will you sponsor him? 💚 The ponies had a week off from work as they moved to their field and received some time for themselves and castrations healing. With this incredible weather this weekend, I am back at work with these superstar. Today, Mickey Mouse learned to lead!! What a champ he is 👏 there are many different ways to teach a pony to lead and get used to pressure. All 7 boys have their own way and Mickey decided it would be fun with connection and scratches. I absolutely LOVE how he keeps connecting to me! As his leader, I have to ensure to always make sure I m strong, take a safe path, and read him properly for our connection to happen. Teaching them how to stop is always the same for everyone I use a method based of our energy and when we STOP, we breath out and put our energy down then reconnect. This 15 minute session was extremely powerful! Stay tuned about some more video s over the weekend 🙂 Mickey is still looking for a sponsor. Who is willing to sponsor Mickey Mouse?? 💚$100 and you will receive a personal letter and gift from your pony!

#4 meet MIDNIGHT

#4 meet MIDNIGHT up next we have a little black filly! When she arrived my transport lady said that she was quite mean during the trip to the other mares she was with. Right away I told her “maybe she doesn’t feel good”. Soon enough I realized that Midnight indeed wasn’t very nice to the others. She would bite and kick them non stop if they got close to her. She also got super aggressive when I gave more hay or anytime during their dinner time. To keep it fair and safe to the others as well as comfortable for her I decided to give her a stall of her own. Her behaviour makes sense in a way that she can be very good protective due to her past being starved. Because of the severity of it I do believe she must have some pain included as well. We will get her checked out for ulcers, teeth, as well as anything else my vet may be thinking of during her vet visit next Thursday. With a bit of extra work and love for her, I was able to convince her I wouldn’t eat her food and would be the fun one providing as much as she possibly wanted. Soon enough she realized that this isn’t a bad thing and she became the absolute sweetest pony! She is quite curious, extremely affectionate, and would love to spend all day with a human now. I had to be very careful and still am but she has been incredible at being very kind to me. I would like to tag you along in a video I made of her and I working during her first halter training session. CONNECTION goes an along way!!! We hope you enjoy.