Joanna Lowes Horse Training

08/12/2024

90mph winds and he’s still here 🤗

08/12/2024

“Hard work, an open mind, patience and strong ethics are essential qualities for top students of horsemanship.” - Monty Roberts

07/12/2024

Addressing that knowledge gap is our duty… the information is all there, so is the feedback from our horses. Put those whips down, take your nosebands off entirely. The equestrian world has had enough of learning from tradition, the sorry state of dressage is now mainstream news. Change is needed at the top and bottom, from FEI judges and top riders, to pony club instructors and novice owners. The BHS syllabus contains bu**er all about basic communication or effective training. Far from putting the horse first, we’ve perceived our goals to be theirs, our environments to be suitable for them, man-made performance victories to somehow be a measuring stick against which we compare ourselves and our own horsemanship.

Sometimes I think a horse simply wandering over to you in the field, and choosing to chill or interact with you is a bigger victory than any rosette or trophy

Ethics prevent scientists from researching whip use, but jockeys can carry it out in the name of sport and entertainment. When there’s doubt, why do it at all?

06/12/2024

Very sad to be waving goodbye AGAIN to intern Tess who has spent another 6 weeks gaining hands-on experience with a variety of horses.

From fell ponies to shire stallions, fresh youngsters to rehabbing and retraining older horses, and a whole bunch in the middle ranging from unhandled to dangerously overhandled, it’s great to share knowledge and experience with someone keen and dedicated.

Best of luck on your travels Tess!

01/12/2024

FAB weekend combining some family duties (visiting granny in hospital - she’s OK though!) and Horsemanship Showcase - The Horsemanship Event of The Year. The photos don’t do it justice…

I really love that the event brings together some totally different trainers and disciplines, as well as an array of stalls and equestrian businesses. There’s not many places you can see the best stunt trainers, alongside britains best western riders, along with some dressage, horseback archery, liberty and riding in as little as a halter.

Highlights for me included trying out the stunt saddle, having a go at archery (been itching to do this since watching Lajos Kassai) and the two headliners (imo) - Warwick Schiller's Attuned Horsemanship and Ben Atkinson. Warwick did a powerful demo, again, of not technically ‘training’ the horse, but creating an obvious change in behaviour by ‘simply’ attuning and acknowledging. He was also super to chat to. Ben is just awesome to watch. His training is very whip-guided compared to what I do, but that’s not to say it’s unethical at all, he’s an outstanding trainer and great speaker to boot. It was also lovely to bump into so many familiar faces!

I’ve come home with a few new ideas to incorporate, and an early Christmas present in the shape of a bow and arrows 🥰🤠💘🏹 so watch out for some fairly epic ROR and muleback archery coming soon! 🤣🐎🤪

28/11/2024

Anyone recognise this one?!

26/11/2024

Can’t quite believe what an incredible couple of days these turned out to be!

Our ‘How to Train your Dragons’ workshops were supposed to follow a similar format, but so far they’ve all been totally different!

Friday saw some cold sunshine, so we were able to get into the arena as well as the classroom, Saturday’s participants were faced with continual rain so we had a more cerebral day in the classroom.

Both days saw belly laughs and tears, genuine sharing and ideas. We explored confidence, discussed goal setting and considered what the horse needs. We had Monty methods (obviously!) Warwick principles, NLP and Lego. We had games and exercises to highlight our communication and timing, lightbulb moments and an annoying magpie… sorry about that.

Massive thanks to Rachel Parsons for coming and sharing all your knowledge and insights 🤠 and to my fabulous team Alisha, Tess and Joey for managing the yard/behind the scenes/parking, Rosy for being an admin Queen at a distance 👸 and my mum for sorting our delicious soups for lunch 👩‍🍳

Final thanks go to everyone who turned up, gave our (mostly Rachel’s) wacky ideas a go, shared and got a bit vulnerable (real?) and sent some lovely feedback.

We will be running more of these days in 2025, as well as a stage 2 & 3. I look forward to seeing everyone again as well as welcoming some new faces!

(I’ve also been asked about setting up a Facebook/WhatsApp group for participants to stay in touch and share resources - I’ll get this set up shortly!)

Jo x 🤠

20/11/2024

It looks like we had an impromptu ‘Coloured’ class. Angus won. Asbo kicked off. Bryn wondered if there was anything worth herding, but everyone ignored him.

20/11/2024

It’s getting harder to tell who is peamum and who is peababy. Easy to tell peadaddy 🤗

18/11/2024

That little spot on his nose though!! 🥰
Angus the shire is a 4yo stallion who has come for backing.

He’s been here two weeks today, and is proving to be one of the sweetest gents I’ve had. He’s happily hacking already, I’m not sure at nearly 18h he even notices a rider 😂

My intern Tess has done a lot of the training and riding with him and has done a lovely job, he is responsive to ride and will pass a mare on a hack, he parks beautifully by a block for mounting AND dismounting, and is generally just a sweetheart, even Eva my 15yo helper has had a little ride and he was perfect. We’re all in love 😍

17/11/2024

Those of you booked on to one of our ‘Train your dragons’ workshops on Friday or Saturday will receive an email this week containing some pre-course information. It’s not compulsory homework 👩‍🎓 more ideas and resources to have a look through before the day itself.

Saturday is FULL for those wishing to bring a horse 🐎 but there are a couple of non-horse spaces available.

There’s only ONE horse space available for the Friday, and a handful of non-horse spaces.

Can’t wait to meet everyone and delve into some horsemanship techniques, confidence building, training principles and dragon taming insights!

https://buytickets.at/joannaloweshorsetraining/1437501

14/11/2024

Happy to have helped 🥰

11/11/2024

Random and Lizzie go arena eventing 🤪 I’m not sure I could have two more different rides; a collected and balanced short-striding cob, and an elastic turbo-charged ex racehorse.

A perfect round from Random (we cut every corner possible to make the time!) saw him take a win. He was reluctant in his 2nd class to go along a boardwalk which sees us have to jump off into another arena, so I ended up eliminating myself by jumping off and leading him a few steps, before hopping back on and finishing the course.

I must note here the team/judges at Westwood are a lovely supportive bunch. If you’re eliminated, even if your round is a complete car crash, they’ll let you continue and even lower jumps for competitors so you can finish on a good note.

I went from urging Random to trying to contain the equi Ferrari that is Lizzie. She locked onto fences and absolutely flew around, every fence was attacked with enthusiasm. A little too much enthusiasm 😅 an unfortunate pole saw us scrape a 4th with the fastest 4 faults. But she felt so brilliant I’m elated 🤩

Thanks to for the photos! 📸

05/11/2024

On Tuesday 12th I’m in the Gower and have space for 1 or 2 more call-outs on route.

On Weds 13th I have a large minimally-handled non-loader to help get on his way to a sanctuary 😬 and depending on how long it takes may have time for another on the way back. Ystradgynlais area.

Totally unrelated photo but if your horse looks like this I’ll do the session for free 😂

04/11/2024

Newly backed youngster Bryn arrived quite wary of people… he’s now riding incredibly, taking the lead on hacks and demonstrating some beautiful focus and attention here. Post ride: I am just using easily understood horse body language to invite him to follow (drop eye contact, relax shoulder and cross the axis) to stop (face and straighten up) and park (maintain eye contact and project energy to deter forward movement). I love how chilled and relaxed he is now with human company 🥰