Keenan Performance Horses

06/01/2025

Thunder, 17 hands of juvenile and athletic horse. Such a cool mover!

06/01/2025

Always fun to look back at rewarding projects

06/01/2025

Well said! Been looking for these words

There is a reason, I think, that horsemanship is so hard to teach, and that is because it's truly an art and not a science.

You can go to school for art. You can learn from masters of a particular art form. You can study the chemical composition of your medium and learn about how those mediums behave in different circumstances. You can learn about the history of your art, how it originated and how it's evolved. You can study trends and dabble in different methodologies.

But no matter what, in order to become an artist, you have to experience it. You have obsess over it. You have to go to bed thinking about it and get up thinking about it. You have to become a little bit consumed by it. It drives your passion and your curiosity. You have to dedicate a part of your soul to its inception, creation and development. In some ways, you have to get to the point where you cannot separate yourself from it, as it has become a part of you and you of it.

I have received requests in the past asking me to write more about specific techniques, "how-to's", if you will. I will admit I struggle with this because it feels to me kind of like someone asking me how to have a conversation. I can give you a very general framework, but a conversation is intimate and personal. To write one for someone else would seem to me to be a request to boil down everything that is beautiful and awe-inspiring about horsemanship into base mechanical elements: important, but ultimately in my experience not AS important as the energy, flow and feeling of what is happening between the horse and the human.

Yes, you need a basic skillset to be an artist. You need to know how to hold the brush. You need to know how to choose a canvas. You need to know a thing or two about how your medium behaves and how to bring out the best in it.

But what ultimately creates art is the person behind the tools and the feeling within them. And since no teacher can create this for you, we simply have to try and set up scenarios and allow space and spark inspiration for people to go seek it within themselves.

23/12/2024

PROGRAMMING

Programs are based off the observation of a horse’s mental and physical state, not the calendar or “what other trainers’ horses are doing by this time of the year”.

Some horses are simpler to program. Some are more like jigsaw puzzles, with more complexities, but those horses can open our eyes to new methods, studies and therapies.

We can’t insist that a horse grows and learns, but resist growth and learning for ourselves.

I don’t always worry when a horse progresses slower. Sometimes it gives more time to get the basics more solid, which pays off at competitions.

- kk

22/12/2024

The RVHA-NZ are extremely grateful to HUDSON HORSEWEAR for their continued support of our Shows, thankyou so much for giving us a beautiful rug and other merchandise for the North Island Stampede and also prizes for our National Show in the South Island.

Pop over and check out the beautiful saddle blankets and merchandise on the Hudson Horsewear page, you won’t be disappointed.

22/12/2024

PUTTING IN THE WORK

When I use the phrase “put in the work”, I’m not talking about endless physical exertion in an arena. What I always mean is targeted and programmed training.

The horse’s “effort” is seen in the arena. The rider’s efforts are only partially in the arena. The rider is also spending time working out the mental and/ or physical blocks of the horse, so the efforts of the horse and rider in the arena are productive and not simply “sweaty saddle pads”.

- kk

📸 Steph Godfrey

20/12/2024

So your horse has made little to no progress. Or he is saying “no” to his work.

Depending on your temperament and past experiences, you will generally look at the following possible causes:

1. Is he sore? (bone/ joint defects, chronic injury, bad feet/ angles)
2. Is he sour mentally? (needing more variety or a career change)
3. Is he unhealthy? (Nutrition, gut health, genetic pathology, seasonal toxins in the grass, conformational weakness)

Allow me to expand that list to add FATIGUE and WEAKNESS.

FATIGUE can generally be handled by rest, good nutrition/ hydration and allowing the horse to self-exercise for a few days in a paddock. The muscles can be in shock, recovering from work and need this time to recover and knit back stronger so they can handle the workload. Pushing past fatigue in training day after day, will cause them to use different muscle groups because the muscles haven’t yet recovered, or worse, place loads on joints and stress those joints unnecessarily. Fatigue is a place where horses learn nothing and are EXTREMELY susceptible to injury.

WEAKNESS is hard to spot. Weakness can be in a certain part of the body or through certain muscle groups, whether caused by conformation or chronic misuse. Sometimes you feel like your training “doesn’t stick”, “his frame immediately collapses”, “he does a few repetitions of this exercise then quits on me”.

Targeted work to strengthen the muscle groups that they habitually neglect to use, can open up new doors or unstick their training.

Consistent work with a knowledgeable trainer or mentor can help you isolate why your horse says “no” and program your way to “yes”.

- kk

📸 BRV Creative

20/12/2024

💯

20/12/2024

Hudson Horsewear is the reason we can have nice things. Savvy feeling like royalty cos we can do bougie on a budget.

We can just call her Anna Delvey 😅🤷‍♀️ because she is living beyond our means. Contact Sam at Hudson Horsewear if you want your baby to seamlessly blend into high society without… all the legal proceedings. 🫣

20/12/2024

We can learn so much from this! Anyone who has had a rib injury can surely understand why a horse with this condition could display “explosive” behavior.

19/12/2024

Another amazing Stampede sponsor, thankyou so much Cookie of VIKINGS REST for kindly sponosring the Amatuer Ranch Trail and donating a beautiful set of number holders and hat hangers for prizes, we truly appreciate your ongoing support of the North Island Shows.

Please head over to Vikings Rest and custom leatherworks page and check out the amazing leather items Cookie makes, it might be a bit late to order a custom design for Xmas, but we are sure you can find some amazing things for gifts, talk to Cookie today.

Designs and products for everyone, not just the Equestrian market.

19/12/2024

Savannah loving her special Christmas garland by Garlands With Sparkles. Thank you Shirley for this awesome photo prop it will be used for many years to come.

18/12/2024

A great reminder in this age of social media gurus.

It’s not about us.

It’s not about a methodology.

It’s about the horse.

It’s that time of year where I get a little burned out, and take a bit of a social media break…

There are a lot of voices out there who have much to say, and little to show, and it gets discouraging for those of us who are in the arena, quite literally, day in and day out.

I think the most common experience in the horse world is well-meaning owners letting the voice of others become more important than their horses’.

As we approach the new year, I encourage everyone to leave in 2024 anything that isn’t serving their horses.

Specifically, any methodology that just gets louder when horses plateau, rather than listening.

Pull the shoes that are keeping an unbalanced trim locked in.
Shoe the horse that isn’t thriving barefoot.

Try a curb on the horse who hates snaffles.
Try bitless on the horse who hates bits.

Be skeptical of those who get defensive and dismissive when someone suggests a horse’s behavior may be a result of pain.

Be skeptical of those who use boundaries and pressure as domination.

Be skeptical of those who are dismissive of horses becoming less and less emotionally regulated when we remove boundaries, or who don’t empower them with the superpower of navigating mental and emotional and physical pressure.

Take everyone’s advice and opinion with a grain of salt. That includes famous gurus, both old and new.

Don’t put anyone on a pedestal.

Don’t take anyone’s feedback to heart if your gut says otherwise. Whether it’s a vet, a farrier, or a trainer.

Second opinions are good, third and fourth opinions, however many it takes, until you find someone who sees what you’re seeing, as the person who knows your horse best, are even better.

Our horses have no choice but to trust the decisions we make for them, so we should make sure those decisions are based on listening to our gut and our horse, and not just the loudest voice out there.

Seems like everyone’s trying to sell us something, even if they aren’t asking for our money.

The truth for each horse sells itself.

It’s loud out there.

What drew many of us to horses in the first place was the ability to withdraw and get quiet, just us and the horse.

We need to keep learning and evolving, yes, but there’s always going to be the necessity of going to the horse, and letting all that noise fall away, so we can listen.

18/12/2024

Going to clinics is great and helpful. You’ll learn techniques that apply to your horse in his current stage and other horses, past and future.

Having consistent instruction or mentorship under a qualified trainer can be even more valuable, so as to keep up with an individual horse’s progress.

Horses change so quick. They keep reminding me of this.

A horse’s physical or mental needs can change literally day to day. Having a professional who knows your horse well and can help you stay on top of PROGRAMMING your training is key if you’re looking for peak performance in your horse.

Knowing what to do is not enough. You must also know WHEN to do it.

More on this later today and tomorrow…

17/12/2024