Heart to Heart - Equine

07/10/2025

Have you heard about the concept or a 'relationship bank'?
How do you deposit into your horse account?
What helps you bond?

02/10/2025

Thanks Natalja Corbett for your testimony.

The online programme is open for new paticipants, this time with greater focus on 1:1 support.

"I did Tamar’s online course and really enjoyed it and gained so much knowledge. I’ve been around horses all my life and have always wanted to grow and deep in my connection with my animals. This course helped me do just this. No question was a silly question. I was really happy and comfortable with the easy communication throughout the course and would highly recommend heart to heart Equine services."

30/09/2025

Only four days left to the clinic. It's not too late to sign up.
Get in touch if you're interested.

15/09/2025

“Your horses are so well trained.”

This comment from my farrier made me ponder what a well-trained horse really is.

You see, what led to the comment wasn’t the fact that they lift their feet easily, nor was it the fact that they stand quietly for him without even being tied, just with the rope over their neck. What made him say it was something small that happened while he was trimming Ms Dolly.

There was a noise that sounded like it was coming up our driveway—it startled the farrier himself. Ms Dolly’s alert went up instantly. She lifted her head, looked in that direction and her body tensed. But she didn’t move. Instead, she looked to him (I wasn’t near her) for guidance. Because of that, he could easily reassure her that it was still safe to stand there, and they were quickly back to normal.

This small, everyday moment, followed by his comment, confirmed something I often say: a well-trained horse is not one that hides emotions—that’s called being shut down. A well-trained horse is one that is mostly relaxed, and when she has a reason to be alert, her instinct is to look to the human for reassurance. That’s how you achieve a safe horse, rather than just an obedient one.

We often think that how safe or relaxed a horse is comes down to personality. While personality certainly plays a major role, there’s so much more to it. Back to the story of Ms Dolly—I can easily imagine her turning into a completely different horse. She could have become pushy, with no respect for people’s space, and a tendency to take control in any situation, just as she does with the other horses.

Good training is not about blind obedience—it’s about trust. The way you earn a horse’s trust may differ depending on their personality, but ultimately, trust is the one thing every horse needs in order to be a good citizen in our human world.

I'd love to know, where do you wish your horse would look to you for reassurance more often?

06/09/2025

Do you have trouble loading your horse?

Let me ask you this — why should they load? I mean, just look at it from the horse’s perspective. They’ve evolved to roam vast lands and be ready to flee at a moment’s notice. And here we are, asking them to step into a tiny box on wheels. It’s often dark in there (considering horses take a long time to adjust their vision to the dark), and it locks them in. It goes against all of their instincts!

Yet, horses step into floats every day. So what does it take to teach them to do that successfully? One word:

TRUST

In order to get a horse to do something so strongly against their nature, they must have complete trust in us.

Yes, getting there can be much harder for some horses, depending on their personality and past experiences (see my previous posts about Ferry and the float). But essentially, it’s about helping the horse feel safe enough to go in.

And this is why we mustn’t let ourselves be controlled by our own emotions — frustration, impatience, guilt, disappointment, anger, and any others that add more stress to an already sensitive situation. If we feel ourselves being overtaken by these emotions, we need to take a break, breathe, and do whatever helps us to relax.

From there, we can reconnect with the emotions that foster trust between us and the horse — love, empathy, gratitude, patience.

It’s also important to practise loading when we don’t have to be somewhere. We should do it at times when there’s no pressure, and we have all day. That doesn’t mean the sessions should be long — that wouldn’t be beneficial at all. But the feeling should be that we have all the time in the world, no time pressure. And even when we do have somewhere to be, we can give ourselves much more time than we think we need, so we can approach loading with a calm, unhurried mindset.

It really is about the energy we bring to the moment — so being aware of it is essential.

What’s your experience with loading your horse? Any interesting insights?

29/08/2025

10 TRUST BUILDING ACTIVITIES TO DEEPEN THE BOND WITH YOUR HORSE

An easy guide, suitable for all horses with basic handling.

The bond you have with your horse is the faundation on which you can build everything else - whether you are training your own horse or working with an experienced one. Make this a foundation of mutual trust and mutual respect.

Get the guide now through this link

Are you looking to create a stronger, more meaningful connection with your horse? Whether you’ve just welcomed a new horse into your life or want to enhance your bond with a long-time companion, this guide is designed for you.

27/08/2025

NEW UDATE
I've been working with Ferry on being in the float, with doors shut. Not driving yet, but to not freak out about the doors closing.

She went from throwing herself frantically as soon as I shut the doors, to not doing that but her whole body shaking, to not doing that but still having the runny poops and constantly moving, to not doing that but still looking back a lot and not fully relaxing.

So this is where we are now - not the extreme behaviour anymore, no runny poops, but not full relaxation either.

It gives me encouragement and reassurance to see her progress. It means that I'm doing the right things, and I just need to keep doing it whenever I get a chance.

Do you want to know what I did to help her? I just stayed with her and used my breathing and my voice to encourage relaxation and release. Breathing is a very powerful tool for working with horses. Through awareness to our breathing, we can connect to the way horses communicate best.

Today, as I felt she was ready, I added a little game in which I was outside the float. I closed the front door (which is noisy too) and then I opened it to give her a treat. I repeated that lots of times, to rewire her brain that closing that door can mean something good.

Got any thoughts to share?

26/08/2025

How do you define success with your horse?

In the days when I used to compete, I measured my success according to what the judges told me. This is a fair way to measure success, but it only reflects one aspect of horsemanship—an aspect I gradually pushed more and more to the side over the years.

The horse I was training towards the end of my showing days made steady progress, but never achieved glorious success in the show ring. Behind my back, people said the horse was talented but the rider not so much. To be honest, I was never a pretty or impressive rider, but I was effective. I could train my horses well, within my level.

By the old way of measuring success, I was a failure. But when I allowed myself to look at other measures of success, I realised there was a lot to be proud of. For example, this same horse, Bruno, reached such a level of harmony with me (at home, at least) that we truly felt like one. I know he enjoyed it as much as I did. I could suddenly drop the reins completely and there was no change in him. That was true success, even if I couldn’t repeat it in the show arena.

Another wonderful success I had with Bruno was on the trails. When I first started taking him out—especially if he was the only horse—it was like a circus. He used to do this thing I called the “grasshopper jump”: leaping straight up, extremely high, with all four legs off the ground. It was better than a buck in some ways, and I never actually fell off, but it launched me into the air and I landed hard back in the saddle. Quite painful too!

After a few months of taking Bruno out on the trail once a week, often just the two of us, he became happy to go out and we built complete trust in each other. We would gallop along the riverside, climb steep hills, and ride through forests and meadows. We had so much fun together, and such trust. Today, I consider this a great success.

I feel sad for the old me, who saw herself as a failure simply because she wasn’t great in the show ring. Perhaps, with time and motivation, I could have improved—but honestly, I no longer have the desire. I’d rather release that pressure from both myself and my horses.

So tell me—what does success with your horse look like for you?

20/08/2025

What to expect in the coming clinic?

In my last few clinics I followed the more familiar structure of giving a specific excersize to all the participants. Then I supported each one and there was also a discussion on the specific needs of each horse and there were adjustments made to support these needs.

This time I decided to focus on just one horse at a time, here is why:

- we can really go deep into what this horse needs right now and why.
- all the other participants get a chance to learn from the different horses.
- the excersizes we will do are specific for the horse and human combination, which means they will get more effective results from them.
- I can suggest more things to do at home, so they can continue to benefit from it for some time.
- there will be no drilling and over stimulated, or mentally tired horses. Each horse's session will be as long as suitable for their own age and ability.

What are your thoughts or comments?

14/08/2025

Trail Riding Dreams vs Reality

So, you’ve got your horse, and you have a vision of going on beautiful trail rides—either on your own or in a group—but when it comes to actually doing it, you feel like you’re miles away from that goal.

Your horse is too spooky on the trail, and you’ve completely lost your confidence. Or perhaps even getting out of the barn feels like an impossible mission at this stage.

Do you wonder if you and your horse are even the right fit? Or do you know in your heart that it’s only a matter of time and the right training? I hope it’s the latter. While it’s true that sometimes a horse and human are not a good match, I too often see horses being passed on—only for the owner to face similar challenges with their next horse. This is usually because there’s important work for you to do first, so you can give your horse what they truly need.

There’s no single checklist that will prepare every horse for trail riding. Instead, we need to look at the individual horse and identify the root cause of the issue. A very common one is fear. Even when it looks like the horse is “misbehaving” or “testing you”—and other phrases often thrown around—in reality, it often stems from fear. Fear of leaving the herd (a rational fear that kept horses alive through evolution), fear of new sights and sounds along the way, fear triggered by tension projected from their human, and much more.

What the horse needs to overcome fear will vary depending on their personality. For some, it may mean assertiveness from their human to establish leadership. For others, it may mean a calm, non-threatening posture and voice. Usually there is some of both—but the emphasis will depend on the horse.

But what if you don’t feel confident enough to achieve that? And what if you try your best, but your horse still doesn’t seem to listen? This is exactly the challenge I want to help you with. I’m planning to create a free resource that will show you how to project confidence, even if you’re feeling nervous, and how to get your horse’s attention on you so you can model calmness and build trust.

If this is something you’d be interested in, I’d love to hear from you—how would you prefer the resource to be delivered: written, video, live session, or something else?