Many of us love grooming horses, but do you know if your horse actually enjoys it? What do you think the mare in this video, Fae, thinks of me brushing her back?
Comment below or send me a message to participate this Thursday in my free webinar to learn more about reading a horse's reactions to grooming.
Many of us love grooming horses, but do you know if your horse actually enjoys it? What do you think the mare in this video, Fae, thinks of me brushing her back?
Comment below or send me a message to participate this Thursday in my free webinar to learn more about reading a horse's reactions to grooming.
#sundanceranchportugal #pferde #horses #reitenlernen
Is it ok to ride horses?
Maybe you’ve seen the video of Charlotte Dujardin hitting a horse during a riding lesson. Maybe you’ve heard that she withdrew from the Olympics and is banned from competing for six months. Perhaps this makes you question the ethics of riding horses altogether.
To be honest, I don’t have a definitive answer. This is something you have to decide for yourself. There are countless ways to ride a horse, each as unique as the horse itself. Riding for leisure on a trail with a buddy is vastly different from competing at the Olympic level. Personally, I do not compete and never would in any discipline. In my view, the competitive world prioritizes money and ego over the welfare of the horses and that’s what is causing all the problems.
But should we ride at all? I believe so. My personal belief is that riding brings joy and fosters connection, benefiting both rider and horse. When we provide our horses with a comfortable life, we also have a responsibility to ensure they stay fit. Riding is one of the easiest and most enjoyable ways to keep our horses healthy.
However, we must ensure that we do not harm our horses physically or psychologically when we ride. This is why I love teaching beginners and re-starters at my ranch here in Portugal. I get the chance to teach them to recognize horses’ stress signals, so they know what to say no to when they ride somewhere else. I emphasize the importance of proper saddle fit, a good seat, and a comprehensive training program to make riding beneficial rather than harmful to the horse.
Most importantly, I teach connection before riding. In my courses, you spend time with the horse, building a bond and growing trust before even putting a halter on. In my opinion, riding is truly okay with these elements in place.
#sundanceranchportugal #horses #pferde #reitenlernen #learntoride
Hast du schon immer davon geträumt, Reiten zu lernen, aber das normale Reitschulgeschehen scheint nicht das Richtige für dich?
Unser Basiskurs ist der perfekte Ausgangspunkt für deine Reise mit Pferden und bietet eine unterstützende und bereichernde Umgebung, in der du wachsen und lernen kannst.
In unserem Septemberkurs ist noch ein Platz für dich frei!
#sundanceranchportugal #reitenlernen #pferde
Hast du schon immer davon geträumt, Reiten zu lernen, aber das normale Reitschulgeschehen scheint nicht das Richtige für dich?
Unser Basiskurs ist der perfekte Ausgangspunkt für deine Reise mit Pferden und bietet eine unterstützende und bereichernde Umgebung, in der du wachsen und lernen kannst.
In unserem Septemberkurs ist noch ein Platz für dich frei!
#sundanceranchportugal #reitenlernen #pferde
Would you like to improve your riding and horsemanship skills in a way that is respectful to both horses and humans? Come join us at Sundance Ranch. We still have a couple spots available in our September courses:
Foundation Course with Sandra for beginners, re-starters or nervous riders, starts on September 8th.
Candid Equitation week with Lysette for experienced riders starts on September 22nd.
#sundanceranchportugal #candidequitation #horses #pferde #learntoride #horseriding #reitenlernen #reiten
I love teaching with these horses. Ramses, 18 yr old rescued Oldenburger stands at 176cm and is my best co-teacher ever. To really teach beginners well, school horses don't just need to be tolerant of mistakes, they also need to be responsive and well trained. It is true that it takes many years to make a great beginners' horse, but fortunately we started ten years ago.
If you've always dreamed of learning to ride, but can't find a good place to do it, or if you have been dreaming of getting back into it, we're the place for you. In our Foundation Course, you will not only have riding lessons, you'll also learn about communicating and connecting with horses. Most of all though, you'll find teachers, equine and human, who are full of patience and understanding. Send me a message if you want to talk. Trust me, I've been there!
#sundanceranchportugal #horses #pferde #learntoride #riding
It's Summertime...
As soon as the max temperature hits 30, you'll find us taking the horses into the river regularly as part of their training. The river Mira is tidal exactly up to our pastures, which means that twice a day it rises to a level that allows horses to actually swim. It's not something many horses have ever done before arriving here, but they all take to it rather well. Some, like Elia here in the video, really love it. Swimming is great fun for us and the horses, but it's also an excellent fitness training. When the tide is low, we still go in and the horses splash around and generally lift their legs higher than usual, which is great rehab for tense shoulders and hips. Such a blessing to be able to use the river like this!
#sundanceranchportugal #horses #pferde
Girls Party
Our mares are currently out on a big juicy pasture all day and get "locked up" for the night in a "smallish" area with hay for the nighttime. They are a bit overfed as is and certainly do not lack energy, so we're limiting the pasture time a bit. They really enjoy the daily treat of being brought to the pasture and they even like coming back to their paddock at night. Here you see them having a little party in their night paddock, blowing of steam. It always impressed me how well behaved they are with a rider, even total beginners, and how they go nuts on their own time. I love living so close to them that I could hear them galopping around and could stick my head out the door to watch them for a few minutes until they settled. Now, why they did that? No idea, maybe the full moon, or too much oats in the pasture or they noticed that Sundance had gone to visit the other geldings down by the river or maybe. Whatever it was, it really looked like fun!
#sundanceranchportugal #horses #pferde
Real Dreams (1999 - 2024)
This week I had to say good-bye to an old friend, my horse Real. It feels like an era is coming to a close and I’d like to write down how it all started.
When my mom was diagnosed with cancer in 2006, I gave up riding for a year to be able to spend as much time with her as possible. She eventually passed in early 2007 and I wanted to pick up riding again, but didn’t quite feel like getting on my fancy dressage mare. Long story short, I came across Real and started riding him just to find my seat again. The more I rode him, the more I realized how much fun I had with him. I also wondered if life wasn’t too short to not do what you really want to do. You see, my mom died at 66 and that made me realize how life is not endless. You need to follow your dreams. I had been following Natural Horsemanship from a distance and now thought I might want to get into it more. I decided to keep Real and give it a go.
Real and I went to our first Natural Horsemanship course together. He lived in a paddock for the first time at that course and never had to live in a stable again for the rest of his life. For seventeen years, I gave him the best life I could imagine, at first just a small paddock and eventually big green pastures with friends. For all those years, he gave me all he could. With unbelievable patience he helped me stumble through learning round-pen work, begin to ride Western, start to teach my own students, but also advance in dressage and jumping work. He was mine and everyone’s best lead horse on the trails. He was the first love of many, many children and a few adults.
I can never be grateful enough for his generosity in all my many endeavors. Most of the time, I didn’t know what I was doing but managed to learn with his help. His full name was Real Dreams. I never used the second part, but I always knew it was there. He was the horse that helped me achieve my dreams.
If you would like to send me your photos and stories of
Real Dreams (1999 - 2024)
This week I had to say good-bye to an old friend, my horse Real. It feels like an era is coming to a close and I’d like to write down how it all started. But before we look back to the beginning, let me tell you about the end of our journey together.
Real was active as my most trusted and brilliant co-teacher and trail lead until last year. I have tons of pictures and videos of him, but I chose this one to accompany this post because it was taken just a year ago. At the time, he was 24 years old and became this girl’s dream horse, leading her safely on trail rides and showing off his skills in the arena, just like he had done for so many years before. In just one year, he started being more and more lame on his front left and we had to retire him from active duty. In the last weeks, it suddenly got a lot worse and although we tried every therapy imaginable, we couldn’t reverse the damage. This week, my vet and I decided to stop trying and let him go. He wasn’t cut out for standing around in pain, even less than any horse is. All of his old friends had died, the last one quite suddenly a couple of weeks ago, so he also seemed lonely. I imagine him in horse heaven, running wildly across huge pastures with all his old friends, foremost Tuareg and Salti.
But back to the beginning. When my mom was diagnosed with cancer in 2006, I gave up riding for a year to be able to spend as much time with her as possible. She eventually passed in early 2007 and I wanted to pick up riding again, but didn’t quite feel like getting on my fancy dressage mare. Long story short, I came across Real and started riding him just to find my seat again. The more I rode him, the more I realized how much fun I had with him. I also wondered if life wasn’t too short to not do what you really want to do. You see, my mom died at 66 and that made me realize how life is not endless. You need to follow your dreams. I had been following Natural Horsemanship from a
Good horse training is often not at all spectacular. If you look at the beginning of this little clip, it's rather slow and boring. If you watch the end, you'll understand why we're very excited about this.
Hendrix has been in training with us for almost six weeks now and he's finally beginning to believe that it's a good idea to stay with Lysette, even if she asks him to move his feet a little. He's an interesting case, a horse with plenty of Draw and plenty of Drive but no ability to switch from one to the other until now.
#sundanceranchportugal #horses #pferde
Being the lead
When we ask a horse to take the lead on a trail ride, we can get frustrated by their hesitation. Although I believe it's very very good to teach each and every horse to be able to go out alone and in the lead, I also think we should have empathy for how hard this task is for our horses.
When in the lead, the horse (or mule in this clip) has much more responsibility to scan the environment for possible threats. Being in the lead can therefore be tiring and it's a good idea to allow for some relaxation breaks in the back when your horse is just learning to be the lead.
In this clip, you can see my mule Buddy's ears and how they behave very differently depending on whether he's in the lead or behind other horses. There's a voice over where I'm pointing out the difference, so sound on.
#sundanceranchportugal #horses #pferde
Protecting hooves
At Sundance, we try to keep our horses barefoot whenever possible and most horses adapt just fine to the hard rocky trails. Sometimes, however, especially in the spring, there is a time when the pastures and paddocks are soft and humid, while the trails are already rock hard. Then we often use hoof boots to protect our horses' hooves.
In this little clip, you see our youngster Fae taking her first tentative steps with hoof boots. She clearly finds them weird and somewhat annoying. It only lasted a few moments though and then she was happy to wear them.
Before you conclude that the brand she is wearing is our favorite, let me tell you the sad truth: there is no best brand. Different hoof shapes require different kinds of boots. Some horses do great with this model, while they fly off at the first canter with another horse. Fortunately we have many models and sizes, so we can easily test what works best for each horse.
#pferde #horses #sundanceranchportugal
Horse Mentors
Here are two examples of how we use our older, well-trained horses in starting younger ones. The voice over explains in more detail.
#sundanceranchportugal #horses #pferde #horsetraining
Sundance, our ranch's namesake, eating milk thistle
Although all our horses are on big pastures full of good grass, we often see them eating milk thistle. It's impressive in several ways: It makes good use of a plant we usually consider a weed. It's amazing how they can manage to eat the spiky stuff (watch the video to observe some technique here).
But most of all, it's smart, because milk thistle is actually really good for horses: Its active ingredient, silymarin, is believed to have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that can help protect liver cells from damage and promote liver regeneration.
For our German subscribers: milk thistle is called Mariendistel in German.
#horses #pferde #portugal #sundanceranchportugal
#sundanceranchportugal #candidequitation #lusitanostallion
