✨ Happy New Year everyone! ✨
Thank you so much to everyone who has supported or been a part of the EPE team in 2023, we are SO excited for all the good things to come in the new year!!!🤩
We couldn’t be more thankful for the amazing people & horses that make life so great.
Happy Thankgiving everyone! 🍂🦃
We had some extra help today while working on the log drag… 🐾 😂
One of the most overlooked horsemanship skills…. BRIDLING THE HORSE….
In the midst of a busy day, heading down to the arena for the next lesson, I had a moment to watch a 10 year old student put a bridle on her horse. I quietly watched from a distance of how she bridled the horse so gentle and correct- she used to be one of my students who did a lot of the ‘jamming, rough, I can’t do this, it’s too hard’ bridling. I was so proud of how far she’s come to work on changing her ways. I walked over and told her what a great job she did and asked her to take the bridle off and show me again as a good example for a video for other students. This simple video inspired some thought of how so many riders have a gap in their knowledge of how to correctly & respectfully bridle the horse.
*Correctly* bridling a horse is one of THE most important horsemanship skills that gets overlooked too often. The amount of times I’ve seen cringeworthy bridling from kids, and even educated adults is overwhelming. We all know the most gentle, willing, seasoned horses who become evasive and difficult to bridle from even only a handful of bad experiences.
On most occasions, incorrect or rough bridling happens do to an innocent lack of knowledge or experience. Some riders are never even taught to bridle the horse at all, some are given a brief introduction and then left to fend for themselves, and some are taught very well but then sometimes being rushed and unsupervised over time creating bad habits, or sadly even professionals who lack of care slips away over the years.
We need work hard to focus on what happens before & after the ride just as much as what happens during the ride. The days are busy, long, and sometimes hard but taking the time to address what should be a basic skill, can sometimes make all the difference for that horse and rider.
By addressing a correct and respectful tacking process, we aim to set our rides up for success as we hold riders to a higher
Sometimes you learn new skills on trail rides… skills that you didn’t know you had until the lowest branch appears ! 🌿😂 💪🏼
Instead of the usual walk on the trails for a post ride cool down, it’s nice to mix it up some days with a low key bridle-less refresher before ending the ride 🎶
Instead of the usual post ride cool down on the trails, it’s great to mix it up with a quick low key bridle-less refresher before ending the ride 🎶
