Dal Porto Show Horses & Riding Academy

01/05/2025

12/04/2024

🔴🔵 CR Impressive Dude 🔵🔴

♦️Your next all around horse could be right here! Maverick has been successfully shown by youth and amateur riders. He excels at the patterns and is super fun to ride.

🔴 Horsemanship
🔴 Showmanship
🔴 Halter
🔴 Western Pleasure
🔴 Trail

PM for details
Located in Brentwood, CA

Video below

⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

https://youtu.be/2TYOUQn1bCA

11/27/2024

As we enter Thanksgiving week in the US, many of your vets will be out of town or spending much needed time with their families.

It’s times like these that horse owners need to practice preventative caregiving.

During this holiday time, as an emergency only vet, I recommend the following:

- Don’t deworm your horse right now.

- Don’t start a new feed right now.

- Don’t get a new round bale of coastal hay right now if you’ve let the last one go to dust (give small amounts at a time or mix with a stemmy hay until they’ve had their fill, then give the round bale).

- Don’t change schedules.

- Don’t vaccinate your horse right now, especially if you have a known reactor.

- Don’t be in a rush and fail to soak your feed for long enough (choke risk) - especially if you’re late to feed due to holiday errands/get togethers.

- If you have visitors, limit treats. Ensure gates are closed. Make sure feed doors and bins locked.

There is already a shortage of equine vets - and the few we do have will likely be out of town or trying to enjoy the holiday.

Let’s all have a very Happy Thanksgiving. And let’s let our vets stay home with family!

Remember: Proper Preparation Prevents Postponed Potlucks! 😂🥴

11/17/2024

Offering the perfect Christmas gift 🎁 🎄🎁🎄🎁🎄🎁🎄🎁🎄🎁🎄🎁

CR Impressive Dude
2017 APHA Gelding
Sire: Arapadude

"Maverick” does the All Around and has been successfully shown.
🎄Horsemanship
🎄Showmanship
🎄Halter
🎄Western Pleasure
🎄Trail

Available to become your next Show partner and he’s ready to show today.

PM for details
Brentwood, CA

https://youtu.be/2TYOUQn1bCA.

🎁🎄🎁🎄🎁🎄🎁🎄🎁🎄🎁🎄🎁

10/24/2024

Really good points

THE ROLE OF EMOTIONAL DISCOMFORT IN TRAINING

I will make an assertion that might surprise or upset a few people. That is, horses do not need to bond with people. As long as a horse’s basic needs of food, water, and companionship are met, they couldn’t give a farthing if they never saw a human in their entire life.

But people are different. Most people want to bond with their horse. They get upset if they feel their horse doesn’t want to be with them. To fulfill this need people repeat the mistake over and over again of avoiding doing enough to help a horse change its thought because they don’t want to upset their horse or induce anxiety in the horse. They don’t want to do anything they think might cause their horse not to like them. But this is making horse training more about people's concerns than the horses. It is both an ignorant and selfish approach to training.

Some people who read my essays about training principles and watch my videos come away with the mistaken view that my training and my clinics are all rainbows and cuddles. But I am not that sort of trainer. I am the sort of trainer who will do as little as I can to get a change of thought, but as much as necessary too. That means that sometimes I am applying so little pressure that people can’t see what I am doing and other times it means the pressure gets to earthquake proportions, with most of the time it is somewhere in between. I try very hard not to apply more pressure than necessary to change a horse’s thoughts and provide them with clarity. To do more than that verges on punishment. But to apply less pressure than necessary to change a horse’s thoughts and provide clarity verges on emotional abuse.

In the past, a small number of people have expressed confusion and even concern about how much pressure I applied to some horses. They felt what they saw me doing was inconsistent with the ideas I espoused in my essays. So I want to say a few things about this.

Firstly, as I have written in my book, The Essence Of Good Horsemanship there is no such thing as kind or gentle training. All training requires a certain threshold level of anxiety in a horse to stop one behaviour and replace it with another. This is equally true for training that applies the principles of negative reinforcement (R-) and positive reinforcement (R+) The amount of anxiety required to make a horse think what it is doing is no longer a good idea is the same for every horse. However, the amount of pressure a human has to apply to reach that threshold level of anxiety can vary hugely. So just because one horse will change its thought with a wiggle of a finger and another horse will require a whirlwind of energy from a swinging rope, does not mean one method was more aggressive or violent than the other from a horse’s point of view. They both added the same amount of worry in the respective horses to create a change of thought.

Secondly, when it comes to horses the end mostly does justify the means. By that I mean, if a horse finishes a session in a better emotional place and with a clearer understanding of its role than it had in the beginning, then it is hard to judge what happened as inappropriate or wrong. Remember this is about how the horse feels, not how the human feels. If I can get a good change in a short time by using a strong feel or achieve the same result over a much longer time using much less pressure, I get it done sooner rather than later. I don’t feel it is fair to leave a horse feeling crappy any longer than necessary just because I don’t like using more pressure. I’m not saying it is wrong to do less and take longer if that is where your skill level is, but I am not letting my horse flounder any longer than I have to simply because I want to avoid being firmer and clearer.

The reason most people come to a clinic is because the things they have been doing with their horse are not getting the results they have been seeking. An owner puts trouble in their horse and leaves it there until it becomes habitual, then gets upset if a trainer has to apply more pressure than they would like to get the horse to think of changing their idea and behaviour. They look at the trainers as being cruel and aggressive but don’t see fault in themselves for creating the situation in the first place and leaving their horses troubled for days, weeks, and years.

Horses don’t care about how much pressure we use provided there is clarity and quieter/calmer emotions at the end. Horses don’t care how they got there, just that they feel better because of it. So a horse does not carry the worry that pressure might induce any longer than it takes for the change of thought to come through. Once the change of thought occurs the emotions are quelled and clarity is obtained. A horse does not fixate on the applied pressure any longer than that – whether it is barely perceptible or highly charged. The amount of pressure required to get a change is not what is important to a horse. The pressure only becomes a problem if we don’t use it with enough clarity to change a thought or if we use more than necessary to change a thought. You only have to watch horses interacting in the paddock to realize that it is not pressure that matters, but the clarity at the end.

It is very human to want to make sure our horses are calm and relaxed all the time. We want them to like us, so we don’t want to be the source of their trouble. I applaud this notion and try hard to work in that way. However, I don’t believe we do our horses any favours by allowing our desire to be their friend and not upset them with their need for clarity and confidence in following our idea. It never is and never should be about us.

Photo: I was in Germany earlier in the year, I worked with Simone Carlson. She using pressure with feel to help this horse overcome its fear of crossing a tarpaulin.

10/20/2024

🔸CR Impressive Dude 🔸

2017 APHA Gelding by Arapadude
Maverick has been shown by youth and amateur riders winning classes in Horsemanship & Showmanship. He was also Res. Champion Green Trail at GNG.
He’s cute going forward like a Huntseat horse and is ready for the Huntseat Equitation too.

PM for more details

https://youtu.be/txJD3vcm30E?si=I3-ofc0MmsmOjgif

https://youtu.be/2ty61G3kR44?si=Gyu2XZs_PBLwkX6f

10/13/2024

I’m here to help you create a strategy to reach your riding goals.
Contact me though PM if you would like to learn a new event or get coaching to fine tune and build confidence with your horse. We offer haul in lessons.

10/06/2024

Contact us if you are ready to learn a new event or would like coaching to fine tune and build confidence with your horse. We offer haul in lessons.

09/02/2024

“We cannot hide from our horses and ultimately, we cannot hide from ourselves if we seek a deeply connected relationship with horses.”
- Tracy Rainwaters

"I am fine!"

"No, you're not."

"No... I am fine."

"I can feel that differently."

"Don't feel me."

"Why. You are literally on my body and next to me. I am always feeling you."

"Because I am holding back the flood of feelings that I have no idea what to do with. If I felt them, I might fall apart"

"Ok. I won't feel you then."

"Excuse me... can you pay attention to me? I am asking you a question nicely. Can you respond to me nicely please?"

"But we just made an agreement. That I disconnect to how you feel, just like you disconnect to how you feel."

"Yes but, don't connect to my feelings. Connect to my actions and commands."

"They are one and the same. That is impossible unless..."

"Unless what?"

"Unless I detach myself from you. Emotional death."

"Great. I'll have one emotional death please. None of those nasty inconvenient feelings. Let us just do actions please."

"Ok. But I am here, waiting for you."

"What are you waiting for?"

"For you to feel. So that we can communicate with feel."

07/17/2024

⭐️⭐️SOLD⭐️⭐️

🦄🦄GWENIE IS FOR SALE🦄🦄

Great opportunity to own this amazing Welsh Pony. “Gwenie” is 18 yrs and has taught countless kids to ride throughout her time in our program. She could easily continue as a lesson pony or join a special family of her own.
Super fun to ride. Standing 13.2 she can take small adults for rides as well. Call Carol at (925) 683-2193 for more information.

07/15/2024

The weather was 🔥 and our Team was 🔥 in the show pen as well! Our plans couldn’t be foiled by the weather. We had positive vibes and fun through out the week and ended with some great results. Congratulations to all of my riders and thank you to all who supported us at the show in so many ways.

Gold N Grand All Breed Open Horse Show

Isabel Jellen & Choc Out My Asset CHAMPION
🏆 Amateur horsemanship Lmt
🏆Showmanship Lmt
🏆 Western Pleasure WJ Lmt

Carol Dal Porto &
Choc Out My Asset
🏆 CHAMPION Jr.-Sr Western Pleasure Combined

⭐️ Rachael Goodwin &
Rappers Can Be Sassy
Res. CHAMPION horsemanship w/j
⭐️ Carol Dal Porto
Top 5 w/j trail

⭐️Art strong & Better Get Reddy
RES CHAMPION
Amateur and Amateur select w/j pleasure

⭐️Sophia Mederios & “Duke”
⭐️Res CHAMPION youth halter and 14-18 showmanship

Carol Dal Porto &
⭐️CR Impressive Dude
Res CHAMPION 1st/2nd year green trail
🏆 CHAMPION walk/jog trail Open

05/04/2024

Every day I am humbled by the generosity of these animals. Every single one of them offers us an opportunity to learn from them and about ourselves. With every year, day, hour and minute that I spend with them, I explore how to really be with each of them in their own way. In taking the time to do this I discover their differences and also how they each just want the same things; respect, trust, affection and love. Horses give us these things naturally. When they receive them from us they thrive and open their hearts even more, reminding us of the common thread that we share with them and all beings. I’m so grateful for the wisdom that horses so generously share with me daily. ❤️🐴✨✨

03/31/2024

🔷 Life Lessons of a Horse Person 🔷

1. People who don't take care of their own horses will be the first ones to tell you how to care for yours.

2. You should never buy a cheap girth!

3. A handsome horse who's badly behaved will become a lot less attractive in about 15 min.

4. People who think they have nothing more to learn about riding, hit the ground the hardest.

5. Children and ponies are natural allies and often have identical dispositions.

6. The richest horse people often look the poorest.

7. The closeness of a horse is one of the sweetest smells in the world.

8. A solitary ride through the bush is more beneficial than six months with the best psychiatrist.

9. The worse a person rides, the more likely they are going to blame it on the horse.

10. The best thing about going to the barn first thing in the morning is that horses don't care how you look.

11. If a dealer insists a horse is worth twice what he's asking, he's usually worth half that much.

12. The best way to appreciate how another person rides is to get on
their horse.

13. I can recognize another horse person no matter what town, city, state, county or country I visit.

14. You can never have too many hoof picks.

15. It is not wise to argue with something that outweighs you buy 1,000 pounds

16. I'd rather have a horse with a perfect mind than a perfect head.

17. Eight hours is too long to be in the saddle!

18. If you think you have left the water on in the barn - you have, if
you think you have closed the pasture gate - you haven't.

19. When someone asks you if you like their horse, always say yes

20. The happiest people I know own horses, dogs, cats and at least one
deranged goat or donkey.

21. If you're looking for the perfect horse you will never own one.

22. Owning a horse can either make a marriage or break it.

23. I can't stand to have an empty stable.

24. You shouldn't talk about your first place ribbon to someone that
came in second.

25. If someone says that a horse has a little buck, it has a BIG buck.

26. If we need rain, schedule a show, if you want it to quit raining
put down fertilizer or grass seed.

27. I've never warmed up to someone that didn't want to walk down to
the stables.

28. A clean stable and a sparkling horse are among life's great pleasures.

29. Even giving away horses can be too expensive, and free horses are never truly free.

30. No matter how badly behaved you are, your horse always gives you a
second chance.

31. A more expensive horse doesn't make a better one.

32. Losing a horse can break your heart, but it will have been worth it.

- Author unknown

03/28/2024

Spring Gold N Grand 2024
Goals were set and met. Onward and upward we go. Thanks again to the fantastic staff at Murieta Equine, you make it an enjoyable show with whatever the weather brings.

01/29/2024

Always find time to do the things that make your soul shine. ✨✨🧡✨✨