Mills Consilient Horsemanship

18/12/2024

17/12/2024

What a majestic creature 😍

16/12/2024

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.

15/12/2024

AGGRESSION UNDER SADDLE…

For a horse who gets reactive to other horses when being ridden, ponying can be really helpful.

Here, Ladybug is getting ponied by her lower-ranking herdmate between my groundwork and ridden session with her.

Yielding to another horse and rider physically and mentally can be helpful, but, ultimately, when they’re with their rider, it comes down to vulnerability and trust.

It takes a lot of both for them to hand over the reins, no pun intended.

I do think there are other factors at play, here, as well.

Residual resource guarding can be one, displaced behavior due to chronic pain can be another.

13/12/2024

Great visual of what diagonal rebalancing and the diagonal effect can look like on a western horse, as you start advancing from inside lateral effects.

This is why Baucher and other classical work ended up feeling so natural to me, because I was already familiar with this in western riding.

Shoulder mobilization, very similar to how we begin renvers, for a lead departure, vs mobilizing the hindquarters, is very Kerbrech/Baucher, and great for the balance needed, especially for flying changes later on.

Equilibrium is pretty universal and cross-discipline.

Doesn’t matter what terminology you use, balance is balance.

That triangle hand position he describes is a way to access what classical riders refer to as indirect rein of opposition in front of the withers.