Fine Print Farms

11/12/2025

I can, I am, and I will.

https://koperequine.com/my-favorite-sports-psychology-exercise/

11/12/2025

Posture is very important. Reading into and discovering pain signals is important too

But I’m finding the current climate is so unsure, so tentative, backing off for every potential signal of discomfort either physical or emotional, that horses are actually worse off for it.
If you never put the horse straight, they will BECOME painful. If you back off EVERY time the horse has a question, often interpreted as resistance, the horse WILL break down.

Why? Because without some guidance, some straightening, some questions and answers, horses and people will never get anywhere.

Imagine going to a fitness coach. Imagine he backs off every single time you’re remotely uncomfortable, a little sore, a little unsure, not perfectly comfortable. Imagine you need this for PT to recover from an injury.

Not only will you never get fit, you’ll actually become more anxious and more lame. Why? Because you have no guidance through and forward. Your coach will be feeding into, and building anxiety and weakness.

This is what I see in the world at large now- a well meaning attempt to create comfort in horses is actually building more lameness, more body pain, more anxiety.
Of course we need to address and solve sources of pain and discomfort.

Get good fitting tack, learn to sit WELL, and learn to ride straight. I’m not saying don’t listen to the horse - but don’t become so tentative you’re no help.

A lot of people are capitalizing on people’s good intentions to create confusion, dependence, and mystique. This stuff isn’t new - it’s been around for ages. We’ve known how to straighten horses and keep them sound for a long, long time, but suddenly it’s like the Tower of Babel out there and nobody knows what to do.

Calm; forward, and straight. Soundness is actually quite simple. Get your seat right, your tack right, and then ride them forward and put them straight.
—obviously there are some horses with lameness or congenital issues that this will not apply to. But a qualified vet or other professional will be the best help, not every Facebook post or forum you can find

Almost all of my horses came to me unsound. At a certain point I decided they were either going to be ridden to soundness or retired. And wouldn't you know it, they are all sound now. Sometimes you just gotta go for it.

11/11/2025

11/09/2025

11/07/2025

Qualities that make a good leg-yield:

✅ The horse moves both forwards and sideways on two tracks.
✅ The rhythm and tempo remains consistent.
✅ The horse's body stays straight with the shoulders about one hoofprint in front of the hindquarters, and a very slight flexion at the poll away from the direction of travel.
✅ If in trot, the horse's inside legs pass and cross in front of the horse's outside legs.
✅ The horse moves freely forward, working through his back without tension or resistance, and the balance is uphill.
✅ The contact is elastic and consistent.
✅ There is a clear start and end to the movement.
✅ The positioning of the leg-yield remains the same throughout the movement, without steep or shallow variations.

To find out more about the leg-yield (including the aids and how to ride it), check out our newest book on Amazon. Link in the comments. (Please note: The price of this book will increase on the 4th November.)

Illustrations created and copyrighted by How To Dressage

11/06/2025

TUCSON, AZ FEB 20-22, 2026
Please share! This dissection is the only location not filling? I would appreciate the help sharing this information especially of anyone who has been to one in the past. You know how invaluable the experience is. You can register at https://trinityequineservices.com/events

11/05/2025

Life is not perfect, linear, or tidy. It is filled with experiments and mistakes, circular learning, and messes.
Things go wrong, the wind blows, horses heads come up, people say hurtful things, and life goes on- our ability to be centered can’t be dependent on the outer state of the world.

It is something we cultivate in ourselves to share with the horse, our students, our friends, our children- this staying centered in the chaos is essential to not only guiding another being, but living a good life.

It can’t be just some trite motivational word salad - it has to be an active, daily practice. The thoughts you entertain, your speech, your breathing, the way you comport yourself when things are hard- this is a tough, disciplined practice that you work at daily, just like any other exercise- it is strengthened by repetition, until it becomes who you are.

10/31/2025

HAPPY HALLOWEEN 🎃

10/31/2025

DOES YOUR HORSE BECOME STRESSED IF THEIR FEED IS LATE?

I’m sure we all know some horses that become upset if their feed isn’t served on time, but maybe that’s with good reason.

A study by a team of researchers in Slovenia looked at the behaviour of eight horses when fed breakfast at regular or irregular feeding times and found they do become stressed if their meal arrives late.

The horses were housed in individual stables and were fed with ad-lib hay and a barley and oat mixture hard feed. For five days each week their morning feed arrived at their normal feed time of 6am, on Thursdays it arrived an hour earlier at 5am and on Saturdays it arrived an hour later at 7am. After their morning meal the horses were then turned out to pasture for the rest of the day.

The horses’ behaviour was observed and recorded for 2 hours around their breakfast time starting an hour before their feed arrived. The study took place over a 10 week period.

The horses that were fed early were described as not being ready for their meal. Lead researcher Manja Zupan said the horses 'weren’t really awake yet'. As a result they spent less of their pre-breakfast time eating hay than when fed on time or late, and so they ended up consuming less in total before they were turned out.

Unsurprisingly, the horses who were fed late displayed a number of stress behaviours. They kicked the stable door, whinnied, looked towards the food source and pawed at the ground while waiting for their feed to arrive. While some horse owners find this behaviour irritating or even funny, it is vital to remember each of these behaviours are caused by frustration and stress and could be considered a measure of poor welfare. Zupan reported 'A horse that cannot predict when he will get fed will have compromised performance and health'.

This study will likely not surprise many horse owners but is nonetheless important. It shows that horses are great timekeepers, they can recognise what time of day it is and know their routine. We already know they are capable of predicting their daily activities on learned cues, like the sound of specific equipment or their owner or caretaker’s voice.

It can be difficult to stick to a consistent feeding schedule – life often gets in the way and we may be late for our horse’s mealtimes. However we must remember that any change to routine like this can affect horses adversely, especially if their species-specific needs are not met and their choices are limited.

Horses who live in sight of one another should all be fed at the same time to avoid frustration and undue stress. Those who are routinely fed at a specific time and then fed out of their normal time schedule (and perhaps watching other horses being fed first) can find this extremely stressful. If they have to be fed at a different time to normal, then being fed early is preferable to being fed late.

Ensuring your horse has access to ad lib forage so they don't run out of food will also go a long way to keeping them healthy and happy if you can’t get to the yard. Of course being turned out with friends and no need for 'mealtimes' is the ideal!

'The Effect of an Irregular Feeding Schedule on Equine Behavior'
Manja Zupan, Ivan Štuhec & Dušanka Jordan.
Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, Volume 23, 2020 - Issue 2

10/31/2025

“Teaching a horse to keep their head in an artificial frame no matter how unbalanced they are is like taking the batteries out of a smoke detector.”

The head and neck position is an incredible barometer for what’s going on in the body, and Talent has one of the most honest bodies when it comes to communicating about his balance.

If the balance is wrong, he looks incredibly awkward.
If the balance is right, he shape-shifts into this amazing looking fellow, instantaneously.

There are so many horses who are forced to hold themselves in a way that disguises their physical and emotional imbalance, and that’s not something I’m interested in doing anymore.

Although I myself have been riding increasingly back-to-front the last few years, teaching horses to soften to the rider’s hand front-to-back is something I’ve still done with client horses and during lessons.

You see, I wasn’t sure if most horses and riders were really ready to skip that part.

I don’t know if I was necessarily underestimating them, so much as I was underestimating my ability to effectively guide them through the work that develops the feel needed to do this.

I knew if anyone was capable of this, it would be this rider, so we just went for it.

I wasn’t disappointed.

Talent gave us such authentic feedback about what was and wasn’t working, until he found just the right balance in the corners, where we even got some accidental half-steps.

This is the kind of stuff that’s definitely worth not being a hermit for.

10/30/2025