Avery Happy Horse LLC

11/14/2024

Test your work often! I say to my students frequently; when you’ve finished your movement, drop the reins and see what you have.
If you actually have both hind legs flexing equally, a horse rewarded with a loose rein maintains the same rythm and direction with ease. Just as happy to be with you as anywhere else.

If you get sudden veering, speeding up, slowing down, anxiety, rooting etc, you missed something, or aren’t there yet.

It’s easy to make a “shape,” anybody can make a horse look round manually.
But to actually feel the legs and bring them harmonious and soft controlled swinging , to feel the hind legs beneath the seat and flex them, to create the most basic and most rare tenant in good movement of all: rhythm- that takes a real rider, a thinking rider, a feeling rider.

Don’t get caught up in shapes and looks - feel, and rest often. Drop the reins and see what you have. And that result gives you your answer on where your work lies.

10/25/2024

I have a couple openings for coming to me for a 1 week extensive private lesson week. And have one opening for a full time lesson student /horse development mix. Message me if interested.

10/19/2024

What a great afternoon for a horse/human corral for liberty! Can't wait for all to do even better tomorrow!!! Some amazing connections today and connection improvements.

09/23/2024

“Just a trail ride”

It’s trail riding season here in New England, which means I repeatedly hear the phrase “I just want to go trail riding”… which is often followed by the story of their most recent trail riding adventure that didn’t go as well as they had hoped.

Trail riding is a big ask for your horse, especially if you are heading out alone. Make sure you set yourself and your horse up for success by preparing appropriately. Here are some things that I put on my checklist to know if my horse and I are ready to head out on the trail:

1. We can ride in the arena on a loose rein, including making turns and downward transitions.
2. We can ride backwards and sideways with minimal effort.
3. My horse can stand still for mounting on both sides.

There are other things on my checklist as well, but these are the big 3 that I’m constantly checking on.

Next time you plan to head out of the arena, remember that it’s not “just a trail ride”. It’s a big ask of your horse, and they need to have the skills and the confidence to say yes.

Happy Trails!

09/21/2024

09/20/2024

Love this one!!! It is amazing when you feel it!!!

“All the aids are for relaxation and awareness. Once that is accomplished, the horse simply follows the riders balance.” -Theresa Doherty

09/14/2024

I have one rare opening for retirement board or young horse development board. 24/7 Turnout. 24/7 huge shelters/stalls. 24/7 1st cut tested hay. Alfalfa or 2nd cut as needed. Forage based mineral feed mix once per day. 12 hours on a 1 mile paddock paradise track system with hay stations and more. Pm me if interested or want more information.

08/13/2024

08/01/2024

For sure worth the read.

“The basic techniques, or what they call the basics, are more difficult then what comes later. This is the trap of dressage. Correct basics are more difficult then the piaffe or passage.” -Conrad Schumacher

But what are the basics?

It depends who you ask.

If you ask a horseman, someone who spends their career putting a solid foundation on a horse they will give you one set of answers. If you ask a dressage professional, they will likely give you another sub-category of answers. And neither are necessarily wrong.

One is talking about the education of a grade school student, the other is likely talking about the education of a high school, or possibly even college level student.

They are both equally important, but one does come before another.

Everyone needs a grade school education no matter what their profession becomes, and many horses are missing a good grade school foundation before being educated in a highschool or college level conversations.

In my opinion, the basics are the ingredients; the fundamental and individual pieces that go into said movement, exercise, or issue. For me, the key to basics are isolations, understanding, and relaxation.

Everything is made up of something. So it’s always helpful to ask, what are the BASIC parts to the movement I am trying to achieve?

The basics of a horseman:

• Walk, trot, canter, on the buckle, the horse stays relaxed and can come down just off your seat.

• The horse understands how to follow the soft feel of a single rein.

• How to move to the side off each leg independently.
• Halt and back up with lightness.

• Find forward in all gaits softly and easily.

• Has excellent ground control of all its basic body parts in hand, and online.

• The horse is mentally and emotionally relaxed and confident in all these conversations and working environments.

I consider this a very brief overview of a grade school education that each horse should have before entering any discipline.

The dressage professional might talk about the training scale. (Despite some differences of opinion, its still a universally well known guideline for the sake of conversation).

#1 Rhythm/Relaxation
#2 Suppleness
#3 Contact
#4 Impulsion
#5 Straightness
#6 collection

The training scale is basic high-school guidelines, but still far from basics themselves. Each one of these categories has a large context of understanding, that is largely produced FROM a grade school education.

Here are some of the gradeschool basics that are required to produce the basics of the training scale.

#1 RELAXATION

• Can you put your horse on the buckle and walk, trot, canter in a relaxed consistent stretch, and come down off the seat alone?

• Can they hack out on a loose rein? Are they confident and comfortable in contact? In the environment you work in?

A horse who is responsive and relaxed is naturally rhythmic. A loss of rhythm or erratic rhythm is almost always a sign of tension, pain, or emotion. You can’t force rhythm, it is organic to relaxation.

#2 SUPPLENESS

• Does your horse understand isolations of the aids, in a relaxed yet responsive way?

• Can you pick up a single rein and your horse softly and easily follows the feel? Is their jaw clenched, grinding, or chomping?

• Can your horse yield softly to the leg on a loose rein and maintain a soft back?

• Can your horse easily follow the seat into lateral movements at the walk without holding anything in your hands?

• Does your horse maintain a stretch on a loose rein in all gaits?

• Can you pick up contact and there is no brace, tension, or change in throughness or rhythm of the gait?

#3 CONTACT

• What is the quality if your contact in all gaits and maneuvers? Is it heavy?

• Can you halt with just your seat at any given moment without brace in the hand?

• Can you reinback with ease and softness?

• If not, you’re likely using your contact for control instead of communication.

• What does your school halt look like? Can you talk to your horses balance at the halt, in all 4 feet?

• Is there always a quality stretch to the buckle that lives inside your contact at any given moment? If not, your likely holding your horse in inversion.

#4 IMPULSION

• How is your horses forward off the seat and leg on a loose rein?

• Is the leg or seat aid almost invisible to someone one the ground?

• How well does the horse engage in all gaits on a loose rein?

• How well does the horse maintain engagement, are you begging with the leg?

• Does the quality change when you pick up contact?

• Does the horse understand how to step up to hand with a hind leg and not brace in the jaw or rein? If not, slow down. Don't push a lack of understanding or ability into the hand.

#5 STRAIGHTNESS

The quality of the lateral maneuvers determine Straightness. Lateral maneuvers correct imbalances and release a horse into straightness if done correctly.

• Can all the lateral maneuvers be produced in balance, self carriage, and lightness at the WALK first? Does the balance, self carriage, or suppleness change in the trot?

#6 COLLECTION

• How is your halt? At any moment, from any gait? Was hand needed?

• How is your reinback?

If your horse is unable to do this well, no amount of half halts in the world will fix heaviness, collectability, or balance issues.

• How are your transitions?

MINDFULL transitions teach balance and collection, IF they are done well and off your center of gravity.

• Is your center of gravity connected to your horses center of gravity, through the seat alone?

If your contact gets heavy in transitions there is a loss of balance.

• If your horse struggles with engagement in collection go back to the basics in principles #3 and #4.

To understand basics there has to be a core understanding of how to ACHIEVE basic principles. The rest does (as annoying as it sounds) fall into place.

GYMNASTICISING movements in sequence is many times a COLLEGE level conversation.

Movements are only gymnaticized upon the self carriage, balance, and understanding of the maneuver.
Which is directly based on the quality of the gradeschool and highschool education.

It is a common approach to try and ride a horse excessively forward through a sequence of movements to gain improvement in a multitude of things.

But more times then not the horse isn’t educated enough for that level of conversation and it becomes a pushing, bracing, struggle of tension that lacks quality, understanding, relaxation, suppleness, balance, proper engagement, or biomechanics.

A horse cannot catch its balance, "come over its back", find relaxation, or understanding by being chased more and more forward, or if too many aids are talking at the same time. This approach breaks down the body and the mind.

It is amazing that taking the time to SLOW DOWN and teach the horse step by step, that in just a matter of days the horse can understand a lateral movement, position, or posture, and is able to carry themselves down a long side or in a figure with balance, lightness, and relaxation, simply because you took the time to break it down.

From that level of understanding it is then far easier to develop, build strength, or carrying power of that maneuver, posture, or balance point.

If the horse struggles as you progress (and they will) you simply slow down to clarify as needed.

The point is people are usually doing WAY to much to fix issues or produce results.

Have you asked your horse if they understand your aids in isolation first? You might be surprised what you find.

If you're getting stuck or struggling…..congratulations, your being called to a higher level, the master level of revisiting and polishing the basics. And you will keep getting called back, over and over.

Until one day, you may find that your basics effortlessly produced a glimmer of piaffe hiding under the surface, and you will be blown away because you didn’t even try… you just had really good basics.

And the best basic of all…..slow down.

07/02/2024

Understanding the Why

If someone asked you why you’re doing what you’re doing with your horse at any given moment, would you be able to answer?

When we are first learning something new, we often ask HOW to do it. We are completely focused on the mechanics of the task. We need to learn the timing, the feel, the body position, etc. in order to develop the new skill.

But once we’ve learned the HOW, it’s important to then learn the WHY. Otherwise, we are just doing something with our horse for the sake of doing the task, without actually understanding the benefits that the task might offer. And if we don’t understand the benefits of a particular exercise, we won’t know when to use that exercise, or when to quit doing that exercise. And we will always be releasing for the mechanics of the task, not for the benefits of it.

As a teacher, I try to explain the WHY at the same time as the HOW, because I find it often helps people get a better understanding of the goal and what we are aiming for. It also gives them a reason to practice tasks that might otherwise seem unrelated to what their goals are for their horse.

I would challenge each of you, as you are learning new things, or reviewing old things, to question the WHY. Why is this exercise important for me to be able to do? Why is it beneficial for my horse? Why is it helping me progress towards my goals?

The WHY is just as important as the HOW. We just have to remember to ask the question.

06/26/2024

Bad news- having horses is not a right

Their basic needs are non negotiable, and if you can’t provide them, something has to give

They need a herd, not just a view of horses from a private paddock. (Obviously stall rest or temporary health conditions are unique situations)

They need forage, meaning grass or hay as the primary part of their diet

They need water, shelter, etc

The rest of the stuff we offer them: body work, tack fitting, training, etc, is essential, but if they don’t have the basic elements of wellbeing, it’s not going to “fix” the horse

Just the same as you would struggle with your mental health living in a cubicle except for a few hours, pizza day and a raise isn’t going to fix the basic need for socialization and freedom to interact in your world. What’s the point of extra trainings if your most basic needs aren’t met?
Nothing can take their place

The tricky part here is that the world is changing - land is harder to come by, good boarding barns are hard to find, places where you can care for your horse the way you see fit

I certainly have had to get creative at times to make it work.

I love horses more than anything, but I think if I couldn’t make one happy, if I didn’t have the finances or space to keep them the way they need to be psychologically and physically well, I would have to rethink having them, or find some way to band together with others to make it work.

But I couldn’t imagine keeping a horse like a hot house flower for my own enjoyment, at the expense of their beautiful, short and fragile life.

06/21/2024

An entire industry has been created selling you the idea that there is a method to fix every problem.

What is extremely popular is a video for every problem, and for every fix there are three more problems created, for which there’s a method to fix too.

I get asked nearly daily to create a video about specific problems (I saw your video on trailer loading, but what about loading a chestnut mare into an Adam trailer?). These can be helpful to see, but the mentality over time has shifted into specifics instead of looking at the big picture.

Good, all encompassing horsemanship creates a foundation wherein problems melt away holistically. If you understand how all things connect, you stop seeing things individually, but as a whole. You have to fix the whole and stop looking for quick solutions.

Teaching people to be actual horsemen, to stop looking for quick tips and tricks, to start seeing the whole and the connection of all things, means rewiring our minds from conditioning and marketing over the past decades.

So if you have a problem, it isn’t living in isolation. It’s part of a whole picture. And you have to look at, and feed the whole, for the symptoms to melt away.

06/17/2024

Herdbound horses -

Herdbound horses are a common complaint- all over the country, horses are attached to a buddy or buddies, often to a level that can make them dangerous to take out alone, or sometimes even five feet away.
There are many opinions on different “fixes,” everything from running them ragged near their friend in frantic circles and resting them away from their friend, to a carrot on a stick or Hansel and Greek trail of treats on the path away from the friend. But the reality is, a herd structure is central to a horses survival, and companionship of other horses is part of their feeling of safety- no training can override the horses desire to be a horse witbout shutting them down

AND

The Herdbound horse is one who is not doing well!

In almost every clinic I’ve taught, the most Herdbound horse in the group is the one in roughest shape- tight back, sucked up flank, pain face, tight groin - the works. Horses that are in physical crisis are much more likely to feel vulnerable, stressed, and feel a strong pull toward comfort- which is another horse.

A horse who is not feeling well in their body, who is not feeling confident in their handler who is fighting against their body (it’s a hard truth because that usually isn’t the desire of the handler, but that is what’s happening), who is in a new and unsafe environment is going to seek out safety, and that pull is as strong as the tide.

What’s the fix for Herdbound issues?
Lifestyle fixes
Horses need a herd, they can’t live happily alone, I don’t care who has a horse that tolerates it, solitary confinement is not a way of life for a horse. They need a group, or at least one other friend at the bare minimum. But they are likely to be less secure with just one friend, and far more worried about leaving

Body fixes
Don’t just write off their body because you get routine Bodywork. Get their back moving, help their groin function without being spastic, create a functional body with a moving back and healthy gut so they can think and not be stuck in survival mode

Rider fixes
Make it so whenever you’re around, they feel safe and they feel secure. That means calm your own energy, learn how to guide, be aware of your environment, don’t nitpick, and make your body make their body feel stable and wonderful. Good riding is moving Bodywork- make it so when you sit on their back they are in better shape than out in the pasture - that is a tall order but I believe it’s entirely possible, and I see it happen all the time.

A Herdbound horse is a stressed out horse - the fix is in your hands entirely.

07/01/2023

Working back to front doesn’t mean driving the horse into a blocked hand -

It means understanding that the energy necessary for raising the forehand is generated in the hind quarters, that the hind end has to be stable and bearing weight in order to get freedom up front. It means understanding the front end can’t be raised by hands or out of thin air- if the weight is on the front it has to be transferred somewhere else before attempted to fuss with the front.

Good back to front riding does not leave the hand brake on the front end - on the contrary, there is always somewhere open and soft for the energy to go.

06/16/2023

A friend said recently that horses really like a ’Long Hello’. That many horses feel immediately rushed by us, and this can really set us onto a path of misunderstandings and conflicts with the horse. 



Out on a trail ride the other day, my horse carrying me calmly, carefully, steadily, he waded into the river, and splashed his nose in the water, lifted into a Flehman’s Response, then pawed at the water. It made me laugh. The sun was shining. It was perfect weather, cool enough for a jacket, sunny enough to not get cold. I reached down and rubbed his shoulder. My body flooded with all the feel good things I almost always feel around horses.
"Thanks buddy”, I said.

Gratitude. 

I wake up. I go to my horses. I am grateful. Already won. Why?



There are plenty of voices out there telling us, and our horses, that they are not good enough. Not correct enough, fit enough, collected enough, shiny enough, natural enough, healthy enough, calm enough, cooperative enough.



It is enough.



I am grateful before the horse because that is my long goodbye to the horse. We never know when we will have our last moment with our horses. And under normal set of circumstances, we will all outlive our horses, and if we are REALLY lucky, we will be there with them, in gratitude and dignity, at the very end. 



So I stay grateful, so that I do not have to GET grateful. Because that is my long goodbye to my horses. No matter if it was to be today, or in 30 years from now.

There is a training principal that permeates equestrian culture at almost every level and wears many disguises. It is the principal of trying to win. It sets the human against the horse and see's the working relationship with them as something competitive. Who wins, who loses, who gets their way. Who gets what they want.

The reason why I try to steer away from that, and you should to, is that it sets you up on a pathway of diminishing gratitude. That diminishing gratitude will eventually leave you utterly burnt out with horses.

So what to do about it? How to express your gratitude to a horse in a way they understand?



1. When the horse doesn’t give you what you want, try smiling about it. Breathe-in. Wait. You can always repeat the question in a moment. And maybe they didn’t understand you, or can’t do that thing today. Or maybe their lesson for you today is not about you getting what you want, but something else



2. When the horse does give you what you want in two seconds or less, permit yourself to feel joy about that. Smile like a maniac. Don’t be entitled or demanding (Unless in an emergency of safety). Tell that horse, in your language, that it was wonderful what they did. And feel what you say, so that the horse feels you too. 



3. The 1-Minute Ride. Once in a blue moon (For established, hard working saddle horses). Catch, groom, tack, warm up, mount. Sit for one minute quietly. Get off. Finish. Say THANK YOU to the horse and give them some extra hay that day. 



4. When correcting a horse whom has problematic posture, movement issues, or behavioural issues. Remember that it is their body not yours. Maladaptive responses exist for a really good reason and taking those away from a horse too quickly and absolutely could deprive the horse from an important coping strategy that is holding them together. Go slower in your reformation of what you deem incorrect, so that the horse has a chance to contribute to it too. They may not adhere to the rules of the system you are using, so give them a chance to SHOW you, what they need. 



5. Give your horse the absolute best quality of life you can. Try to relocate if your barn doesn’t have good living conditions for your horse. Stop giving money to people who know better, but can’t/won’t do better. It doesn’t have to be perfect. But never give up trying to give your horse a life that they enjoy living, outside of their time with you. Even in the most compromised of conditions, you would be amazed what some creative thinking can do to totally change the environment, improving your horses life outside of training.

https://www.emotionalhorsemanship.com

06/10/2023

Why Tom Thumbs shouldn’t exist.

All bits fall into 2 categories- snaffle or leverage. Snaffle means no shank and has NOTHING to do with the mouthpiece. A Tom Thumb (pictured) is a single jointed mouthpiece with a shank.

A shank dramatically changes the action of a mouthpiece- just because this mouthpiece might work on your horse as a snaffle does not mean it will work on the same horse as a shank. A lot of bit manufacturers make Tom thumbs and a lot of people buy them- but that does not make them a good quality bit. (it just means people don’t understand the mechanics of a snaffle versus a leverage bit.) Because many horses go well in a single jointed mouthpiece, people, assume adding a shank is a good idea, but nine times out of 10 it just makes the horse twist their head funny. The other 10% of horses just tolerate it, but would still do better with something else.

If you want to try a shank bit, (and some horses just honestly do go much nicer in a shank) I would suggest first trying a rotating cannon style mouthpiece instead. Myler makes nice ones. They don’t twist a horse’s head the way a Tom Thumb does. They almost act a little bit like a slobber strap until the curb strap engages, meaning they have a little bit of a pre-cue, which is nice. Or even more ideal is a go straight to a solid curb if you and your horse are ready.

Historically the only two bits people used were either a single jointed snaffle (which is why it’s now common for people to think that “snaffle” means a single joint) or a solid one piece curb. They both had very different actions for a very different purposes. Both designs were good at what they were intended for. now people try to be clever and combine the two without really understanding the action and purposes of each, which were really never meant to be combined (unless we are talking about a double bridle wear a horse would wear both at the same time.)

A Tom Thumb is like someone looked at both a car and a plane and thought they were both fantastic, and decided to try to build one contraption that was the best of both, without understanding how either one worked.