MK Horsemanship

12/01/2025

11/29/2025

I get a little concerned when I hear people say their horse just needs long rides, and wet saddle pads. Will it make their horse obedient? Sure it will. But there is a bigger picture missing.

Any time we are working with our horses we are either building healthy muscles that enhance the horse's way of moving, ability to carry us, and way of life. Or we are building muscle that is compensating for poor movement, unbalance, and insecurities.

A horse that is not moving in a balanced and correct way is going to have bulging muscles, atrophied muscle, abnormal joint wear and tear, and many other issues.

It's important to learn what healthy balanced movement looks like, and what poor movement looks like and the repercussions that follow.
So that we can identify what the horse is going through and if it holds any value or if it is actually detrimental.

Are long rides good? They can be!
But it's important that the horse is first properly prepared to carry himself and the rider in balance and in a way that promotes longevity of the muscles and joints.

Pic below is of my 4 year old mare Sweetness.
She is learning to find balance while lunging, through rhythm, straightness, and tempo and gait transitions,

11/27/2025

My heart feels full as I look back on all that happened this year. So many firsts, wonderful people, great horses, and a community I once only dreamed off.

Thank you for being a part of our journey!
Happy Thanksgiving!

11/24/2025

I had a great time partnering up with Hudson's Tack and More, and Two Tabby Treasures Studio yesterday!

11/23/2025

Come out and see us as at the Cowboy Christmas country market with all your horse training questions, and enter to win a free lesson!

We are here until 3:00 pm and would love to see you!

11/22/2025

Thoughts from today's reading 📚

I love how in Dr. Gerd Heuschman's book Tug Of War: Classical Versus "Modern" Dressage, he explains why understanding equine anatomy is so important. I think it sheds light on why it's important for any rider and not limited to any one discipline.

He writes:

"It is my feeling that in order to truly consider oneself a rider, one must be educated in the horse's basic physiology, conformation and behavior. If you know how the horse is built ; how it's skeletal muscular and ligament systems work together; and also how it's actions are controlled in part by instinct along with other aspects of the mind, then it only follows that you know better how to ride it."

When we don't strive to understand a horse this deeply, it not only becomes difficult to truly understand what horses need from us to thrive... but it also makes it difficult to know what's detrimental to the horse.

11/20/2025

Thought of the day...
Both us AND our horses should experience wins in a training session.
A horse that has wins is a horse that tries and engages

11/19/2025

I'm so excited to partner with all of these businesses this Sunday! If you are looking for something fun to do, stop by and visit us and learn about some fun Christmas giveaways and events coming up!

Happy Monday! Hudson’s is excited to announce we will be at Cowboy Christmas this year as a vendor!
Sunday, November 23rd from 10-3pm at the Dubuque County Fairgrounds.
We will be bringing treats, saddles, gift items & more! Stop by & chat with our Saddle Fitter, Kristina, who is bringing some special guests…
McKenzie Dietzel from MK Horsemanship, Meagan from Two Tabby Treasures Studio,
And Erika from Reynolds Equine Massage will all be there! We are excited to partner with these businesses all in one space!

11/18/2025

What is behind your horse's yes?

My good friend Nicole Shoup Horsemanship and I were having a conversation about how you can almost always get a horse to say yes to a request... but what's behind it dictates the kind of relationship we have with a horse.

We have all probably said yes under multiple circumstances in our lives, and with those circumstances experienced different feelings and different reasons for saying it. There are times we have willingly said yes to a request because we trust the person asking the question and we have a feeling we can probably complete the task without too much trouble 😃. There were also probably times we said yes, not because we felt trusting and comfortable, but because we had a lot of pressure to respond that way, and saying yes seemed to be the only way to take the pressure off of us 😟.

The same goes for our horses. Are our horses saying yes to us because they trust us, themselves, and want to try to do what we are asking? Or are they saying yes because it's the only way to get an unfair or downright scary amount of pressure off of them?

A "yes" isn't always created equally. And there will probably be times that however well meaning we are, we might ask a horse for a yes that's unfair. The important thing is that we learn that not all yes's come from the same place, and if we want to create a trusting and strong relationship with our horses we need to strive to know the difference.