The Balanced Horse Project

09/20/2025

🔥 Horses that rush aren’t always the problem. Sometimes, it’s the rider’s seat.

Slow down your seat.

A rushing walk tells the instructor two things:

1. The horse is on the forehand. The front legs sit too far behind the center of the shoulders. Add the rider’s weight, and the horse compensates with speed.
Conformation clue: look for a thick crest muscle in the average horse not trained in rollkur.

Or

2. The rider’s pelvis is out of alignment. Pitched forward with tight groin muscles, or behind the vertical and driving. Either way, it pushes the horse faster.

As an instructor, you see the horse quicken stride after stride. The rider may pull the reins, but if horse and rider biomechanics stay misaligned, the rushing continues.

I’ve watched two colt-starting trainers struggle with this. Each was locked in a forward hip–leg angle. Even sitting “level” didn’t fix it. I call this the Electric Seat.

And here’s the problem: the Electric Seat drives the horse to lean on the reins. The horse creates a false frame or hollow back. What looks like control is actually imbalance magnified.

Last night, Gunny carried the lesson home. He isn’t downhill, and he doesn’t rush to find balance. Consider him a level horse.

When the rider reversed the hip rotation, slowing the energy transferred forward, the rushing stopped. Then, the energy from the horse lifted to the rider's collarbone. Gunny instantly sat, engaged, and carried himself.

And just last week, an experienced reining rider applied the same correction. Their horse dropped its head, rated speed, and held a perfect circle with precision.

The same works for downhill horses. Earlier this summer I taught another trainer on a braced downhill horse. In less than 30 minutes, we inspired the beginnings of passage.

My teachers—Sue Ramsey, Col. Podhajsky, Maximilian Geywhiler, and French Cavalry instructors—always said:
Control the horse through the hindquarters, never the front.

When I work with established riders, this is where I begin: Do you know how to engage the horse?

It doesn’t matter if you ride English, Saddleseat, or Stockseat. True control never comes from the reins.

Here’s the hint many modern riders are missing: driving horses forward often creates unnecessary fear in both horse and rider. What feels like control is actually pressure building on both sides. Balance, through the seat, not force, is the missing key.

Photo: Reiner setting up to slide.

Self-carriage belongs to every discipline. Equine athletes need help to focus their power, balance correctly, and avoid injury. The rider’s hip control is the forgotten foundation of riding. Teaching simple concepts like this is what makes the difference.

If this made you think differently about your riding, share it. More riders need to know balance is possible without fear.

09/19/2025

What was that!

This horse was sound when we took him to the trainer.

He was there 3 days, was lunged twice and went lame. The trainer did nothing wrong.

We pick him up and bring him home and he steps off the trailer sound!!!

What's going on?

09/18/2025

How did $8,000–$10,000 a year maintain twenty-one “hopeless” horses?

The answer wasn’t in supplements, shoes, or expensive therapies. It was in restoring symmetry.

I did more than simply turn lame horses out in nature. I began to investigate how modern training itself caused their lameness. From that data, I worked out how to reverse the effects—and how to prevent problems by influencing how young horses developed body symmetry.

That led to developing a training program called STEP:
S = Solve
T = The
E = Equine
P = Problem

The active ingredient is symmetrical balance.

When I stripped away the artificial supports and worked with the deeper geometry of their bodies, the change was immediate. Pain reduced. Lameness dissolved. Soundness returned.

Over 25 years—no colic, no founder, no disease. Twenty horses regained full soundness. One lived as far as old bones allowed. Lifespans stretched into their 30s.

But the real shift? Independence.

A crooked horse needs constant intervention. A balanced horse maintains itself. And when the horse becomes self-sufficient, so does the owner. I stopped being the employee of every vet, farrier, and feed supplier.

That’s how 21 horses thrived on less than the cost of three managed the conventional way. Not through cutting corners—but through restoring wholistic form.

Horses and geometry don’t lie. Balance creates freedom.

09/12/2025

09/12/2025

It struck me again, that a yearly budget of $8,000 to $10,000 supported twenty-one horses known as the Balanced Horse Project's research herd. It sounds totally ridiculous. But it did.

They were the cast-offs, the lame, the broken results of a system with proven weaknesses. These horses like thousands of others were the forgotten ones who were shipped for meat.

Like so many owners, I had been trained into the routine: three to four feedings a day, supplements, shoes, therapies, vet bills. I believed it was care. But what I was really maintaining was dependency. In truth, I wasn’t the owner at all. I was the employee. The employee of every service provider and retailer who depended on my income.I was bossed around, exposed to psychological bullying. I transformed from being the contractor to working for everyone and everything around me. Meanwhile the horses themselves remained trapped in the same cycle that continued to avoid solving their problems.

Then I bought the farm. I tore out the barbed wire and opened thirty acres of grass. That’s when the revelations began.

At first the stall-bound horses froze at the gate. Could they step out? Could they graze freely? Could they trust each other? One horse moved, then another. Soon the herd formed and began to live outside. Would they rediscover what had always been theirs?

My anxiety grew as my work load shrank. Each day it became clearer: most of the “care” I believed essential was not for the horses at all. It was for me. When I felt something was wrong the system was there to keep me stressed and the horses dependent.It kept me a prisoner, just like the horses.

The turning point came when I skipped their evening feed. I expected chaos at the gate. Instead, silence. No one waited. The herd had formed itself and no longer looked to me for survival.

That moment humbled me. For the first time, I understood that the role I had been taught to play was not the one they needed. What they needed was space, freedom to heal, freedom to remember and freedom to teach....me.

From that day forward, the herd never lived in stalls. They needed no shoes, no supplements, no constant vet care. What they needed was the chance to be whole.

And in that freedom, I began to notice something remarkable. Their bodies changed. Crooked strides, uneven posture, lameness, it wasn’t random. It was language. And all those discussion with riding masters about symmetry, became the key. The key to what?

It was then I realized something even greater: honest relationship does not come from control, or from feeding schedules, or from managing pain or treats. It comes from mutual respect. And that respect opened a doorway. Through that doorway came a mysterious awareness. An awareness that symmetry itself was not just balance, but survival. It was the thread that could save the lives of these horses.

That realization didn’t just change how I trained. It reshaped how I listened, how I watched, how I understood the very language of the horse.

And it was only the beginning.

09/11/2025

Universal Law governs, no matter how loud the debate becomes. The wise learn to listen and align with what encourages life.

Hearts always break when the weight of greed and ignorance take instead of give.

09/10/2025

It struck me the other day, how lucky, or perhaps how crazy, I really am.

The vet was pulling blood for Coggins tests, and with a puzzled look, he asked how many horses I owned. He remembered drawing blood on two others just weeks before. I paused, counted on my fingers, and finally answered: “ Just Ten.” Once, not so long ago, I had twenty-nine.

The looks I get in moments like that remind me how different my path has been. People don’t understand that every horse who came to me,
until Gunnie, was a cast-off, a rebel, or a broken spirit labeled unfixable. They were the unwanted. Yet together, we formed the Balanced Horse Project, a sanctuary and a living laboratory.

I resisted outside influence because I knew it would distort the work. What I was uncovering wasn’t conventional training. It was the blending of physics, engineering, and intuition. A language of symmetry and energy the mainstream still refuses to accept.

Caring for on average twenty-one horses on my own was relentless. It demanded money, time, fearless curiosity and endurance. To keep them fed, I built an Integrated Equine Service. In the 2000's, I’d wake at 2:30 a.m., do the chores, drive four hours to Atlanta, work twelve horses, then drive home to collapse by midnight. Thank goodness I only did that once a month. The craziness of 1 day's sacrifice, allowed me to focus on testing concepts and documenting results for 28 day peroids. Every cent earned went not to comfort, but to the survival of those no one else wanted.

It was illogical by the world’s standards, to labor so hard and remain poor. Yet within me burned a voice, insistent, urging me to decode the mystery of the Crooked Horse. The more resistance I met, the clearer the truth became: this was never about me, but about the knowledge waiting to be rediscovered.

The horse profession still blackballs me, fearing what they don’t understand. But I no longer take it personally. The horses were my teachers, and we had a pact: if they shared their secrets, they would have a home for life.

So when I host a workshop or a drive-by session, it is not for fame or profit. It is for the horses, who continue to whisper the forgotten truths of WHOLISTIC horsemanship to those willing to listen.

PS. To everyone who has trusted us and used our services—thank you. You’ve not just supported my farm, you’ve helped uncover discoveries that are reshaping how horses are developed and cared for, in ways more profound than the mainstream dares to imagine

09/10/2025

Belly rub!

09/07/2025

We took a super athlete up to our 200x300 flat ring. In conversations behind the scenes, he was branded resistant uncommitted and a physical wreck.

The problem was this horse is sharper than most of his riders, and that’s where the trouble began.

A crooked body only has so many spins and stops to offer before pain sets in. That's why this super athlete said NO! Fix my problem!
But there was a breakdown in the translation.
No Solution meant no TRUST and NO WORK!

So I bought him and brought him home. For the past three months, I’ve been remodeling him using our STEP RHT. Now he's straight. The pain has lifted.

Maybe I should state that past trainers have applied the skills that produced Million dollar performances. This horse said NO. Remedies where applied but the source of his problem was never addressed.

I have a different training philosophy. It employ resources that only the horse can provide. I invited him to rebirthed his body symmetry. It's quite an alien concept, but what happened is something every horse desires. Body confidence!

Today I gave him a choice.

And today he committed.

We took him out of his comfort zone. Surrounded by nature and three wild horses grazing nearby, he committed to his rider. He started loping.

Then WHOA!

He sat down and slid.
The best part? I watched a shut-down horse come alive. He plugged in the spin, the whoa, the sliding stop—without fear.

He was thrilled to show his rider what he can do.

Some scoff at what I do. But after a day like today, with a horse like this… I really don’t give a wet duck.

09/05/2025

Yesterday’s Coggins trip brought back memories.
We opened the trailer, and both horses walked right in. Frank and I just laughed.

“Remember when loading wasn’t this easy?”
“Oh yes,” he said, grinning.

Frank recalled one of the toughest loading cases: Dixie, a Spotted TWH with the determination of a stubborn Standardbred. Her owner Lee had endured years of stress, sometimes needing a vet to sedate Dixie just to get her on the trailer. The fights could last hours. Finally, her husband Tony had enough. “It’s me or the horse!” he declared. Dixie arrived at our farm after a 5-hour loading battle.

On trails, Dixie had another quirk: when pressured, she’d stop, hunch, and launch into JUMPING backward. What odd behavior!? I studied her chest and saw the distortions. OMG! That was the answer to all her problems.

For three weeks, we rebalanced her shoulders and withers. Then came the true test. Lee arrived for a loading lesson. Frank opened the stock trailer.

“Look where you want her to go and just walk in,” he coached. He had no idea what to expect.

Terror flashed across Lee’s face but she followed through. Dixie stepped right in. No fight, no drama. That was Dixie's first trailer loading lesson.

Simple.

A smile as wide as a rainbow filled Lee's face.

When it was time to go home, Lee loaded Dixie in front of Tony. His jaw dropped. He shook Frank’s hand.
“Thanks, man. Whatever you did just saved our marriage.”

Dixie went on to enjoy a long, happy trail career. She never stopped, never jumped back, and never refused to load again.

Tony bought a horse and joined Lee on the trails.

Dixie confirmed something we’ve believed from the beginning.

Resistance isn’t always defiance, it’s often pain. Resolve the pain, and the horse is free to do what you ask.

Maybe training “problem” horses isn’t about more force or more control. Maybe it’s about listening, seeing and addressing what hurts.

Our gift is giving them back their balance. It's has worked on ever training problem we've faced for over 40 years.

09/04/2025

Tomorrow is a big step in the life of our OTTB project horse.

Quincy arrived here on June 1, 2024. His owner, Savanah, made the brave choice to leave him with me when the layers of negative diagnoses became too heavy to carry. She trusted that there was more to his story—and she was right.

If you’ve followed along, you’ve seen his progression. Quincy turned out to be one of those rare horses with a lot to teach. In fact, since starting his STEP RHT investigation, four new exercise applications were developed directly because of what he revealed.

Tomorrow, he loads up for the next part of his journey. We’re headed to the vet for a Coggins test and health certificate, and then he’ll be going to Maddie Jenne’s to begin his training so he can eventually be matched with the right person.

I’m grateful to this horse. He’s been an effective teacher, a catalyst for growth, and a reminder of why I do this work. Most of all, I’m pleased to know that his body has improved—and his future now looks so much brighter.

Top image: October 2024..He faced starvation due to poor occasion. Once the mouth was balance the STEP RHT exercises began to hold.

Bottom image
April 2025
Physical trauma has released and the muscles are dropping over a improve structural framework.

09/03/2025

Some horses carry their truth in silence until the body can’t hide it anymore.

This morning I stood beside Tiglon, a horse living under the weight of a diagnosis: a deep digital flexor tendon tear. For most, that verdict would feel final. A life of limitation, maybe early retirement. But Tiglon’s story reminded me that what we call injury is often just the visible tip of a much larger imbalance.

His back has hollowed. His hips trail behind. A scar of tension runs down his left shoulder into the elbow, while his hocks whisper of arthritis. And just as the vet noted, he bears too much weight on his right front. On the surface, it’s a tendon issue. But step back, and you see the truth: an entire system tipping off balance.

I don’t share this to question the vet’s skill—far from it. Instead, I want to reveal what too often goes unseen: the body works as a whole. When symmetry falters, weight shifts. When weight shifts, stress multiplies. And when stress multiplies, the entire structure begins to break down.

So the training question isn’t just “What tore?” It’s “Why did the body have to compensate in this way at all?”

That’s why my focus with Tiglon is not the tendon, but his center of balance. If he can rediscover how to distribute his weight evenly—shoulders, hips, spine, barrel—he may reduce the overload on that injured limb. He may even show us the body’s natural capacity to restore genetic symmetry once the right cues are in place.

Conventional training rarely frames the horse this way. We work around crookedness, accept downhill frames, ignore displaced barrels. But symmetry is not cosmetic. It is the foundation of efficiency. It is safety. It is soundness. It is the single most important element for any horse that carries a rider.

What happens when trainers overlook this? Horses are retired early. Riders are left with heartbreak. And too often, we call it fate. But it isn’t fate—it’s a gap in training knowledge.

Today, Tiglon will begin a new series of exercises designed for his posture. Already, he has shown me glimpses: cleaner gaits, steadier rhythm, more even carriage and new muscles. If today he finds the key to lock his shoulders inplace and rebalance, he may complete the process of recentering that his structure has been reaching for all along.

Maybe he has a DDFT tear. Maybe he doesn’t. That’s not my call. I am not the vet. I am the trainer. My task is to teach him to carry himself in balance, to move with efficiency, and to restore the natural symmetry gifted as his inheritance.

And in that process, I’m reminded: the horse’s greatest strength is not what we add from the outside, but what training allows him to recover from within. Balance!

Photo
Tiglon at 20 days
STEP RHT