The Balanced Horse Project

01/08/2026

Darkness
Flooding layers of sunless light relax the senses influencing life.

The southern winter blankets everything in low level fog.Streams of floating water moisten every surface. The magic of Nature's grounding circuit unty plant and animal alike.

The moment stalls the chaotic forces.
The deer's awareness slacks as the horses lay down to regenerate.

Time slips into a moment. Physical tension sags.Then the land begins to sing.

A wave of telluric energy excites the fog, as it sprints before the dawn. The darkness melts before the sun. Dew drops form. The quick charge circuit vanishes before the sun.

The deer melt deeper into the trees. While the horses raise to run.

The daily cycle of life begins once again. The power of the night goes un-acknowledge. It's role in regenerating life lays silent before the powerful sun.

When the light fades into night, pause to welcome it's power. The gift of sleep regenerates to encourage us, at sunrise.

Good Night, sweet light of the day, let the night gift us with a better, tomorrow.

01/05/2026

OTTB Update
• 18-Month STEP RESET Study
Horse entered STEP RESET training: June 2024
Funded by The Balanced Horse Project

This is a hard post to write.
Not because of the results,
but because of how normalized the destruction of horses has become in the name of performance.

This horse arrived in June 2024, at the point most horses are quietly written off.
Labeled “too much,” “too broken,” “too expensive.”

A sincere thank-you goes to people like Savannah, and others who attempt to rescue and repurpose off-track Thoroughbreds while navigating relentless negative messaging from professionals.

What is often missed is this:
This horse was a money producer on the track.
He ran.
He earned.
He was well cared for and medically supported.
He did his job, until his body couldn’t keep going.
After five years of racing, he was restarted over fences and purchased with the intention of becoming a hunter.

That transition is where everything unraveled.

The physical and emotional trauma that had been contained during his racing career surfaced all at once.
Posture collapsed.
Neurology destabilized.
Physiological stress exceeded compensation.
Immune function weakened.
What followed was a rapid death spiral.

When time, money, and options ran out, the horse entered STEP RESET training under funding by The Balanced Horse Project, where we investigate ways to improve horse training through WHOLISTIC strategies.

What followed became an unplanned but defining series of case studies.

INITIAL FINDINGS
• Extreme withers
• Chronic choke → aspiration pneumonia
• Ulcers
• Kissing spine
• Bone chip
• Arthritic hocks
• Starvation state
• Inverted posture
• Neurological compensation
One central question emerged:
What happens when structural balance is addressed WHOLISTICALLY through training instead of being externally managed?

The experience was overwhelming.
At times depressing.
At times deeply disturbing.
And yet, the will to live never left this horse’s eyes.

WHAT WE DID NOT USE
No drugs.
No injections.
No therapy programs.
No traditional training programs.

What we did use:
• Two dental sessions
• Veterinary imaging
• Herd living
• Balance-based groundwork
• Natural environment
• Minerals, good hay, limited feed
• Removal of negative messaging
• Photography for structural tracking
And time.

On the science side, the focus was on restoring bioelectrical coherence. allowing the horse’s natural energy systems to support its own genetic reset mechanisms.

ADVANCEMENTS IN TRAINING

By studying this horse in real time, new insights emerged that directly advanced our day-to-day training programs.
This case forced refinements in:
• Identifying neurological rebound under stress
• Timing dental intervention during phases of structural correction
• Understanding wither architecture in relation to poll restriction
• Recognizing when nutrition shifts from survival to muscle synthesis
• Detecting when the body is tuned to natural coherence or disconnecting
These insights now influence every STEP RESET horse we work with.

THREE MAJOR TURNING POINTS

1️⃣ Dentistry
Finding an equine dentist willing to work with structural correction was critical.
As internal centers of the body reorganize, the occlusion of the mouth either adapts or blocks, postural resolution.
In this case, the teeth were severely ramped, the neck inverted, and chronic choke had developed, leading to passive starvation, pneumonia, colic, and ulcers.
Without dental support, this case would not have had a positive outcome.
Deep gratitude to Jeff Kelpinger, who volunteered his expertise when it mattered most.

2️⃣ Deep Cleansing
(Dec 2024 – June 2025)
Chronic choke had progressed beyond a mechanical issue and created a persistent septic burden.
A rotting plug of feed lodged in the lower esophagus, the choke point, acted as a constant source of bacterial contamination, contributing to:
• Chronic aspiration, pneumonia
• Weakened immunity
• Poor body condition
• Systemic inflammation
This septic state kept the horse locked in survival mode, preventing true recovery despite adequate nutrition.

During a STEP RESET session designed to re-center the barrel and restore internal organization, the obstructed mass finally released.
As the decomposing material flushed into the gastrointestinal tract, the gut went into acute cramping shock. This manifested as a colic. In hind sight the debris was the source for the toxicity loading. It aligned with the c9nformation weaknesses. Homeopathics and a car buffer were used to support elimination and stabilize the system.
Once cleared, the immune response rebounded and regenerative processes accelerated, marking a major turning point.

3️⃣ Stress Testing (Nov 2025)
At 14 months, a professional c**t starter was brought in to stress-test conformation integrity.
The horse didn’t last a week.
Under lunging pressure, the withers and neck rebounded into trauma posture.
Neurological gait patterns resurfaced.
This failure produced critical data and led to further STEP RESET refinements.

4️⃣ Dec 21, 2025
The Poll Released
Any dressage trainer worth their salt knows this truth:
The poll governs the back.
The back governs the hips.
Using photographic data, we innovated STEP 4 exercises.
When the poll finally unlocked, everything changed:
• Wither slope softened
• Topline began to develop
• Nutrition shifted from pain buffering to muscle building
The body stopped defending and compensating. It finally began rebuilding.

WHERE WE ARE NOW
Tomorrow, this horse returns to training for another stress phase.
If he passes?

Then yes ..... WOW.
Another training investigation will be added to our research library.

Someone will eventually own a former racehorse who once carried an industry and who can now move freely, please his rider, and be rewarded with affection.

As trainers, we do not believe in shortcuts or denying reality.
We understand how to employ the untapped WHOLISTIC potentials that restore equine body symmetry. The genetic order of life is present in every horse. Why not use it to support performance horses?

01/05/2026

I’ve waited a long time to gain the ability to develop and train truly level horses. It lead through a maze of experiences, reading studies, gaining skills self educating and finally realizing the body is hardwired for self correction. After years of consistent results; a training program known as STEP RESET developed.

Gunnashine for Babes is a clear example of what STEP Training is designed to do:
Trainer can guide the restoration of body symmetry (conformation) so performance becomes simple, efficient, and sustainable.

From weanling to four-year-old, Gunny has proven a foundational truth of STEP:
genetics provide the blueprint, but birth trauma distorts the structure.
The most remarkable part is,
when the horse is given the right STEP cues, the body will override its trauma and reset itself back to structural integrity.

End result: a great horse—built to last.

01/03/2026

The structural integrity of any horse shapes the expectations placed upon them.

The structural integrity of any horse determines where resistance appears in the body.

The structural integrity of any horse governs balance, hoof development, and saddle fit.

The structural integrity of any horse should be the primary focus in preventing today’s training and performance problems.

The structural integrity of any horse is the foundation for developing and owning safer, more sustainable horses.

The answers we seek are found in the authentic state of balance.

01/02/2026

Play it safe.

There is nothing worst than the oil pressure light flaring across the dashboard and you are fully loaded and miles from home.

How would you handle the situation?

Share your suggestions, resources and experiences below. It may prevent a problem or assist is problem solving for horse owners on the road.

01/01/2026

🔥 This is the PÊGA DONKEY - Brazil’s Most Famous Donkey! 😍

Native to Brazil, especially the state of Minas Gerais, the Pêga Donkey is one of the largest and most iconic donkey breeds in the country.

Known for its long ears, strong build and calm temperament, it has been traditionally valued for producing strong, resilient mules and for rural work.

Today, it’s admired for its gentle nature and cultural importance in Brazilian livestock history.

✨ Fun Fact: The Pêga Donkey is famous worldwide for producing some of the best working mules ever bred!

📷: Unknown

01/01/2026

12/27/2025

OTTB Case | 18 Months
Eighteen months ago, this horse arrived with a body that had clearly stopped organizing itself.

No topline.
An inverted neck.
A guarded chest.
A mind that had learned to brace.

Today, he has a neck and chest again.
He’s sound, alert, and full of life.
This didn’t happen quickly and it didn’t happen by chasing symptoms.

I took this horse on for four reasons:
To see if he could be saved
To learn directly from the process
To document what WHOLISTIC horsemanship actually looks like over time
To observe the difference between maintenance and structural reset.

This journey was not easy.
There were setbacks.
There were emotional and physical tolls.
There were moments when continuing required more patience than confidence.

Sam (formerly Quincy) came with a history that included:
Severe inverted posture
Kissing spine
Aspiration pneumonia
A hock injury
Major dental imbalance.

The greatest investments were not techniques or tools. They include learning and adapting my STEP RHT techniques, time, natural environment, observations, vet check, exrays, dental work, and consistency.

What this horse showed me is something I’ve seen again and again:
When balance is restored first, when the body is allowed to reorganize rather than be managed, change becomes possible.
Not instantly.
Not dramatically.
But sustainably.

This is why WHOLISTIC training is not a shortcut. But it's a good topic to study.

It’s a commitment to the horse, and to the person responsible for guiding them.

12/23/2025

There’s something about this time of year that invites a different kind of listening.
It asks us to pause. To reflect, to review our performance.
And perhaps, if we truly paused as the season suggests, some of our problems might resolve themselves.
Nature doesn’t rush.
So why rush a horse?

The winter Fields rest.
Trees conserve their energy.
Even the light takes its time returning after the Winter Solstice.
Yet modern life rarely honors this inherited rhythm.

We’re taught to push through chaos.
Stay bright. Stay busy. Stay productive.
Even when everything around us is quietly doing the opposite.

Through years of working with horses, I’ve learned that the pause matters.
Like the moment of suspension in the canter’s beat, balance is never forced.
It arrives.
It happens when the body is allowed to reorganize.
Winter isn’t a time to push.
It’s a time for recognition.
It's time to look at the accomplishments.
A little more trust.
A refinement of timing that clarifies the cue to the horse.
The pause brings peace of mind and opens a path to new answers.

From the Balance Horse Project Team,
we hope you pause to enjoy
a peaceful Christmas.

12/20/2025

Watching a Horse Grow Into Himself

I’ve worked with G since he was a yearling.
That’s a long time to watch a horse form not just a body but a mind.

This past week, we took him to an outside trainer for evaluation.
A new place.
A new rider.
New expectations.

An alien environment, by any standard.

G walked in, curious, then mod9foed his behavioradjusted from comic to serious work.
He listened.
He tried to translate what was being asked of him. Everything was new.
He adapted.

Not once did he lose himself.

There were no bad moments. That mattered, because the pressure was deliberate. Will G step up and ve a professional horse?

The trainer needed to find his weak points. He applied psychological stress. He tested physical abilities. Would Gbe a horse worth investing time in.

G stayed present through all of it.

Watching him, I felt like a parent seeing a child step into adulthood , not because he performed, but because he handled himself with maturity.

Confidence isn’t loud.
Stability isn’t flashy.
Adaptability doesn’t come from drilling.

It comes from a horse knowing he can trust in his own body.

Maybe supporting symmetry as he grew up, contributed just a little bit.
Maybe it gave him something solid to depend on when everything else changed.

Whatever the reason, G showed us who he is.

And that’s the kind of future you can build on.

12/17/2025

Before movement.
Before behavior.
Before training.

I look for stillness in the horse.

A horse that cannot stand quietly without shifting, bracing, or holding tension is telling an important story of survival.

The training issues they offer are alway visible in the body before a single step is taken.

If we know what we’re looking at we can change the story they are sharing.

Conformation always speaks first.