Wexford Training

02/23/2025

and... can help when horses have fevers.

145: Avoiding Heat Stress in Horses

Learning to pay attention to our horse's breathing is the main way we know if our horse is getting too stressed physically - whether it is from hard work or ...

02/17/2025

144: Warming Up Horses in Different Ways

Muscles support movement of the skeleton. When the skeleton is in poor coordination then the muscles that support poor movement are worked during a warm up s...

02/01/2025

Reminder...
I am presenting this year at The Art of The Horseman Online Horse Fair 2025. The free weekend is February 22-23.

FREE TICKET LINK:

The Horse Fair Experience from the Comfort of Home! World-Class Horseman ~ Step-by-step lessons ~ Hours of Premium Video. ON Demand and FREE! Be informed, inspired, and empowered with the latest insights about horse training, health, and wellness by leading experts you can trust.

02/01/2025

143: The Point of Balance, It's a Thing

The point of balance is near the center of mass, but is also different. While the center of mass or center of gravity is a static location in a three dimensi...

01/20/2025

142: Training Horses with Long Reins
I use long reins a lot as a really effective groundwork tool while rehabbing horses, whether behavior, lameness or performance is the main issue.

The long reins, as a very traditional ground work technique, can be done many different ways. This discussion is about how to use long reins a little differe...

12/15/2024

141: Our Horse's Thoracic Sling
There is a lot of chatter about our horse's thoracic sling on social media and people are starting to recognize it as part of all those dropped, popped and moving horse shoulder issues. In this podcast Deb and I discuss what it is, how it works and why it tends to get so darn tight in our horses.

Special therapies that help loosen our horse's thoracic sling of muscles around both of the front legs seems to be gaining a lot of traction. Groups and post...

12/03/2024

The December newsletter is all about what the goals are for Optimal Balance. It is an excerpt from the new book I am working on, Optimal Balance Essentials which hopefully will be available soon on my website at least! Hope you find these defined concepts about balance in the mind and body, in us and our horse, helpful in your journey.

I am a professional horse trainer and developer of the program, Training for Optimal Balance. I share information that helps horse owners train their own horses, or helps horse professionals find a new perspective on training - and personal development is the number one side effect of authentically....

12/02/2024

140: Can Horses Self-Regulate Behavior?
Yes, in the best kinds of ways once they feel safe doing what they are doing with us.

Instead of spending a lot of time working on conditioned responses or desensitizing our horses over and over, it becomes much more efficient to help our hors...

11/17/2024

139: Instability is a Big Deal for Our Horse
If you have never thought about it, have a listen. If your horse feels hard to ride, has terrible gaits or persistent behavioral issues, then you might want to consider if your horse feels stable during motion or not. It is a game changer and not something frequently talked about.

Discussion about how our stability and our horse's stability - or lack of it - is fundamental to functional use and balance. A loss of stability can create f...

11/03/2024

This month's newsletter is about how we can manage stress and find balance despite the world around us. Also included is a featured video for helping female riders learn how to gain a very stable seat in the saddle. Enjoy!

I am a professional horse trainer and developer of the program, Training for Optimal Balance. I share information that helps horse owners train their own horses, or helps horse professionals find a new perspective on training - and personal development is the number one side effect of authentically....

10/29/2024

138: Task's Don't Teach Balance
Because tasks do not inherently alter internal skeletal coordination. Getting any task accomplished can be achieved in a completely dysfunctional coordination or ideal coordination. Knowing the difference is what makes the difference.

If teaching through tasks, such as riding maneuvers, patterns or navigating obstacles, actually taught horses and riders to balance as a side effect, then we...

10/24/2024

137: Strategies for Learning, about Horses of Course!

Learning how to learn can be just as important as what we learn. Having pragmatic strategies, changing strategies as needed, is often what helps us find the path of least resistance to our goals.

A chat about learning in general, whether we are the one learning or we are the one trying to help our horse learn. The three basic strategies that help faci...

10/16/2024

136: Tensegrity, What? and Why!
If you don't know what tensegrity is, as a structural model, then have a listen! It helps us understand how bodies work and how pain issues might be a result of a problem somewhere else in the body that can seem unrelated.

Discussion about what tensegrity is, how it works and why it is important for us to understand as a structural model for living bodies. Taking a deeper look ...

10/10/2024

All people and critters are safe and fine here. No structure damage just a lot of tree branches. No power right now but we were ready for that! Have lots of water on hand for horses and people and plenty of ice for the coolers. Hopefully power is restored soon! But all is well at Wexford Farm and I feel pretty lucky overall!
❤️❤️❤️

10/01/2024

The link to my October newsletter is below. This month's featured article is called, Your Horse is NOT Lazy. If you refer to your horse as lazy, or crazy, then you might want to have a look.

I am a professional horse trainer and developer of the program, Training for Optimal Balance. I share information that helps horse owners train their own horses, or helps horse professionals find a new perspective on training - and personal development is the number one side effect of authentically....

09/25/2024

Our horses are doing the best they can with what they know. If we want to resolve problems, we need to understand what our horse needs from us, emotionally, mentally and physically.

Turning our thoughts and language around is part of shifting our objectives from task oriented training into mastering balance. Qualities are neither good or...

09/16/2024

Remember long and balanced? If that sound new then you might want to have a listen.

Defining what the horse posture of Basic Balance looks like, as a long but balanced frame, but more importantly what Basic Balance feels like when the coordi...