Sarah Zeman Horsemanship, LLC

Sarah Zeman Horsemanship, LLC We offer clinics, lessons on your horse, monthly training, and the tools you need to keep progressing

With all the air quality alerts it really does catch up to the horses who are out in it day after day. This is a great n...
08/01/2025

With all the air quality alerts it really does catch up to the horses who are out in it day after day. This is a great natural/herbal supplement that I use. I’ve seen it help a lot and wanted to pass it on to anyone who might be looking for something to help their horses!

It’s long, but worth the read. I don’t have too much to add other than my horses love attention, and I love them and I h...
07/16/2025

It’s long, but worth the read. I don’t have too much to add other than my horses love attention, and I love them and I hug them and show affection. They don’t have to be robots to be well trained. Be consistent and firm in your boundaries, every. singe. time. THEN your horse will look to you and not to their friend or themselves to feel safe.

Training Is Not a Democracy: Your Horse Doesn’t Get a Vote

One of the biggest shifts I’ve seen in the horse world over the years is how much people have softened in the wrong direction. Now don’t get me wrong — I’m all for kindness, for patience, and for empathy. But those things mean very little if they aren’t wrapped in clear leadership. Somewhere along the line, too many people started confusing kindness with permissiveness and leadership with cruelty. That’s where the wheels fall off. Because here’s the truth:

Training is not a democracy. Your horse doesn’t get a vote.

We are the leaders. And we have to act like it.

Confusing Emotion with Permission
A horse isn’t a dog, and even dogs need structure. But horses? Horses are flight animals. Horses are herd animals. They’re hardwired to look for leadership. And if they don’t find it in you, they’ll either fill that role themselves — which never ends well — or they’ll become anxious, reactive, or even dangerous. Either way, they’re not thriving, they’re surviving.

Somewhere out there, people got this idea that a horse “expressing itself” was the same thing as “being empowered.” But when that expression looks like pushing into your space, refusing to move forward, slamming on the brakes at the gate, or throwing a fit about being caught, that’s not empowerment — that’s insecurity and disrespect. That’s a lack of clear expectations. That’s a horse operating in chaos.

And a chaotic horse is a dangerous horse.

The Illusion of Fairness
I know some people mean well. They want to be “fair.” They want their horse to feel “heard.” But horses aren’t people. They don’t negotiate. They don’t take turns. They live in a world of black and white — safe or unsafe, leader or follower, respect or no respect.

If you try to run your training like a democracy — where every cue is a polite request and every command is up for discussion — you’re setting that horse up for failure. Because out in the pasture, that’s not how it works. The lead mare doesn’t ask twice. The alpha doesn’t negotiate. Leadership in the horse world is clear, consistent, and sometimes firm — but it’s always fair.

Being fair doesn’t mean weak. It doesn’t mean permissive. It means you set a boundary and you keep it.

Confidence Comes from Clarity
One of the things I say often is this: a horse is never more confident than when it knows who’s in charge and what the rules are. Period.

A horse that’s allowed to “opt out” of work when it doesn’t feel like it isn’t a happy horse. It’s a confused horse. A horse that’s allowed to drag its handler, rush the gate, balk at obstacles, or call the shots under saddle isn’t empowered — it’s insecure. It’s operating without a plan, without leadership, and without trust in its rider.

And let me tell you something — trust isn’t earned through wishy-washy “maybe-if-you-want-to” training. It’s earned through consistency, repetition, and follow-through. That’s what gives a horse confidence. That’s what earns respect. That’s what makes a horse feel safe — and therefore willing.

Manners Are Not Optional
When people send their horses to me for training, one of the first things I work on is manners. I don’t care how broke that horse is, how many blue ribbons it has, or how fancy the bloodlines are. If the horse walks through me, pulls away, crowds my space, or refuses to stand quietly, we’re not moving on until that’s fixed.

Because manners aren’t cosmetic. They’re the foundation of everything.

If your horse doesn’t respect your space on the ground, what makes you think it’ll respect your leg cues under saddle? If your horse doesn’t wait for a cue to walk off at the mounting block, what makes you think it’ll wait for your cue to lope off on the correct lead?

We don’t give horses the option to decide whether or not to be respectful. That’s not up for debate. That’s the bare minimum of the contract.

Leadership Isn’t Force — It’s Direction
Now before somebody takes this and twists it into something it’s not, let me be clear. I’m not talking about bullying. I’m not talking about fear-based training. I don’t train with anger, and I don’t train with cruelty.

But I also don’t ask twice.

When I give a cue, I expect a response. If I don’t get it, I don’t stand there and beg — I escalate until I get the response I asked for. And then I drop right back down to lightness. That’s how you teach a horse to respond to softness. Not by starting soft and staying soft no matter what. You teach softness through clarity, consistency, and fair correction when needed.

That’s leadership.

Horses Crave It — So Give It
Some of the best horses I’ve ever trained came in hot, pushy, or insecure. And some of those same horses left my place calm, willing, and confident — not because I over-handled them, but because I gave them structure. I told them where the boundaries were, and I held those boundaries every single time. I wasn’t their friend. I wasn’t their therapist. I was their leader.

And in the end, that’s what they wanted all along.

They didn’t want to vote. They wanted to be led.

Final Thought
If your horse is calling the shots — whether that’s dragging you out to the pasture, refusing to go in the trailer, tossing its head, or dictating when and how you ride — then your barn doesn’t have a training problem. It has a leadership problem.

Stop running your horse life like a town hall meeting. Training isn’t a democracy. Your horse doesn’t get a say in whether or not it respects you. That part’s not optional. Your job — your responsibility — is to show up, be consistent, and take the lead. Every time.

Because if you don’t? That horse will. And I promise you, that’s not the direction you want to go.

06/28/2025

Today was a wrap for my 2025 training season! I’m making some changes to my program and will be taking a break from bringing in training horses for the foreseeable future.

I try to constantly improve and gain knowledge in this industry and the more that I learn the harder it is for me to take in horses for a month or more at a time. The reason is because 95% of the time horses aren’t sound. They are either in need of bodywork thats more than a one time visit, or a saddle doesn’t fit well or their teeth are not good, so many examples I could give, and those things create pain and discomfort or at the least an inability to move like I want them to be able to move. It is against everything in me to try and push them through discomfort or pain to try and get a behavior that is desired. My whole desire for training is getting to the mind of the horse and getting a calm and willing riding partner. 

It saddens me because I love what I do in regards to being able to teach horses new things. But I love teaching people how to teach their horses more. Which is why that will be my main focus until I can figure out how to make sure a horse is coming in sound and stays sound through the training cycles.

Clinics will still be offered, I’m happy to come help work with your horse at your facility as well as my own. Need help trailer loading? I’ll be there for you. It’s just taking in horses for months at a time is what I will be stepping back from.

Thank you to everyone who has trusted me with their horses over the last 14 years. It’s crazy for me to think about it being that long. I might revisit this at another point in time. This is just where I am in my journey of horsemanship.

I have a few people that I can recommend if you are looking to send your horse somewhere. But please don’t wait until one or two months before you want them sent. Good people are busy and often require several months if not a year in advance to book! 😊

I am off on vacation with my family for the next couple weeks. Happy trails everyone! 

Talia practicing ground driving this morning! She went all the way around the property like a champ, first time out of t...
06/25/2025

Talia practicing ground driving this morning! She went all the way around the property like a champ, first time out of the arena. It’s the next best thing to riding them around the property. They need to lead the way and so they start gaining confidence in themselves and their abilities while knowing you’re still there.

Personal and training horses got baths today. The wind certainly helps but I think everyone thoroughly enjoyed bath day ...
06/22/2025

Personal and training horses got baths today. The wind certainly helps but I think everyone thoroughly enjoyed bath day today!

06/13/2025

Talia came in beginning of May. She had slowly progressed to getting more and more anxious when being tied before she came here. So many horses are anxious while tied. We’ve all seen it, pawing, pacing, looking all over, on alert… I’ve had the privilege to work at a therapy barn where they do a lot of focus on kids with different attachment styles. In turn, they use a program to help horses through their attachment styles as well! Some horses, like Talia, need you right by them. If you get two feet away, or when you go behind them to switch sides, they react by being alert, pawing, or quickly moving so they can see you on their other side. This video shows the progression of how to work with a horse that doesn’t want to stand calmly while being tied using the “detachment while still connected” method. The first video my hands are all over Talia at all times as I go from side to side. I put a standstill cue on her by lifting my finger up and telling her to “whoa”. And then I continue on moving from side to side.The first video of her in the barn was actually a progress video from what she was like when she first came. But you can see she still wants to be on alert and she thinks about pawing even though she can see me, and I am only a little ways away.Then I work through the same thing in the arena, except I work my way up to keeping my hands off of her and walking in complete circles around her while she stands completely still and hopefully relaxed. Then I do the same work in the barn. I keep her untied while I do everything and tell her to stand still just like I do in the arena. Once I feel she has that understood, then I tie her up and do the same thing when she’s tied. The last video shows you how you can go from having an alert, on guard, restless horse when being tied, to nice and relaxed with soft eyes and not much worry at all.Thanks to Laurabeth and Bien Aime Farm, I have learned a whole different way for teaching a horse to stand still when tied, and I prefer this method above all other methods because it really gets to the root of working with the mind of the horse and builds trust between horse and human.
Bien Aimé Farm MN

Have you ever seen so many beautiful horses in the same place?! What a great day yesterday. Sammi came out to teach us m...
06/01/2025

Have you ever seen so many beautiful horses in the same place?! What a great day yesterday. Sammi came out to teach us more about Working Equitation. Her passion for the sport and great teaching skills made for a sucessful clinic. I can’t think of a much better way to spend the day with horses and friends. 

Say “hi” to El! El is an off the track sulky racer and his owner has been riding him for a couple years but he’s fast! S...
05/02/2025

Say “hi” to El! El is an off the track sulky racer and his owner has been riding him for a couple years but he’s fast! So we are going to work on some confidence, balance, speed control, and relaxation this coming month.

Look at this pretty lady! This is Talia and I’m very excited to work with her for the next two months. If you followed m...
04/29/2025

Look at this pretty lady! This is Talia and I’m very excited to work with her for the next two months. If you followed me last year, you remember her pasture mate Amari. Amari was so much fun and super smart. Talia seems to be following suit! We got a lot accomplished on our first day of getting to know each other. We played around a lot and worked a lot on working with relaxation and calmness. She’s a smart horse and picked things up so fast, I’m excited to see what we get to do together! 

Hopefully we don’t need these and the weather forecast simmers down a bit, but it’s not a bad idea to be prepared for so...
04/27/2025

Hopefully we don’t need these and the weather forecast simmers down a bit, but it’s not a bad idea to be prepared for some severe storms if you’re in the MN/WI areas. We used cattle ear tags to put our information on with zip ties as loops and braided them in the horses manes. Stay safe!

04/26/2025

14 years ago today I started a life changing journey by attending John and Josh Lyons Certificaton program Josh Lyons/Lyons Legacy The chances I’ve had and the knowledge gained over the years would not have been possible if not for the Lyons family. I’ve had the joy of getting to watch friends like Brendan Wise and Michael Lyons Horsemanship and Max Morin Performance Horses go on to do amazing things and am reminded of the fun and the relationships these amazing animals can bring us.

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Hamel, MN

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