Riding Light Performance Horses

04/20/2025

Happy Easter from RLPH! And a very happy 3rd birthday to our mare ITS MY PARRTY "Truffles!" 🎉🌷

04/08/2025

04/03/2025

🐴✨ Trail Riding: Where Confidence Goes to Die
(and how to do something about that😆)

Trail riding.
That romantic fantasy where you and your horse glide along in spiritual synchronicity—
they’re reading your mind,
you’re breathing deeply,
the scent of eucalyptus filling your lungs and aligning your chakras,
and not a single muscle in your body clenched in terror.

HAHAHA—no.😎

Here’s a common version for many lovely people😱:

Trail riding is a shared panic spiral.
You and your horse, locked in a feedback loop of fear, reacting to shadows, rustling leaves, and plastic bags possessed by demons.

Each of you nervously amplifying the other, like a badly tuned emotional guitar.

It’s not teamwork.
It’s co-dependent doom anticipation.
One of you is wearing a helmet.
The other has hooves and better faster reflexes.
Neither of you is helping.

If this is you—I see you. Once I was you....

Luckily, trail drama is highly treatable.👩‍⚕️

Spoiler: the horse is not necessarily the problem.🫣

I didn’t know how to help my horse—or how much I was making things worse.

I wanted them to be chill and brave... while I rode like a caffeinated meerkat at a fireworks show🎆.

Then somewhere between “I never want to do this again” and “Why is my Apple Watch registering this as a cardiac event💓?” I learned the secret:

👉 Look up. Ride somewhere.

Yes, really. That’s the whole thing.
Stop scanning for threats like a doomsday prepper.
Pick a direction. Ride with intention.
Your horse doesn’t need you to narrate the trail. They need you to act like you’ve got a plan and you’re not afraid of crunchy leaves.

But let’s be clear: this didn’t happen because I lit a candle and whispered affirmations into my saddle pad.

I trained for it.

I worked on myself.
I trained away from the trail, and on it.
On windy days. On weird days.
I built my seat. I built my horse’s understanding.
I stacked experience and skills like bricks—until we had a foundation we could ride out on.

Because confidence isn’t a vibe.
It’s a skillset with receipts.💪

🐴 Want to actually enjoy trail riding? Try this:

1️⃣ Expose your horse to nonsense.
Tarps, prams, balloon-wielding children.
Let them freak out in a controlled fashion somewhere safe, so they don’t do it at a canter near a cliff.
And yes—it’s as much about training you as it is them.

2️⃣ Ride with someone unbothered.
Find the trail boss whose horse would walk through a Bunnings calmly.
Study them. Channel their energy. Borrow their calm until you’ve built your own.

3️⃣ Start where you won’t die.
Stick to familiar tracks. Know where the monsters live (usually it's that one letterbox).
Then expand like a cautious amoeba.

4️⃣ Lead on the ground.
Yes, groundwork.
Be the bushland tour guide your horse didn’t ask for.
Confidence grows when you both experience the trail without pressure.

5️⃣ Learn what a freeze really means.
When your horse turns into a statue, they’re not plotting your demise.
They’re buffering. Investigating. It’s called the orienting reflex.
Don’t poke the buffering horse. Wait. Then look up and ride somewhere like the kind of human they’d follow into a dark alley.

6️⃣ Train your seat like it’s a seatbelt.
If you can’t sit a spook, fix that.
Balance isn’t about elegance. It’s about not eating gravel. Or at least get a saddle that gives you an advantage against physics!

7️⃣ Be less dramatic than your horse.
It’s not their job to keep you safe.❌
It’s your job to keep them safe.✅
Be the Wi-Fi they can plug into. Be the calm. Be the “we’re good” human.🦸‍♀️

Trail riding isn’t for the faint of heart. Or the unprepared.
And confidence? It’s not magic.

Confidence is like IKEA furniture.
There is a clear way to build it:
Start with instructions. Work on yourself. Build your skills. Prepare your horse.
It’s all there in the metaphorical Allen key of training.

But most people approach trail riding like they approach flat-pack furniture:
No prep. No tools. No plan.
Just blind optimism and a pretty photo in a catalogue.
Then they wonder why it’s wobbly, missing screws,
and held together by hope and the ramifications corner-cutting.

Confidence isn’t a gift.
It’s self-assembly—
built through repetition, strategy, and mildly uncomfortable effort.

Not because you’re broken.
But because you’re a detail-oriented control freak who really hates uncertainty.🤓

And honestly? That’s not a flaw.
It’s a superpower—
once you learn how to aim it properly.🎯

So if you want your horse to be calm,
be the one who stops feeding the panic loop.
Do the work. Ride forward. Ride like you’re in charge of this amazing two-headed organism called you and your horse.

They don’t need you to be fearless.
They need you to be competent.
And ideally…
not freaking out at every snapping twig.

If you're ready to stop white-knuckling trail rides and start riding like you mean it, come hang out with me. I teach this stuff.😉

IMAGE📸: A couple of trail bosses (Fiona & Mary-Anne) and the magnificent Clarence River in the background 😍

Please do hit the share button if this post sparked something for you. But don’t copy and paste it—I wrote this with my own brain cells and more emotional processing power than I usually admit to. Be a sharer, not a pirate. Respect the source code. 🤓

03/31/2025

Happy Spring from RLPH! 🌹🌸

As we hop into the new season I just want to post some reminders and information since I keep getting a ton of messages.

- Lessons are limited. I have very limited and fluctuating availability, priority is given to established lesson-takers/clientele for lesson slots, so please be patient and understanding if I cannot get you in for lessons immediately. Especially with show season starting.

-Lessons have a 24 HOUR CANCELLATION POLICY. If you cannot make it and don't tell me prior to 24 hours you still must pay for 1/2 your lesson. If you no show or don't tell me until the moment of your lesson, you will be resonsible for the full amount.

-There is ZERO availability for training horses who are not an already established as a client. I am full and don't keep a waiting list. I can give you my recommendations if you're looking for someone. If anything changes it will be posted here.

-I do not offer boarding. Sorry!

Thank you all for your support and love of RLPH! We're looking forward to a fantastic year! 💙💙

03/30/2025

Need some help with your circles? Check out these helpful tips!

Here's another great article about circling by million dollar trainer, Matt Mills: https://www.aqha.com/-/reining-circle-tips-from-matt-mills

03/28/2025

🔥 Navigating the Hardest Element

If you asked a room full of horsemen what the hardest part of the horse industry is, you’d probably hear a few common answers—injuries, finances, stress. But in reality, the toughest part isn’t the horses. It’s the people.

From social media to the stands at a horse show, the hardest part to navigate is the human element—how quickly people judge, how freely they talk about others, and how easily they wave and smile in the barn aisle afterward.

As much as we love this industry, we could all do a better job of being stewards of its culture. Instead of making assumptions about how we would have trained a horse, managed a rider, or handled a situation, why aren’t we cheering each other on? Why do so many people hesitate to stand up for their peers in conversations that should never happen?

It’s easy to say, I would have done it differently. But how often do we stop to recognize the work, sacrifice, and dedication behind someone else’s journey? The reality is, no one has the same path, the same goals, or the same circumstances.

This has become even more obvious to me as Savannah chases her nearly incomprehensible dreams in the industry. As a Mom the hard questions are “Did you hear/read what that person said?” The things people are willing to say as we sit in the stands or from behind a keyboard on social media —about riders, trainers, teams, and horses (sometimes it’s us and sometimes it’s others)—would have gotten someone yanked off their horse in the old days of cowboy culture. There was a time when respect mattered, and some things simply weren’t said aloud.

It’s been a learning curve to teach her how to ignore the noise and focus on what matters. If you have ever seen Savannah at horse show she is more than likely the one cheering for everyone, giving high fives, or wishing them luck. The cowboy way isn’t about tearing others down—it’s about work ethic, empathy, loyalty, and community. And I’m grateful for the global unicorn squad we’ve found along the way. We have been so blessed.

At the end of the day, no matter what you do in sports, business, or life, someone will always think they could do it better. That’s a fact. But don’t let that kind of chatter get to you or stop you. These conversations don’t just set a bad example for the next generation—they discourage people from trying at all.

So here’s your reminder: Your goals are yours, not theirs. Keep going. If they’re talking about you, you must be doing something right.

Be a game changer. Speak life into those around you.

Ephesians 4:29 – “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

𝗢𝗥𝗗𝗘𝗥 𝗕𝗟𝗨𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗥 𝗔 𝗨𝗡𝗜𝗖𝗢𝗥𝗡 𝗦𝗧𝗢𝗥𝗬 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞 𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘: https://amzn.to/4c9i702

03/18/2025

More exciting news! 📢 NEPtHA is excited to be offering an All Breed Walk Trot Ranch division at all three shows in 2025! This was added by popular demand, and we are thrilled to expand our ranch offerings for you all! 🤠

Also, as a reminder: horses can cross enter from the PtHA divisions to the All Breed classes! 🥳However, horses crossing over between two PtHA divisions must follow PtHA National Rules.

03/12/2025

That time when your horse isn’t quite right, but you don’t know why…
The small trainer notices.

Who’s going to spend two hours with your two year-old every day to make sure they get a solid foundation?
The small trainer.

What about the horse who doesn’t have the strongest maternal lines?
It’s the small trainer that gives them a chance.

You’ve never done it before, but wanna give it a try?
The small trainer won’t judge you.

Who’s going to take an extra 30 minutes to make sure that turn is in a perfect place to end on?
The small trainer.

Who’s going to walk through the barn at 10 o’clock at night and lay eyes on your pride and joy themselves?
The small trainer.

Who’s going to do their very best to make your dreams affordable?
The small trainer.

Who will keep your horse liking their job?
The small trainer.

Who will try every trick in the book to pull every ounce of talent out of your horse?
The small trainer.

Don’t underestimate the small trainer.

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📸Shannon Anderson Photography

02/23/2025

Horse Or Human

I see it all the time, people thinking that horses are just like humans and as such they should be treated as humans.

As a reminder, horses are not humans. They think different. They act different, they are in fact, different. Not better, not worse, but different.

When we come to grips with this fact, all parties involved will be happier. For starters, why would we want to bring in the human garbage that we carry around with us and all of our mental and societal mess and place it on them as if those are their problems. Horses don't care about what car to drive or about bills that are due. They don't think about retirement or if Blaze likes their new nails.

One of my favorite things to do is just watch horses do horsesy things as they interact with each other. I have learned more than I can probably ever count as they showed who and what they are. Here are some big things that I think many are getting wrong.

1. Horses don't generally verbally communicate with each other unless they can't see who they want to communicate with. Meaning, they prefer body language. Use verbal cues if you want, just know I don't think it's their preference. Instead, learn body language, they will thank you later.

2. Not to stir up anyone, but, horses don't usually use positive reinforcement. I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm saying I've not seen a horse give another a treat. I've also not seen a horse give another a pat for a job well done. Do it if you want, but it's more to make you feel better than it does them.

3. Horses are actually very simple creatures and I mean that totally in a good sense of the word. People make things, (everything) complicated in life, especially horses. Horses just want peace, it's what drives them. Humans do too, but we make it all much harder than it needs to be.

So, let's just remember that just because you might like to be praised when you do a good job, a horse just wants peace and I believe value it much more than praise. If we can provide that peace, be that peace, that will go much farther than a carrot or peppermint.

I didn't write this to trigger anyone into sending me grumpy messages or comments but instead to encourage meaningful thought and discussion. So let's do that, talk about what a horse needs versus what we need from the horse.

Pc Tracey Buyce Photography