AYERS ROCK

05/08/2025

We are so excited to share that we found a fantastic new partner for Kari Estes! A 7 yo TB who got a 4th in hunters at the RRP two years ago! We are excited to forge a new partnership and have the most fun ❣️

04/15/2025

Another awesome read

🔥 Separation Anxiety: Your Horse Isn’t Being a Jerk
(They Just Know More About Survival Than You Do)

An Ode to Interspecies Partnership, Evolution, and Actually Knowing What You’re Doing...

Let’s begin with a radical reframe:

Your horse — yes, that horse, the one who just did a full Olympic spin because Daisy walked away — isn’t being dramatic, buddy sour, or herd-bound.

They’re responding with military-grade precision to millions of years of evolutionary programming not to die.

And when we try to “train it out of them” by visualising peace, holding our breath, and waiting for the horse to “choose connection”…..we’re not solving a problem. We’re outsourcing horsemanship to the universe and crossing our fingers.

That’s not training. That’s manifesting with a web halter.

🧠 Herd Behaviour: The Original Emergency Exit Strategy

Herd behaviour isn’t a phase. It’s not clinginess. It’s biology.

It's how prey animals stay alive by:
- Confusing predators
- Diluting risk
- Following fast and thinking later

It’s collective, chaotic, and deeply effective. And when you’re the one holding the lead rope, it’s also… rather terrifying😱.

So when your horse bolts back to Daisy like she’s carrying the last life-vest on the Titanic, they’re not being naughty.

They’re just running the most recently updated herd-survival software.

🐴 Your Horse Knows You’re Not a Horse (Thankfully)

You’re not part of the herd.
They know.
You know.
You don’t smell right.
You don’t move right.

And you wouldn’t last a day in the wild without a sunhat, 4 litres of water, a 3 protein bars and a portable espresso machine.

But here’s the genius:
Horses can learn to focus on us instead.
Not because we channel our inner alpha or brand ourselves as “conscious equestrian leaders.”

But because we prove — through skilled, repeated experiences — that we’re worth noticing.

⚓️ Becoming Their Anchor

Your job?

Become their:
-Sensory anchor — something familiar to orient to
-Emotional anchor — someone who stays calm when they are not sure
-Proprioceptive anchor — guidance they can follow with their body
-Environmental anchor — a stable point in a chaotic world

This isn’t woo. It’s not vibes. It’s trained trust.

They don’t follow your aura.They follow your consistency, timing, and clarity.

🩻 Pain Changes the Programming

If your horse is sore, tired, ulcer-y, hormonal, or simply “not feeling it” —their vulnerability goes up, and so does the risk of their herding instinct being triggered.

They might:
- Treat the arena like a war zone
- Assume the float is a hearse
- Stick to another horse like emotional duct tape
- Get “pushy,” “clingy,” or “annoying”

It’s not an attitude problem.
It’s a nervous system doing its job.

Before you crank up the pressure to “correct” the behaviour, ask:
“Is this a training issue — or a welfare issue in disguise?”

🎯 Training Isn’t Just Kindness. It’s Skill.

Let’s be real: kindness is lovely — but it’s not a strategy.

You need:
- Timing
- Feel
- The ability to release at the right micro-second

And enough self-awareness to stop blaming your horse for not understanding something you never taught clearly😬

Yes — some stress is part of learning.

The difference?
Bad stress shuts the horse down or freaks them out and they won't trust you.

Good stress builds resilience.

That’s not just feel.
That’s skillful handling under pressure.

Get it right, and your horse learns:
“I felt unsure. You stayed steady. Now I feel more confident.”

Get it wrong, and they learn:
“People are scary and unpredictable or make no sense.”
That’s not learning. That’s trauma in a halter.

⚖️ Balance, Not Bravado

You don’t need to be a guru, wear a cowboy hat, or be a barefoot empath who thinks your horse’s refusal to load is your fear of success in disguise.

You need to:
- Understand horses
- Interpret what you see
- Make informed, fair decisions — in real time

Because horsemanship isn’t about suppressing instinct. It’s about redirecting it, with skill and clarity.

You’re not a herd member.

You’re the one who says: “This way. You’re safe.”

🐴 Your Horse Isn’t Being a Jerk. They’re Being Honest.

Next time your horse panics at the gate, melts down in a clinic, or tries to emotionally reattach to their paddock mate at the cellular level…

Don’t call it disobedience.

Call it what it is:
A nervous system asking for something to trust.

Ask yourself:
- Have I prepared this horse, or just expected them to cope?
- Have I trained them to rely on me, or just hoped they would?
- Have I taught them to feel okay, or just demanded silence?

Separation anxiety isn’t a flaw - It’s a biological response to uncertainty.

And anchoring?

It’s not a vibe.
It’s a learnable skill.
Yours to teach.
Theirs to trust.

Final Note 📝

We’re not trying to be horses.
We’re not herd members.
We’re not enlightened spirit guides with a side hustle in nervous system healing.

We are:
- Interpreters
- Anchors
- Reliable, skilled decision-makers in a world that can overwhelm a horse's brain.

It’s not mystical.

It’s not macho.

It’s not a retreat, a ritual, or a weekend of vague breakthroughs and better selfies.

It’s real horsemanship — grounded, teachable, honourable.

You don’t need to be dominant. You don’t need to be brave.You just need to be worth following.

📢 Before You Go…

If this made you laugh, nod, or finally stop calling your horse "naughty" or blaming Daisy🌼— hit share, not copy/paste.
This is original work. Mine. Not plucked from a reel, not paraphrased from a guru, and definitely not up for grabs.
So if you're inspired? Great — credit it.

🎓 Want More? This is the warm-up. See the comments as there is more…

04/11/2025

Worth a read. I know how I feel about inappropriate touching…

INAPPROPRIATE TOUCHING

I'm reading an amazing book called Amphibious Soul by Craig Foster, the Academy award winning documentary film maker of "My Octopus Teacher".

If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it, it is simply profound.

In the book he says "As a rule, I never touch an animal unless they touch me first".

In my work building relationship with horses, I do this too. Most times a horse will touch you with their nose/muzzle first, and matching that greeting (versus labelling the horse as a biter) is a game changer.

But there's a phenomenon I have noticed going on with people trying to build relationship with their horses that I have labelled "inappropriate touching", and it looks a bit like the photo below.

This picture was taken at a horse expo in Pennsylvania recently, where I worked with a demo horse who has a "biting issue". He would reaching out in a way that his owner was termed as nipping, whereas I interpreted as him saying hello, similar to reaching out to shake hands with someone.

When he reached out I would greet him with a flat hand that he is able to to nuzzle, lick or even scrape his teeth on. After doing this a while his snappy acting motions got less so, and he was no longer needing to say "hey, pay attention" , but was more "hey, how's it going". I was explaining to the audience that I was meeting him in the way that he was meeting me (with his muzzle) and that it's not an invitation to touch other parts (yet).

I then said that it's many people's default to reach up and rub a horse between the eyes, whether that's what they are offering or not, and that if you do, it's inappropriate touching and it gets in the way of connection. It doesn't meet their needs, and is all about yours.

With the horse in the picture, he'd been engaging me with his muzzle, and I said to the audience "watch what happens when I try to rub him between the eyes". As you can see in the photo, he has raised his head up and is clearly indicating "No, not there, on my muzzle".

We had a Connection And Attunement retreat here at the Journey On Ranch a week ago, and I used my wife Robyn to illustrate this point to the participants. I said "imagine I'm at a gathering and meeting Robyn for the first time". We walked up to each other in that way people do when they see someone new and they can tell an introduction is shaping up, Robyn reached out with her hand to say hello and instead of me reaching out to shake her hand, I gently reached up and lightly brushed a wisp of hair from her cheekbone and tucked it behind her ear.

The participants all gasped and the ick factor was high.

Even though it was caring, and gentle, it was inappropriate at that moment.

Now Im not saying you can't rub your horse on the forehead. I'm saying if your horse has a disregulated nervous system around humans because they don't feel seen (and safe), try to meet their needs first, before trying get get yours met.

I recently saw an instagram post from a University in the UK, and the professor was explaining that they were doing studies on horses to determine levels of stress. In the background a horse was standing with his head out over a Dutch door. While he was explaining their investigations on stress, a female student (or maybe another professor, I don't know which) walked up to the horse. The horse reached out with his muzzle to greet her.

She ignored this and reached up to rub the horse between the eyes.

He turned his head 90 degrees to the left to communicate that wasn't what he was offering.

Her hand followed him and kept rubbing.

he then turned his head 180 degrees to the right, saying "No, not like that".

Smiled, gave him another pet between the eyes, and walked of camera.

While the professor was saying that they are doing experiments determining the amounts of stress horses are under, someone in the background was actually creating stress, without either of them even knowing it.

Once you understand how sentient horses are, and how subtle their communication, you can't unsee it.

02/28/2025

I’m taking a minute here to shout out my granddaughter Maggie, my client Holly and her lovely horse Izzy. In 18 long months, interrupted with illness and bad weather Holly has persevered and gotten Izzy to this wonderful place. Maggie will soon be 13 and I am incredibly proud how she handled herself today on Izzy. These are the days that make it so worth it ❣️❣️

01/07/2025

This ❤️

Things your riding instructor wants you to know:
1. This sport is hard. You don't get to bypass the hard…..every good rider has gone through it. You make progress, then you don't, and then you make progress again. Your riding instructor can coach you through it, but they cannot make it easy.

2. You're going to ride horses you don't want to ride. If you're teachable, you will learn from every horse you ride. Each horse in the barn can teach you if you let them. IF YOU LET THEM. Which leads me to…

3. You MUST be teachable to succeed in this sport. You must be teachable to succeed at anything, but that is another conversation. Being teachable often means going back to basics time and time and time again. If you find basics boring, then your not looking at them as an opportunity to learn. Which brings me to…..

4. This sport is a COMMITMENT. Read that, then read it again. Every sport is a commitment, but in this sport your teammate weighs 1200 lbs and speaks a different language. Good riders don't get good by riding every once in awhile….they improve because they make riding a priority and give themsevles opportunity to practice.

5. EVERY RIDE IS AN OPPORTUNITY. Even the walk ones. Even the hard ones. Every. Single. Ride. Remember when you just wished someone would lead you around on a horse? Find the happiness in just being able to RIDE. If you make every ride about what your AREN'T doing, you take the fun out of the experience for yourself, your horse, and your instructor. Just enjoy the process. Which brings me to...

6. Riding should be fun. It is work. and work isn't always fun.....but if you (or your rider) are consistently choosing other activities or find yourself not looking forward to lessons, it's time to take a break. The horses already know you don't want to be here, and you set yourself up for failure if you are already dreading the lesson before you get here.

7. You'll learn more about horses from the ground than you ever will while riding. That's why ground lessons are important, too. If you're skipping ground lessons (or the part of your lesson that takes place on the ground), you're missing out on the most important parts of the lesson. You spend far more time on the ground with horses than you do in the saddle.

8. Ask questions and communicate. If you're wondering why your coach is having you ride a particular horse or do an exercise, ask them. Then listen to their answer and refer to #3 above.

9. We are human beings. We make decisions (some of them life and death ones) every day. We balance learning for students with workloads for horses and carry the bulk of this business on our shoulders. A little courtesy goes a long way.

Of all the sports your child will try through their school years, riding is one of 3 that they may continue regularly as adults (golf and skiing are the others). People who coach riding spend the better part of their free time and much of their disposable income trying to improve their own riding and caring for the horses who help teach your child. They love this sport and teaching others…..but they all have their limits. Not all good riders are good coaches, but all good coaches will tell you that the process to get good is not an easy one.

*thank you to whoever wrote this! Not my words, but certainly a shared sentiment!

08/31/2024

This 😊

I did not write this, but everyone needs to see it...

When we rush our horses in their training, we aren't expediting their fitness or building muscles faster - we are breaking them down and rushing to a place that will require more veterinary intervention, more alternative therapies, more time off, more risk of injury, more wear and tear on the fragile structures, and a quicker end to the riding career and soundness of our equine partners.

You cannot rush fitness, you cannot rush collection, suppleness, relaxation, it's impossible. Wherever you do rush and cut corners, you will end up with holes and issues in other areas of your riding and the overall health and welfare of your horse.

Don't want to take the time to teach your horse to collect, and instead just force him into a false frame? Well, you're going to be stuck with fixing the slew of problems that come with the tension that was just created.

Don't want to work your way up the scale to create true endurance and stamina? You now risk your horse pulling a muscle or injuring themselves from overexertion and being pushed too hard for too long when the body simply isn't ready for that workload.

Don't want to get a saddle fitted to your horse? Your horse will suffer the consequences of altering his posture and way of going to alleviate the pressure and pain caused by something that isn't suited to his build, even going so far as risking injury to yourself when he can't pick up his feet enough, causing a stumble which can be catastrophic.

Don't want to do boring small jumps to build up to the larger ones? You risk your horse not being able to find a good take-off spot, knocking rails, refusing and even crashing through the jump. You will also make the horse more nervous, anxious and again, tense and sometimes unwilling to jump again.

Don't want to waste time working up the scale of collection to achieve the proper head set without force? Let's just throw a harsher bit in his mouth, maybe tie the nose shut with both noseband and flash to get him into "frame". You've now lost all relaxation, the wrong muscles are activated and depending on how deep you yank the horses face in will determine if he's even able to swallow. Tension throughout the jaw and neck translate all the way to the hind legs, so zero collection is possible, even the slightest bit of engagement and lift of the back cannot be achieved.

Rushing will lead you nowhere except to more problems that could've been avoided had you taken the proper time for development.

📝 Unknown

📸 Sister

08/26/2024

Fundamentals aplenty found at AYERS ROCK. It’s what I do 😊

Buck Brannaman:
I find that there are an awful lot of people that could certainly use some help to make them better horseman, but it’s like some of them get to a certain level and the only thing they ever really master is being a snob. With these modern riders, it’s almost like it’s not even about the horse anymore—it’s about them. It’s about how the horse can make them look good. In George’s (Morris) generation, it was about what they could do to make the horse look good. They were coming from a different place. There’s a lot more that George has to offer than just how to get your horse over a jump. Fine horsemanship goes way beyond that. The truth about the horse doesn’t change—and hasn’t for several lifetimes before we were here. What’s true about horses today is the same as what was true about them hundreds of years ago. Horsemen like George, who have a logical approach and teach the basic fundamentals, will always be successful. He’s right—there are no shortcuts. Good horsemanship will always prevail over the latest gimmick sold at your local tack shop. It doesn’t matter which discipline of riding you’re talking about.

08/12/2024

"New Home Syndrome"🤓

I am coining this term to bring recognition, respect, and understanding to what happens to horses when they move homes. This situation involves removing them from an environment and set of routines they have become familiar with, and placing them somewhere completely different with new people and different ways of doing things.

Why call it a syndrome?

Well, really it is! A syndrome is a term used to describe a set of symptoms that consistently occur together and can be tied to certain factors such as infections, genetic predispositions, conditions, or environmental influences. It is also used when the exact cause of the symptoms is not fully understood or when it is not connected with a well-defined disease. In this case, "New Home Syndrome" is connected to a horse being placed in a new home where its entire world changes, leading to psychological and physiological impacts. While it might be transient, the ramifications can be significant for both the horse and anyone handling or riding it.

Let me explain...

Think about how good it feels to get home after a busy day. How comfortable your favourite clothes are, how well you sleep in your own bed compared to a strange bed, and how you can really relax at home. This is because home is safe and familiar. At home, the part of you that keeps an eye out for potential danger turns down to a low setting. It does this because home is your safe place (and if it is not, this blog will also explain why a lack of a safe place is detrimental).

Therefore, the first symptom of horses experiencing "New Home Syndrome" is being unsettled, prone to anxiety, or difficult behaviour. If you have owned them before you moved them, you struggle to recognise your horse, feeling as if your horse has been replaced by a frustrating version. If the horse is new to you, you might wonder if you were conned, if the horse was drugged when you rode it, or if you were lied to about the horse's true nature.

A horse with "New Home Syndrome" will be a stressed version of itself, on high alert, with a drastically reduced ability to cope. Horses don't handle change like humans do. If you appreciate the comfort of your own home and how you can relax there, you should be able to understand what the horse is experiencing.

Respecting that horses interpret and process their environments differently from us helps in understanding why your horse is being frustrating and recognising that there is a good chance you were not lied to or that the horse was not drugged.

Horses have survived through evolution by being highly aware of their environments. Change is a significant challenge for them because they notice the slightest differences, not just visually but also through sound, smell, feel, and other senses. Humans generalise and categorise, making it easy for us to navigate familiar environments like shopping centres. Horses do not generalise in the same way; everything new is different to them, and they need proof of safety before they can habituate and feel secure. When their entire world changes, it is deeply stressful.

They struggle to sleep until they feel safe, leading to sleep deprivation and increased difficulty.

But there is more...

Not only do you find comfort in your home environment and your nervous system downregulates, but you also find comfort in routines. Routines are habits, and habits are easy. When a routine changes or something has to be navigated differently, things get difficult. For example, my local supermarket is undergoing renovations. After four years of shopping there, it is extremely frustrating to have to work out where everything is now. Every day it gets moved due to the store being refitted section by section. This annoyance is shared by other shoppers and even the staff.

So, consider the horse. Not only are they confronted with the challenge of figuring out whether they are safe in all aspects of their new home while being sleep deprived, but every single routine and encounter is different. Then, their owner or new owner starts getting critical and concerned because the horse suddenly seems untrained or difficult. The horse they thought they owned or bought is not meeting their expectations, leading to conflict, resistance, explosiveness, hypersensitivity, and frustration.

The horse acts as if it knows little because it is stressed and because the routines and habits it has learned have disappeared. If you are a new human for the horse, you feel, move, and communicate differently from what it is used to. The way you hold the reins, your body movements in the saddle, the position of your leg – every single routine of communication between horse and person is now different. I explain to people that when you get a new horse, you have to imprint yourself and your way of communicating onto the horse. You have to introduce yourself and take the time to spell out your cues so that they get to know you.

Therefore, when you move a horse to a new home or get a new horse, your horse will go through a phase called "New Home Syndrome," and it will be significant for them. Appreciating this helps them get through it because they are incredible and can succeed. The more you understand and help the horse learn it is safe in its new environment and navigate the new routines and habits you introduce, the faster "New Home Syndrome" will pass.
"New Home Syndrome" will be prevalent in a horse’s life until they have learned to trust the safety of the environment (and all that entails) and the humans they meet and interact with. With strategic and understanding approaches, this may take weeks, and their nervous systems will start downgrading their high alert status. However, for some horses, it can take a couple of years to fully feel at ease in their new home.

So, next time you move your horse or acquire a new horse and it starts behaving erratically or being difficult, it is not being "stupid", you might not have been lied to or the horse "drugged" - your horse is just experiencing an episode of understandable "New Home Syndrome." And you can help this.❤

I would be grateful if you could please share, this reality for horses needs to be better appreciated ❤
‼️When I say SHARE that does not mean plagiarise my work…it is seriously not cool to copy and paste these words and make out you have written it yourself‼️

08/01/2024

Gaining on it!! One more long side to go. Base boards on order. Cut post tops. Footing adjustments, gate installation and voila 🤩

04/16/2024

Read and read again!

Read , let it sink in, then read again :

“No. 1. Get your tack and equipment just right, and then forget about it and concentrate on the horse.

No. 2. The horse is bigger than you are, and it should carry you. The quieter you sit, the easier this will be for the horse.

No. 3. The horse's engine is in the rear. Thus, you must ride your horse from behind, and not focus on the forehand simply because you can see it.

No. 4. It takes two to pull. Don't pull. Push.

No. 5. For your horse to be keen but submissive, it must be calm, straight and forward.

No. 6. When the horse isn`t straight, the hollow side is the difficult side.

No. 7. The inside rein controls the bending, the outside rein controls the speed.

No. 8. Never rest your hands on the horse's mouth. You make a contract with it: "You carry your head and I'll carry my hands."

No. 10. Once you've used an aid, put it back.

No. 11. You can exaggerate every virtue into a defect.

No. 12. Always carry a stick, then you will seldom need it.

No. 13. If you`ve given something a fair trial, and it still doesn't work, try something else—even the opposite.

No. 14. Know when to start and when to stop. Know when to resist and when to reward.

No. 15. If you're going to have a fight, you pick the time and place.

No. 16. What you can't accomplish in an hour should usually be put off until tomorrow.

No. 17. You can think your way out of many problems faster than you can ride your way out of them.

No. 18. When the horse jumps, you go with it, not the other way around.

No. 19. Don`t let over-jumping or dull routine erode the horse's desire to jump cleanly. It's hard to jump clear rounds if the horse isn't trying.

No. 20. Never give up until the rail hits the ground.

No. 21. Young horses are like children—give them a lot of love, but don't let them get away with anything.

No. 22. In practice, do things as perfectly as you can; in competition, do what you have to do.

No. 23. Never fight the oats.

No. 24. The harder you work, the luckier you get."

~Bill Steinkraus

03/30/2024

School today show tomorrow

02/07/2024

Happy place 😊