Warwick Schiller's Attuned Horsemanship

Warwick Schiller's Attuned Horsemanship Warwick Schiller is a world-renowned horseman, clinician, and author.
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07/11/2025

I always come to the science of horse training from the back end. Meaning I figure out what works, and have a fairly good idea why it works, and then at some later date, I discover the science of why that particular exercise works.
For several years now I have been doing things differently than I have in the past, with amazing results. From the changes in Mustangs at clinics, stallions in Morocco, horses with separation anxiety, and horses that bite, they have all been about less correction and more connection.
In this video I uncover the science of why building connection first, before training, has been having such amazing outcomes for me, and it all comes done to one thing: Polyvagal Theory. This is a quick peek into my newest favourite subject.

07/11/2025

Bundy cutting the drone a few years back...

07/10/2025

SHOWER THOUGHTS

Every once in while I've have what I call a shower thought.

I'm in the shower and something profound will come to me, and I'll have to jump out of the shower to write in in my phone. One a had a few years ago was titled Faith In Horses.

"FAITH IN HORSES

Giving up control tells your horse that you have faith in them. I think that's where they start to have faith in you.

But in order to stay safe while giving up control, first ya' gotta have your preparation right. You have got to have faith in your preparation.

So, inevitably, it comes down to YOU, having faith in YOU."

I did a clinic in Slovenia (the country- it's in central Europe with Italy on its West, Austria to the North, and Croatia and Hungary to the East) last weekend, and like many times at clinics, a rider had a major breakthrough by giving up control.

Ana came to the clinic with her recently gelded Andalusian. The first day during groundwork I realised that he really only operated off reaction, not response, so everything he did was running away. After trying some different things on the ground to try to help him, i finally found something that I could use to help him move and relax at the same time.

The second day, when Ana rode him, we had to start with getting him to stand still on a loose rein. This was the start of Ana giving up control, not trying to control her horse, but controlling herself.

Then we started walking on a loose rein, and using the groundwork exercise from the previous day, but this time under saddle, to promote relaxation and movement. After a while he started to relax and stretch down over his topline and look nothing like the uptight horse he initially presented as.

The next step was to be able to do this at the trot as well, and once that started to work, he started stretching down at a trot, and Ana remarked "he almost feels lazy", and I told her "that's what he feels like when he is relaxed".

It was a huge change for the horse, and a huge breakthrough for Ana, as she learned the lesson that all the magic lies on the other side of letting go of control. She posted a video yesterday taken from the saddle of him pawing and playing in a huge puddle of water in her arena at home. She said he's always been scared of the puddle and that she always rode him on the other side of the arena, it's amazing how playful they get when they come out of a pattern of being tense and fearful.

This video shows a little bit of the transformation with Ana's horse, and the end shows a bit of a transformation with Ana.

07/10/2025

I forget how long I've been engaging with the muzzle of biting horses, verus correcting them. This video popped uop from 6 yeras ago, so it's been at least that long.

Teamwork makes the dream work.A couple of pictures from my clinic in Slovenia on the weekend. I do the teaching and my s...
07/09/2025

Teamwork makes the dream work.

A couple of pictures from my clinic in Slovenia on the weekend. I do the teaching and my son Tyler does the videoing.

The top picture has a great story. Ana came to the clinic with a highly reactive recently gelded Andalusian. Nothing he did was a response, only a reaction, and consequently was the same under saddle. Ana had fallen off of him because of his volatile reactions and had some stories in her head about him, and her capabilities.

After doing some groundwork the first day to help him relax, and most importantly turn loose of the brace in his poll, Ana had a great ride on him on day 2.

After doing some relaxation exercises under saddle he got to where he would walk and trot on a loose rein and stretch down over his top line. At one point in time Ana said he almost feels lazy now, and that she had to use some leg to keep him going foreard (as opposed to riding a powder keg) and I said “that’s who your horse truly is underneath all of that anxiety”.

Ana then got to have the most relaxed canter she’s ever had on him. The top photo is my congratulatory hug at the end of the session.

The bottom photo shows the view over the little Slovenian village from the arena.

Online video library subscribers, keep and eye out for the full length video of the transformation of Ana and her horse.

We arrived home last night from our whirlwind European trip where I presented at a horse summit in Poland and then the n...
07/08/2025

We arrived home last night from our whirlwind European trip where I presented at a horse summit in Poland and then the next weekend did a clinic in Slovenia.

Thought I’d dump a few of my favorite snaps from the Poland part of our trip.

Thanks to the great photographers who shared these with me, sorry I’m jet lagged and for the life of me cannot remember names .

I love it when clinic participants get the message Im trying to share, this one from last weekends clinic in Slovenia.Th...
07/08/2025

I love it when clinic participants get the message Im trying to share, this one from last weekends clinic in Slovenia.

Thanks Claudia, it was great meeting you.

07/07/2025

HOW YOUR ENERGY AFFECTS YOUR HORSE.

I have posted a number of videos on here over the past 2 years of uptight or anxious horses at horse expos, being led around by the owner. The horses tend to be pushing into the owner, or pulling away from them, and in a bit of a state of anxiety.

In those videos you see a radical change in the horses energy when the owner hands the horse to me. In those videos, I either do very little, or nothing at all to get that change. But the change doesn't come about because of what I do.

It's about what I don't do.

I don't have tension in my body.

I don't have a defensive posture.

I don't have negative judgements about how the horse is behaving.

I don't ask for anything I don't want.

I don't micromanage the horse.

The biggest part though is the energy I bring to the situation. It's confident, non-judgemental, non-emotional energy.

Normally at an expo I get to spend the time during the session getting the horse in a better place mentally, and that's all have time for in that one session. Recently at the Western States Horse Expo I had 2 sessions in one day, and used the same horse for both sessions. The horse was a 17 hand eventer who his lovely owner Susannah descibes as "pushy on the ground, bites me, and won't stand still".

Because I had 2 sessions, I worked with the horse the first session to help him regulate his nervous system, and then in the second session I got him in a good place, and then coached his owner on how to regulate her energy around him so that she wasn't causing the issues. By the end of that second session he was completely different horse around her.

I have just released a new video on our online video subscription called "How your energy affects your horse" showing what I did with him, and then what I did with her to coach her through the process. the video can be found under "recent videos".

Here's about 15 minutes of that first session, showing how he was with Susannah, and what I did (or didn't do) to help him feel better about the situation

07/07/2025

First haltering of Chance as a foal

A lot of people like to talk about how different the disciplines are, I like to see how much they are the same.Some peop...
07/07/2025

A lot of people like to talk about how different the disciplines are, I like to see how much they are the same.

Some people also believe that the tack determines the performance, wheres I don't believe that either.

These photos are from a couple of year ago when Grand Prix dressage rider Kristin Aggers came and spent a few days. We put her dressage saddle on Petey, I tried a bit of stopping in it, then Kristen had a ride and tried spinning, as well as messing with a bit of dressage with Petey.

I think the more we learn from other disciplines, the better our horsemanship will be.

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