Equine Connection Freelance Training

12/07/2024

Can't wait for this in depth clinic in Ohio about the interconnections between nervous system functioning and posture. People are already signing up, reserve your spot now at the link below:

https://forms.gle/M5J1sdMHSbYpX4nA8

Another great clinic coming to THE Show Arena!
Register by clicking the link below.

https://forms.gle/vzxyvH42CQ2eB19R7

12/04/2024

Yesterday Manchego trialed my Connection Cordeo… he approves! 🥰

Great feel for the rider, as the handle is the same padded leather reins as can be purchased with the Connection Cavesson. The horse also enjoys padding on their part. It’s also very adjustable to fit your horse without compromising your body’s alignment and balance!

Stay tuned for the cordeo and other tack and apparel to hit the market soon🎉

11/28/2024

I am ready to make my educational content available to those who cannot attend my in person events. Please fill out this brief survey with your feedback on what types of topics and formats you'd like to see offered as webinars so I can try my best to meet your needs. Thank you for your time!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSevZLbxBmvSp8hZNWnsR-b6ydeaKG38m9DD6b1XzO2dKVnbZw/viewform?usp=sf_link

Photo credit Pine Woods Photography

11/19/2024

We are having Grace Keeton out again December 7 and 8, and I am looking for others who might like to schedule while she's in the area! So far it looks like just 2 horses on my farm, a stop in Lexington, a stop in Shepherdsville, and a group of equines in south central KY. Who all wants to sigh up? I'm helping organize a route for her!

11/18/2024

Now taking both local and remote orders for my Connection Cavesson and Padded Reins! These will make the best holiday gifts for your horse or fellow equestrians!

These are custom items fit to the unique shape and size of each horse, and styled to the tastes of the human, prioritizing clarity and comfort. The Connection Cavesson converts to a sideguide and a nosebandless bridle. There are many ways to wear it. Click the link to learn more about this unique, custom tack:

https://www.equineconnectionfreelancetraining.com/shop

11/18/2024

New Blog Post: Fear

Our nervous system state is inextricably tied to both our emotions and our physical posture. No matter who I’m teaching or what they’ve come to learn, I find myself always coming back to the concept of the nervous system— the big, broad general umbrella of all the systems in our body that work to keep us alive. And how when we or our horses become dysregulated, we trade our ability to live in the moment to simply survive instead.

Click the link below to read the full blog post:

Our nervous system state is inextricably tied to both our emotions and our physical posture. No matter who I’m teaching or what they’ve come to learn, I find myself always coming back to the concept of the nervous system— the big, broad general umbrella of all the systems in our body that work...

11/17/2024

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Photo credit Alexandra Taylor

11/14/2024

Gearing up for another clinic at Sage Knoll Farm next month! Come join us to learn about how classical in hand work can improve your horse's emotional, mental, and physical posture from rehabilitation to performance work!

Sign up here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd_cWNPnSRuzHx0PD9LcWxF5Co1AbkHz1jYHilIps_zo0ddxQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

11/11/2024

Fabulous demonstration! The thoracic sling became the focus of our clinic this weekend at Hidden Creek Ranch with Heather Lomax! Many horses presented with this spayed teepee like stance with the sternum dropped forward and downward, and the front limbs already externally rotating, elbows and scapulas locked into the ribcage. Often in developing better balance for a horse through thoracic sling work, we think of widening the front end, which allows the hind end to step under into the center of gravity. But for these horses that are so compressed and atrophied in their front ends, they need to find verticality in their front limbs first, which might actually appear narrower in the front at first, until these postural patterns begin to unwind. We saw incredible transformations in the horses here within minutes in our sessions and in overall stability over the weekend.

ENGAGE THE SLING BEFORE YOU DRIVE FROM BEHIND

baby race horse getting thoracic sling engagement 😊😊😊🧡🧡🙌🐴

You can see how in the before picture this horse appears collapsed into the ground. His feet are splayed and chest is wide and soft and looks like it is falling into the ground. This is called ‘columnar loading ‘ it means that the horse is loading into the ground like a building, it is the opposite of ‘tensegrity’ which implies a balance of the compression elements giving you suspension and recoil. If your not using your tension elements and just start collapsing into your front end the only way you can really hold yourself up is by tensing through the elbow and thus splaying your front feet.

This baby is 1 year old, never been ridden and already is collapsing into the front end and is losing the ability and desire to engage and lift the thoracic sling.

There is no pectoral activation in the before. He is wide and collapsing in front. For a race horse this is a posture that will make him prone to injury because as he fixates this way it will be more and more difficult for him change and get his front end out of the way.

In the meantime those folks that don’t believe in spinal flexion of the thoracic spine will insist on driving into this braced, blocked, fixated front end that is now being stabilized by the elbows that will externally rotate and brace and a activated brachiocephalicus muscle which will further contract trying to stabilize the neck trying to prevent further compression as the hind end is driven into a front end that is locked down and collapsing into the ground.

I learned in vet school that when there is much opposing discussion about things it usually means none of the answers are correct.

If you cannot lift and engage your thoracic sling so that you have the ability for suspension and recoil as in tensegrity please do not think that driving into it is the solution. If you want your horse to feel like a motor boat you have to have the lift first and then you can drive into it.

Yes you need drive but the road must be open

If you don’t have lift the drive will cause more compression and collapse, creating more dysfunction.

Does that make sense ?

So the answer is your need lift for the drive to have a place to go otherwise you just drive into a brace.

The horse on the right has an engaged thoracic sling. This only took about an hour and this particular little fellow still had a lot of restrictions that will need follow up. But it’s a start - he can now get his front end out of the way allowing for hind end to come under instead of around.

He will be able to push off the ground instead of collapsing into it allowing triceps activation and development.

He will be able to open up his rib cage and breathe deep fully expanding into his diaphragm and creating internal lift to his back. His waist will lengthen, lumbar spine align and psoas relax creating movement to the pelvis and softening the angle so the hips now in alignment can push back at the ground with their full power.

All this in an hour.
All this from re training your nervous system out of dysfunction into function
Lift your sling to lift your back.

Please don’t drive into your horse if he cannot engage his sling and definitely do not back these horses up !!

11/05/2024

I used to think of self-bridling as emotional posturing work designed to prepare the horse for the mental and physical posture work enabled by the bit. Holiday, this lovely OTTB has shown me that the process of self bridling improves physical posture in itself. The horse doesn’t have to carry the bit to benefit from interacting with one.

He's a perfect demonstration of how changing emotional posture through finding willingness, playfulness, a pinch of excitement, and valuing the intelligence of problems solving, actually improves the horse's physical posture through changing nervous system states.

Self bridling also involves movement that is beneficial to the horse-- stretching forward and downwards towards the bit, then when they hear the click that means "yes, that's right!", the horse has learned to center the head between the shoulders, and the excitement automatically produces lift in the base of the neck, and for Holiday, significant thoracic sling engagement. I played with the placement of my hand while offering his treats to engage different parts of his body unconsciously-- he was focused on this "permission game" as Karen Rohlf calls it.

Check out the progression of his posture over the course of our session today, from before (a totally collapsed thoracic sling, down hill, braced neck, and toes out), after self bridling (starting to bring the thoracic sling online and reshape the neck) and after in hand work (recentering, rebalancing, engagement, and improved relaxation).

11/02/2024

To anyone who might think high level collection is unnatural? Exhibit A: a quarter horse and an Andalusian repeatedly bearing all their weight on their hind end in play this frosty morning. But they only do it in short spurts, which is exactly how we should be training. Playful transitioning between postures to build strength, clarity, and connection.❤️

11/02/2024

Today, we took our training wheels off. My first ride after restarting Manchego where we only had reins on the bit— no reins on the cavesson noseband. I am so proud of him for his willingness to relearn and trust my hands, wherever they connect to him❤️

10/30/2024

One of the many reasons I don’t allow the use of restrictive training aids (side reins, pessoas, German strings, etc) at Sage Knoll Farm