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06/20/2026

And just like that; horse camp ends!

Dramatic scenery and great company at the Nambe' Badlands today.

Horses that don't know each other jockey for leadership and
"place" in the herd. Nickle's confidence and quiet leadership always shines. He truly believes that it is his job to gather and protect the herd. And this was a herd of some great horses and horsemen!

Well done riders, well done Nickle....

06/20/2026

The last night of Marilyn and Sasha's horse camp.

We always have groundwork and tricks to teach, and "Sasha" has learned so much in just two days! She is smitten with Nickle, and they get along so well that we were able to do some liberty work with the two horses together!

And what camp is complete without the inaugural ba****ck ride on your horse...while ponying another horse!

Finally, more groundwork; working on filling the gaps in Sasha's training. Marilyn doesn't know who started her mare, but she knew when she bought Sasha that she was missing some skills. In this case, the missing skills can be taught....Sasha is steady and kind and Marilyn finally has a horse that she feels safe with...and Sasha has a home for life 🩷

06/19/2026

Day two of horse camp!

Sasha likes her left lead...right lead, not so much!
Although Sasha really needs a lot more time in long and low, especially in some great walking tailrides, we have limited time and wanted to work on leads today.

This mare tries so hard! She never gets mad, never gives up and always tries to please Marilyn. What more could you ask for?

06/19/2026

A wonderful end to day one of Marilyn and Sasha's horse camp: TRICKS!

Sasha learned how to stand on a pedestal and Marilyn is teaching her how to give hugs ❤️

Emotional support provided by Nickle!

06/19/2026

Let's talk about lions!

Puma concolor specifically. The cougar, a solitary hunter has over 40 names in the English language alone. Their range can extend for hundreds of miles!

Recent big cat activity has made my community nervous, but reality is, Puma like to eat deer, and will choose easy targets like chickens and goats if available. They avoid human areas and will also rarely take horses; then only choosing the very young or the sick/vulnerable when desperate.

Ways to keep your horses safe include:
*Keeping horse in at night
*Not leaving a horse alone on pasture at night
*Using motion sensor lights
*Keeping a donkey or guardian dogs

Make some commonsense changes if needed, but don't panic....big cats have been here for a very long time!

06/18/2026

When you drive a long way for lessons with your horse, and have a few days off, what do you do?

HORSE CAMP!

Marilyn and her mare Sasha are here for a 2-day "camp"; including arena work, trail course, trail rides, bunkhouse......LOTS OF FIRSTS TODAY FOR BOTH HORSE AND RIDER!

Well done!

Oh, and Marilyn ditched the old saddle that wasn't working for her or Sasha. The new one is much better but now we face the "muscle memory" challenge....re-working Marilyn's seat and leg position. We have a busy two days!

06/16/2026

Today was Beignet's turn! A portion of today's session, three times faster so you can see the amount of repetition it takes to make tricks solid!

Little Beignet continues to be motivated and far less distracted than in the past....I'm so proud of him!

One strategy with a "shy" horse like Beignet; I always ask him to step toward me to begin a task. I want to see that he is willing to participate! When I approach him and he takes a step away from me, it shows hesitation. So, I will take a step back and ask him to engage with me. This is something I'd NEVER EVER do with Romeo, as he's engaged 24/7 and can be a persistent pest, even a bully with people!

When Beignet agrees to work, he puts his entire heart into training. He doesn't have the physical or mental capacity that Romeo has, but he's kind and sweet and asks me overtly for help sometimes. I love his honesty!

06/15/2026

A short discussion on trailer loading.

Why would a horse refuse to load?

*Previous trauma related to the trailer/similar space
*A lack of trust in the handler
*Barn/buddy/show sour
*Physical limitations

Today I worked with a horse who has a history of loading and hauling---just fine! But suddenly decided that he would not only refuse to load, but didn't even want to get near the trailer!

I arrived to help the owner load the horse and quickly discovered that the horse was quite sore in his hindquarters. So sore in fact, that when he tried to load when I asked, he struggled to even pick up one rear leg!

Suddenly refusing to load is a big red flag! Listen to your horse!

In the video, Cady, the lovely ex racehorse shows how well she loads....at home. She suffered from trauma in the starting gate. She trusts the handler after days of work and walks right in by herself! But when the trailer is moved, Cady refuses. She needed more work, even ongoing work, to overcome her huge fears!

06/15/2026

Romeo is a little trick machine!

The biggest challenge with him is that he gets so excited he gets ahead of me!

Allowing a horse to anticipate leads to bigger problems, so I make him come back to me and WATCH me if he guesses.

I also don't punish mistakes; I just ignore his guessing and only reward when he does what I ask.

I sped this reel up so you could see the amount of repetition that goes into just part of our session! Practice truly does make perfect.

Romeo is a special little horse!

06/14/2026

Teaching both boys how to bow!

There's a couple different ways to teach it, and I usually see which way they like better.
It's best not to use ropes and not pull on their heads (they must already know how to drop their head and follow treats). They figure out pretty quickly what to do, and then you just add a word cue!

But there's so much more going on here than just the bow...
At 1:09 I take a cross over step and Beignet does one too....THAT is focus! They have both been taught to do this when learning to side pass; WATCH THE HANDLER!

At 1:50, Romeo does a very sweet "touch mom" recall. At 2:00, he also does a nice side pass cross-over step following my lead. At 2:53 he thinks maybe he's in the wrong place and turns around to go to his "home", which is on Marcie's left side of her chair (she steers with her right hand, so she leads on her left)...so sweet. At 3:19, he does that yet again!

Romeo is better at tricks, but today Beignet was really on his game!

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