StableManners, LLC

13/02/2025

The key to balance lies in the hindquarters, not in the hands. 📚 Visit our bookshop: www.elaineheneybooks.com 🐴 Documentary: www.listeningtothehorse.com

08/02/2025

“Information alone does not reliably change behavior.”
- BJ Fogg (from Tiny Habits)

07/02/2025

“…an endeavor that is both familiar and new…”

All equestrians, if they last long enough, learn that riding in whatever form is a lifelong sport and art.

04/02/2025

We all need to remember sometimes to ride with confidence and learn to manage nerves, even experienced riders.

Nerves are natural, but they don’t define you—how you handle them does.

1. Trust Your Preparation– You’ve trained for this. Believe in your work.
2. Focus on the Process– Stay present and connected with your horse.
3. Reframe Nerves as Excitement– Shift fear into focus. You’re ready!
4. Breathe & Visualize Success– Picture your best ride and trust it.
5. Trust Your Horse– They feel your energy. Stay calm and ride like at home.
6. Stick to a Routine– Familiar rituals create confidence.
7. Accept Mistakes– Everyone makes them. Keep riding forward.
8. Enjoy the Journey– You do this because you love it. Smile and ride with heart!
9. Training is key to development, trust the process and embrace your coach or trainer. Experience can aid in development and shape a journey.
Believe, trust, and enjoy—because you’ve got this!

04/02/2025

Please share with your horsey friends!

04/02/2025

Now.

Do It Now

01/02/2025

01/02/2025

A $30,000 horse can't fix a 50¢ rider, but a good rider can fix a $0.50 horse.

This old adage holds timeless truth in the horse industry. While a talented horse can certainly make a rider look good, it's the rider's skills, knowledge, and horsemanship that ultimately determine success.

Many won’t like this or agree with it. Here’s the thing it only takes one mess up to create a problem with a nice horse. It takes 3 times or more to correct a problem.

Nice horses get ruined everyday!

Invest in Yourself, Not Just Your Horse!

As riders, we often focus on finding the perfect horse, investing in top-notch equipment, and seeking out the best trainers. But let's not forget the most critical element “ourselves”.

Developing your riding skills, understanding of the horse’s behavior, and ability to communicate effectively with your horse takes time, effort, and practice. It's not just about sitting on a horse and looking pretty – it's about becoming a true partner with every horse you ride.

Don't Rely Solely on Your Horse's Talent – Develop Your Own!

~ 24K Performance Horses!

27/01/2025

Happy Monday. ☕️

27/01/2025

This is especially true in today’s generation of trainers.
A lot of people in the industry care about horses only as a means to an end. It’s greed, pure and simple.

They don’t realize how hard it is to find a good horse, and how critical it is to take care of him when you do. The good ones are hard to replace.

Find and spend more time with good Horseman

Why:
There’s no faster way to improve your knowledge as a horseman than by hanging out and riding with better horsemen than you are.

How it’ll help:
You’ll get a fresh eye on your riding and your horse. This is key. Sometimes, when you ride the same horse the same way, day after day, even “wrong” starts to feel normal.
A good horseman can pick up subtle problems and help you resolve them.

You’ll also have an opportunity to pick that person’s brain about everything, from ways to improve your riding, to ways to upgrade your management program.

That’s the beauty of horses. You never stop learning, and you can always find ways to be a better horseman.

27/01/2025

“You’re overthinking. Just get on and ride.”

“I wish this page wrote more about horsemanship instead of irrelevant philosophy”

I have become very interested in people’s natures, and how that benefits them in horsemanship and also holds them back.

My mind tends to analyze, analyze, analyze.

The benefits of this are
Pattern recognition
Environmental awareness
Trying to deeply understand one topic all the way down to its nucleus

The drawbacks are
Staying in one place for too long, accidental drilling in an effort to perfect one thing
Overanalyzing myself and others which can lead to feeling paralyzed or debilitated

We all have strengths that can be weaknesses on the flip side. If we get criticism, we can take that and look at the opposite side of that too. And, we have to remember that any quality we like about our selves can be developed, and any quality we dislike or hinders us can be developed too.

One of the reasons we need quality instruction is to have someone who believes in us help us develop our weaknesses into strengths and become the best we can be.

Photo by Caitlin Hatch

27/01/2025

"Lessons are called riding lessons, not horsing lessons. Their primary purpose is to develop a rider. Once there is a good rider, he can become a trainer of horses, yet often riders are asked to train before they have the skills to do it."
- Charles de Kunffy,
Dressage Principles Illuminated p. 128
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http://www.charlesdekunffy.com/

26/01/2025

Any movement is only as useful as the first straight step out of it. That is to say, practicing a movement for the sake of just doing it doesn’t do us much good, if the principles that make it beneficial aren’t practiced.
How can you tell if you’ve maintained the principles of a movement ? You can leave straight right away, with no wiggling or crookedness, and the neck balance should be improved.