JPS Horsemanship

05/12/2024

Hello everyone!

If anyone is looking to purchase a new bit soon, I highly suggestion checking out Cavalon Bits!

If you use my link you will receive 10% off your purchase

https://cavalontack.com?ref=jaycee_sentz

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I've purchased a few bits from them now and I can't recommend them enough! The bits are all well made and they have really been keeping the horses in mind with their designs (which is so important to me and I absolutely love that its important to them too), plus the horses also seem to really enjoy them, so it's a win win for everyone!

Go ahead and check them out

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Explore Cavalon's wide selection of handmade bits.

19/11/2024

Thinking about wanting to do anther educational talk on bits in the near future..... would anyone be interested??

18/11/2024

It's okay to rethink the equipment we use, it's okay to advocate for the horse

I’ve never liked headgear on a horse aside from a bridle; but in starting up my body work practice and being around a lot of high-level equines I’ve grown to like them even less. 👎🏻

Tie downs, bonnets, and draw reins all strengthen the wrong muscles in a horse as well as cause major restrictions in their body. 💥

Aside from restricting maximum extension (which directly correlates to stride length and speed) these forms of head gear also

🚫Lock the A/O joint
🚫Create a 5 car pile up in the c-spine
🚫Drop the horse on the forehand
🚫Overload the lumbar spine
🚫Paralyze the pelvis in flexion
🚫Cause continual micro trauma to the body leading to eventual lameness 🩼

I understand why people may turn to a tie down but they are a quick fix to temporary problems. Lack of balance, coordination, or too much speed may seem like a good reason to use restrictive head gear however the better choice would be slowing down and building the horse’s strength slowly. 🐢

If that’s not enough, these tools are often used even more inappropriately than intended. Tie-downs too low on the nose, draw reins with curb bits, and all bonnets should be burned in my nerve-release-practitioner-opinion. 🔥

Heck, even a heavy hand can cause all the problems above.💪🏻

I recently took a tiedown off a horse and was astonished with the decline in his topline health after wearing it for just a few months.

Give me a 🙋🏼‍♀️ in the comments if you wanna read the case study and see the before and after photos. 📸

15/11/2024

Delilah was certainly having some fun with me the other day

I took her out to do some groundwork and when I asked for a simple walk, she decided prancing around with her head in the sky and her tail up was the correct answer (its those arab genetics she has 😅), so I let her prance around and get some energy out, as long as she was being respectful, no harm done

After a moment we just did some exercises to keep her attention on what we're doing and she eventually settled and we got some good work done.

I didn't want to shut her down and make a big deal about what she was doing. In my experience it only makes it worse. Having a more high strung horse myself, sometimes he just needs a minute with no expectations, and because of that I always try to make it a point to allow the horse I'm working with some time to just be a horse and to get themselves together. It helps

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Pictures of this sweet girl after she calmed down a bit ❤️😌

15/11/2024

Duke being confident and walking out ahead on our short trip down the road and back 😌

12/11/2024

Baby shenanigans with Duke 🥰

09/11/2024

What do you do when you have a horse whos afraid of cows and you get invited to a cow clinic with your favorite clinician/horsemen?

You go, of course

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I first just want to say that I am so grateful for Cody Deering and there is no other person I would trust to work with my gelding in this situation. I am so incredibly thankful for him and his skills as a horseman, he has helped me so much with my gelding and my own skills.

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Duck, has been scared of cows for what feels like forever now. He was so scared of them that he would start shaking at the just the smell of them and would absolutely attempt to go through whatever barrier he could, including fencing, to get away from them if he could see them. This clinic was no exception.

I watched Cody completely transform my horse. He went from terrified and wanting nothing to do them, to pushing into them, to following them on the ground, to later working them under saddle, to trying to chase, bite, and stomp them. It's like something just clicked and he figured it out all thanks to Cody

It was such a dream come true to finally work him on cattle and for him to be as cowy as he is, I swear I was smiling the whole time.

Once Duck understood he can move them and chase them around, it was game on and I'd pretty much drop the reins and let him do his thing.

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Also please ignore the low quality pics, these were mostly either super zoomed in or screenshots off a video 😅

23/10/2024

Don't forget I make halters too!

14/10/2024

For being just shy of 3 months, he sure is getting big

Duke is getting pretty good at standing tied, he understands that when we're at the trailer he stays put while I walk back and forth.

I also had Duck babysit for me, as you can see he wasnt thrilled and was sure to remind Duke of boundaries 😅

05/10/2024

Look who's learning how to stand "tied" like the big horses 🥰

03/10/2024

23/09/2024

I announced it on my personal page so I guess I'll announce it here too

I am now the proud new owner of Duke ❤

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When my neighbors offered him to me, I tried to convince myself that I really don't need another horse right now, but I just couldn't say no.

There's so many good reasons to take him vs not. The main one being the simple fact that I am basically his "mom" since I helped raised him after his mother rejected him. I mean, I slept outside with him for a whole month just to take care of him and make sure he's okay.

My best/favorite horses all have D names. Dusty, my childhood pony, Duck, my heart horse and greatest teacher, and now Duke.

I watched my heart horse, Duck, grow up from a brand new c**t to what he is now. So it'll be the same for Duke.

I paid $1 for Duke, just like I did for Duck. So now i have two $1 horses, so it just makes sense for me to take him

I'm also constantly doing things that would have made my mentor proud, even though he's no longer here. My gelding, Duck, was the last c**t out of my mentors stallion who was also a bottle baby. So I could only imagine what he'd say if he found out that I was taking on a bottle baby c**t, just like he did so many years ago. He would be so excited to hear that and would have encourage me to do it. So it really makes me feel like I'm following in his footsteps.

Another reason is how much I adore his moms temperament, his dad's too. Delilah, Duke's mom, has such a solid mind, she's brave yet sensitive, nothing bothers her, she's smart, and I could go on and on. It's all the things I wanted in my future horse and so far, Duke is so much like his mom.
His dad has a great temperament too, if you would have told me there was a stallion in the same field where I'd originally go and work with Delilah, I wouldn't have believed you (and I didn't until I really took a closer look at him), especially if you were to point out just what one he was. He was the one who'd greet me at the fence, quietly hangout with me and the other horses, let me scratch on him, etc. He is just a nice boy overall. So Duke certainly has some good genetics and it shows.

Another thing I considered about Duke was the simple fact of what kind of horse he is, hes a mutt and nothing "special" but i kinda like the cross. There's no question about it that he will be my next bridle horse and I will hopefully start him on cattle and make him into a nice roping horse. So I'll need something smart, sturdy, and willing to work. Duke has the genetics to be just that. His mom, Delilah, is an Arab Percheron cross, which means she's super smart, she's sensitive, and has great work ethic, like an arab but shes also sturdy and level headed like a draft. His dad is also a draft cross from my understanding. I'm not usually one for drafty style breeds, but I do love the looks of Duke's parents and I have been been enjoying the arab/draft cross and seeing the best of both breeds in one horse

And I could go on

Welcome to the family, Duke ❤️

23/09/2024

While working with Delilah the other day, I noticed some garbage floating around that made its way over from the wind the previous day. So I decided to use it to my advantage and used it as a training opportunity.

I walked around with her picking them up and making noise with them. I then scratched and touched her all over with them, I would occasionally drop or toss a bag too all while watching for any little sign of stress or worry.

She really didn't care about what I was doing, if I didn't know any better I'd say she even looked at me with a "this is dumb" type of expression. She wasn't even bothered when I tied the bags to the saddle and worked her around for a bit, she just can't be bothered and I love it

11/09/2024

The “problem horse” 🐴

There is such a recurring theme in the clients I’m seeing that I really feel the need to talk about this more. Time and time again I am seeing horses displaying significant signs of pain, who have been to the vet to have some diagnostics and been told there is nothing wrong, the horse definitely isn’t in pain and they need to send the horse to a trainer. It is incredibly frustrating and upsetting as an owner when you really feel something isn’t right but are being told by professionals that the issue is you and you’re overthinking it or being soft.

The idea that a problem is purely behavioural is a fallacy in and of itself. Behaviour is a manifestation of how the horse is experiencing life, whether that be pain/discomfort in the body, the environment, the people, the training, the diet, trauma, past experiences etc. It is unfortunately not packed into two neat little boxes of either pain or behaviour and, even if it was, the idea that we could easily rule out pain with the limited diagnostics available is unrealistic.

When we have a horse that is displaying concerning behaviour, beyond the usual joint, back x-rays and scoping for ulcers, we need to consider hind gut issues, liver issues, hormonal issues, muscle myopathies, congenital defects, old injuries, compensatory patterns, the list goes on. Often we do find pathology, medicate it and declare the horse pain-free and ready to crack on without considering the other factors at play.

I cannot emphasise enough the role of environmental factors. Sometimes we are chasing pathology, buying expensive supplements, paying every professional under the sun to fit our horse’s tack, train them, give them bodywork and hoof care while entirely missing the fact the horse’s basic needs are not being met. If your horse is stressed in his living environment you are setting yourselves up to fail. Horses that are living in a chronic state of stress and have very little ability to down-regulate their nervous system are unable to thrive and develop healthy bodies.

So many horses have poor posture which is causing tension and soreness in their bodies, it is so normalised that it seems to be rarely recognised as an issue as horses can still perform at high levels even when their bodies are compromised, we’re used to seeing horses with poor muscle development. Winning trophies does not necessarily mean the horse is comfortable, it means the horse is compliant. A lot of training views compliance as the main measure of success without really seeing how the horse is feeling both emotionally and physically, with the training itself often contributing to more tension, stress and strain on the body.

All of these things together create the “problem horse”.

I feel really strongly that we need to start looking at things differently if we want to train ethically and also increase longevity for our horses. What if instead of just medicating the horse then sending the horse to the trainer to be “fixed”, we took a step back and really looked at the whole horse and maybe why this happened in the first place.

I genuinely think we’d have much more long term success if we took the pressure off, made sure their living environment was the best we could get it, learned to help our horses down-regulate their nervous system and train at the horse’s pace in an environment they’re comfortable in. In doing so we can really help their bodies and support them as best we can with their issues.

Watching horses find relaxation in their bodies, find peace around people and start to find joy in movement through slow, low-pressure training doesn’t make very exciting videos but it does transform horse’s (and people’s) lives.

If you take anything away from this just know that you absolutely CAN train pain, people are doing it every day and getting 100k views on their reels, so don’t disregard your horse’s voice just because he is somewhat compliant or someone told you to. Behaviour is communication, not something to be fixed. There are people out here who will help you and your horse and not dismiss your concerns. 🐴

www.lshorsemanship.co.uk

10/09/2024

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who showed up to the bit mechanics talk/demonstration!

It was nice meeting everyone as well as seeing some familiar faces. I hope everyone was able to have a good time and learn something new!

And a big thank you to Krystle Pimentel for hosting and helping make this possible! Couldn't have done it without you!