Hoof to Heart , LLC & H2H VETS INC

08/01/2025

I have two openings for riding lessons. Possible on farm half lease option as well. PM for more I for

08/01/2025

Don't Leave Points In The Ring Tip of the Day:

Time for you to become the STUDENT.

My two most important watch words for Western Dressage are Grounding and Support. These 2 words and their concepts have helped many people to better understand Western Dressage and the riders place in that all important partnership leading to better harmony and thus better scores.

GROUNDING – In any partnership or team the closer the team works together the better the overall performance. Grounding is to ride as close as possible to your horse’s center of gravity. To literally GROUND yourself into your horse. To FEEL the movements your horse makes and become one with your horse through those movements. To work WITH your horse and assist them to a better frame, to have more subtle cues, to actually work with you as one, in Harmony.

SUPPORT through the bridle. I keep reading about people’s confusion about constant contact through the bridle. That contact is actually SUPPORTING your horse through the bridle to help maintain their frame and to support them through their bends, and advanced maneuvers. I have a student who asked me “Why does it feel like I am constantly pulling on my horse?”. I asked her “Is your horse pulling back? Are you in a tug of war?” She said “NO, She actually goes better for me and seems happier.” There is the support. The assistance your horse loves so that they can do their job better, to work better with you.

To better understand and apply these principles get out of the arena or where ever you normally work your horse. Where you are in charge and your horse is always the student. Get out on the trail, or out in the field and now become the student. Play with your cues and actually “ASK” your horse to teach you more effective cues. Subtly play with your leg position, your hip position and see what your horse does. Slow down, speed up, move sideways, extend, collect.

Think constantly about grounding yourself into your horse’s center of gravity, about supporting them through the bridle. Become more respectful in how you ask and allow them to be more respectful in how they work with you. Truly become the Student and allow your horse to teach you how to work better with them.

Horses are incredible beings and are truly our mirrors. Does your horse look forward to working with you? Does your horse treat you with respect? On the other side of the coin are you being respectful of your horse? Spend a week working on your relationship with your horse. Learning how to truly work with them.

This will be the best time you ever spend with your horse and will be the beginning of an incredible future.

08/01/2025

How to train with minimal time:

I’m of the mind that quality, consistent work ten minutes here and there is far better than an hour or two on the weekend. Everybody’s schedules are crazy, everybody has stuff going on, and probably everybody feels guilty all the time for what they’re not doing.

I have a busy life too. It can be hard to prioritize my own horses, but I’ve had several teachers essentially grab me by my shirt collar and emphasize with gusto how important my own horses training is- and so I present to you my secret plan for short sessions with quality

1- have a plan going in. I don’t mean decide exactly what you’re gonna do, because life happens and you have to work with the horse you have in front of you. But have a plan to give this session your all- to be 110% present for ten, fifteen minutes. No distractions. And calm. If you shoot for 110%, you might hit 70%, and that would be a great success. Get your head on straight, then go in to the pasture.

2- focus on quality in everything. How much care can you invest in putting the halter on? How did your horse feel? How nicely did they lead? How much attention can you give to brushing in a way your horse likes? How well did they stand at the mounting block, how much attention to detail did you give picking up their feet with softness? These things matter, and add up.

3- focus on being smooth and rhythmic. The more I can get me and my horse moving in a smooth, rhythmic way, the sooner the distractions fall away, the sooner my horse breathes and calms, the sooner every thing gets awesome. So get that rhythm!

4- if things go wrong, as they can do, backtrack to something easy. Spend your time building successes, so find something you can do well and quit on without eating up your whole evening being frustrated.

5- be happy with less. Don’t expect flying changes in ten minutes- be happy with breathing, be happy with standing still, be happy with moving nicely, be happy with moving at all. If you have minimal time, your expectations should fit the bill: small and simple, and learn to get happy with less. Resist the urge to do it one more time, keep that greed monster away and accept what is fair to accept.

If
You’re in the video library community, join us for a haltering with excellence challenge!

Photo by Jasmine Cope

06/01/2025

30/12/2024

Hey all!!
Congrats on your team placing with NAWD

🤠
Battle of the Barns - 3rd place with a 59.9% team average!

And

🤠 TRAX team 4th place year end with 62.7% team average!!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vTFF11AXdrycx37S1CeHO2vGbGuY4GTYIUjiIwgnRkp0AtZ6-MWQ5caNEQDJqdfXBAcNeabYarh8Xpc/pubhtml?gid=1451168293&single=true

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vR0pGw-96H0kQfTOzzcgrvAnLmreayBhM3K1ib7O6ZjNg82qXCan1XLFBVLUyAETwPQbQXdek9CVyxQ/pubhtml?gid=897559394&single=true

25/12/2024

📣 announcement  📣

We would like To officially introduce our newest board member to you all!!!

Kayla Mikuszewski

She comes to us with an extensive amount of horse experience! Also she comes from a military family - her grandfather was a Navy Veteran & avid horse person!

Welcome aboard!!

https://hooftoheartvets.com/board-members-%26-founders

25/12/2024

18/12/2024

- If your torso is collapsing to the right, your hips slipped to the left
- If your right leg keeps creeping up, or you lose just the right stirrup, your hips have slipped left
- If you find it easier to ride to the left, than to the right, your hips likely slip to the left.
- if you find yourself clinging to the right rein, while practically forgetting that you have a left one, good chances are that your hips slept left
- If your left hand is higher than your right hand, it’s possible that your hip slipped to the left
- If cantering counter clockwise, feels okay, but cantering clockwise feels awful, I’m gonna say your hips slipped left.
- if you can leg yield your horse to the right (off your left leg) pretty well,  but cannot lead guild to the left to save your life, your hips are probably chronically slipping to the left.

So many times, when a rider or is collapsing to the right, their coach tells them to fix it by stepping into the left stirrup. 🤦‍♀️ Like, I’ve heard of very famous coaches, giving this instruction.
And the thing is, it does look a little better, because at least when they step into the left stirrup, it gets them to straighten up their entire body -the problem is they are still off-center.
 I think the coach then typically gives students other exercises that bring them back over to the right (like twisting the shoulders to point a little to the left would help), but what I can tell you is these students then talk to me about their ride and they have absolutely no idea how to reproduce whatever straightness they may have accomplished during that clinic. 

The number one, needs solved now, issue in the rider in this sketch is that the hips fell left. I don’t care that the rib cage is collapsing to the right, or that the right leg is creeping way up. All of that will be fixed once the Rider brings their pelvis back to center.

This person is also riding with the left hip forward and the right hip back, but that will also likely resolve once you get this person to scooch over to the right.

 I would tell this student to put their left butt cheek in the middle of the saddle, high centering it, and drop the right butt cheek down into the hole that creates.

Another great exercise (on a trotting horse) is to drop the left stirrup, go clockwise, and posting trot utilizing just the right stirrup. This will feel horrible at first- to the point that I often have to let students try the exercise the opposite direction with the opposite stirrup so they realize how easy it is on their “strong” side. 

If you really struggle to keep from slipping left, it can also help to turn your chest to point a little bit to the left (while traveling right). This can be very effective at putting your weight into your right leg. You can stand up, assume a position similar to riding, and then twist your torso, one way, and then the other. Not all, but definitely most people find that when they twist to the left, it shifts weight into the right foot and vice versa.

Btw- I do virtual video review lessons! Very little tech knowledge needed. $65/lesson.


11/12/2024

Starting in January I will have an open lessons spot for and intermediate - advanced rider. PM for details.