Hope Horsemanship

28/02/2025

The new fence is going in!! Today Alex & crew set us 135 fence posts that Matt & I strung and marked. We began yesterday clearing the line and setting about half of it and by mid day they were right on our tails. The boys are fast. Marking posts isn’t so hard but some areas had more tree and brush removal to get the fence were we wanted it. Tomorrow we start the lines & hang gates!

27/02/2025

Ross Jacobs makes a good point…

25/02/2025

Something occurred to me as I read through the ad copy, target written to sell me something. I noticed a few buzz topics, words I remember having a certain weight in past years, and as I read, I pondered: I haven’t had a conversation about some of these things in quite a while. In fact, is it my imagination, or are they missing in the horse community I’ve settled into?...

Something occurred to me as I read through the ad copy, target written to sell me something. I noticed a few buzz topics, words I remember having a certain weight in past years, and as I read, I po…

25/02/2025

RESPECT

25/02/2025

Respect… disrespect… does it apply to your horse? What does it mean? New substack post …
With audio!

RESPECT

25/02/2025

Great video about why Balance saddle fit is so different. It shares the history of discovery in experimenting to find what made a horse able to move in its full strength. And how today we can have this as well!

I made this slide show/video back in 2017 and it went onto this YouTube channel and seemed to be liked, but when I listened back to it recently, I noticed th...

23/02/2025

20/02/2025

Inspired by Jec Ballou’s video on rebuilding fitness we went out in the cold wind for a walk. It wasn’t so bad after all… at least there was sun!

20/02/2025

We may still be buried under winter snow… but new seasons are coming… I’m sure of it! Now we have proof! 😍

20/02/2025

Coming out of the winter and starting to regain fitness with your horse? I found this really interesting, I already hand walk K when I’m able, but I think I’m going to try to do more- even short 15 minute walks- when I can’t get much riding in for schedule or weather … after listening to this!

‪‬ ‪‬ Get 20% off C...

17/02/2025

“When we impose decisions on a horse they begin to dread the work. But when they feel that there is nothing but rewarding choices in front of them, work is not quite so burdensome. Good balance allows us to offer a horse choice, but sneakily make sure the option we want the horse to choose is slightly weighted in our favour.”

BALANCING THE SCALES

Today I want to discuss the term “balance” and what it means in the context of training and horsemanship. Just to clarify, when some people use the term ‘balance’, they are referring to a horse’s physical balance and how to adjust a horse’s posture to influence the centre of gravity. This is not what I want to talk about today. I want to discuss the role of applying a balance of pressure to the benefit of clarity and communication.

One of the most often taught concepts in the horse training world is how important feel, timing, and balance are to achieving great success. However, it’s hard to find a detailed breakdown of what each of these elements actually means. Sometimes a guru will preach on feel and timing, but I can’t recall ever coming across a discussion of balance. It’s like it is the poor cousin nobody wants to talk about.

So what is meant by the term “balance” in the context of feel, timing, and balance?

I can only give you my view and you could probably ask 20 trainers and get 20 different answers, but I’ll risk it and take the plunge.

In the context of feel, timing, and balance we are not talking about balance in the physical sense where the centre of gravity of a horse is at its most stable. That’s a different sort of balance. When talking about balance I am referring to the “how much” phenomenon. It’s the Goldilocks syndrome. Did I use too much pressure or too little pressure or was it just right? Am I too early with my release or too late or was it just right? How much bend do I require or how much inside rein versus outside rein should I apply? The correct balance is when the scale is not tipped one way or the other for the job being asked.

It could be argued that if we do too much or too little we can correct in a microsecond, so how important is the correct balance? It’s important because when we have the balance just right, we are being as clear as we possibly can with our communication. The clarity that balance brings is a big part of a horse finding comfort and calmness in the work.

Most of you have probably heard the aphorism, “Make the right thing easy and the wrong thing less easy.” It has formed the basis of a lot of preaching that goes on in clinics around the world. When done with the correct mindset, I think this concept offers a clear road to success. However, I have to say that as an observer of a lot of clinics, I have witnessed many people miss the point of this saying. Too often I have noticed some horse people approach their work by making the wrong thing hard (or even impossible) and the right thing less hard. No horse wants to work in such an environment. In good horsemanship, we should focus on making the right thing as easy as possible and not focus on making the wrong thing as hard as possible.

I think the problem stems from a lack of understanding about balance. I mean, how “less easy” do we need to make something to encourage a horse to search for a different response? And how “easy” do we need the correct response to feel like that would encourage a horse to want to repeat that response? That’s the art of good balance.

A skilled horse person offers a good balance in everything they do with a horse. The power of good balance is to have the horse believe its response was not imposed on him, that it was his choice because clearly it was a great choice to make. When we impose decisions on a horse they begin to dread the work. But when they feel that there is nothing but rewarding choices in front of them, work is not quite so burdensome. Good balance allows us to offer a horse choice, but sneakily make sure the option we want the horse to choose is slightly weighted in our favour.

In a nutshell, good balance is the halfway mark between too much and too little. It will vary from horse to horse and task to task. Plus, what is good balance right now can change in a very short time. Good balance helps bring clarity to what is being asked of the horse. And good balance takes some of the horse’s feelings of being worked out of the work.

There is one final point I want to make. Perhaps some of you have glimmered that balance is intricately linked to the other components of training – feel and timing. We need to have balance in the way we apply our feel and timing and at the same time, there must be feel and timing in the way we apply balance. In essence, the three parts of feel, timing, and balance only work as a whole and cannot be applied separately with expectations of success.

Photo: We should aspire to work horses by balancing the scales between too much and too little.

11/02/2025

I stumbled upon this secret weapon before I understood the power of it- it is how we walked our way to the start and then finish line of our first 100… and now we incorporate it intentionally whenever we can!

Jaime & Khaleesi take a winter afternoon and hike the mountains together. As they prepare for a 100-mile equine endurance event this summer, Jaime talks abou...

06/02/2025

What do we do in winter?? Cross icy bridges… learn an active walk… while searching for a stretch of trail to trot or canter safely! Come on… it’s fun! 🫣😂

Jaime and Khaleesi get off the property on an unusually mild day February 1, 2025. They look for good footing on the Jackson River Scenic Trail for some trot...

06/02/2025

We love Deb Romero!! Check out what she does! We would love to bring her to our neck of the woods this year!!

We'd like to re-introduce you to Debbie Romero and Optimal Posture:

Debbie offers Alexander technique to people at True North by appointment and can be heard on the podcast Horse Geeks with fellow host Kirsten Nelson.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLATIAoytMZD0RzFelef8V2dAJ_haRVpF1

Contact us for an appointment or to schedule a 4-6 person clinic at your barn!

05/02/2025

Just in time for the next batch of bad weather, the guys got in and finished the ‘oval’ pen project. I love it! We are expanding the turn around so a few trailers can get in too! All in plenty of time for Tom’s clinic next month!

28/01/2025

I am pretty excited about the year to come. The community around PowerfulHorse is organically forming, and I truly enjoy the family that is coming together. We will be sharing time this year around some horsemanship clinics as well as some new fun events!

Though we are still in the frozen tundra of January, I am pretty excited about the year to come. The community around PowerfulHorse is organically beginning to form and I truly enjoy the family tha…

27/01/2025

What are we doing this frozen January??!!

Jaime and Khaleesi are headed to the Vermont 100 in July. Here is some footage from the trail where they find windows of opportunity to get out for some exer...

26/01/2025

Finally a walk in the woods… still cold but sun is helping melt some snow and it was nice to get in a walk!