Training for Optimal Balance

21/08/2024

Horse Geeks Podcast 131: Positive Reinforcement

What is positive reinforcement as a training tool and is it better than negative reinforcement? We use both types of reinforcement for training our horses al...

12/08/2024

Horse Geeks Podcast 130: The Posture of Long and Low

Long and Low as a horse posture is at best confusing for most riders and horse owners! Is it good? Is it bad? Does it benefit the horse or harm? And the inst...

05/08/2024

This month I talk a bit about the video that caused an Olympic rider to leave the Paris Olympics. This is not to bash, but to understand how this happens in our horse world at the highest levels of training because of things we normalize at the lowest levels. Also offered is a different way of communicating with our horse based on the Socratic Method.

I am a professional horse trainer and developer of the program, Training for Optimal Balance. I share information that helps horse owners train their own horses, or helps horse professionals find a new perspective on training - and personal development is the number one side effect of authentically....

05/08/2024

August newsletter link, with a lesson about how we communicate with our horse and even think about training in general.

I am a professional horse trainer and developer of the program, Training for Optimal Balance. I share information that helps horse owners train their own horses, or helps horse professionals find a new perspective on training - and personal development is the number one side effect of authentically....

02/08/2024

Horse Geeks Podcast 129: Ulcers In Horses

Stephanie Carter FNTP, brings a ton of information to this podcast about ulcers in horses. She covers the three types of ulcers, what some common causes are ...

27/07/2024

Horse Geeks Podcast 128: Head and Neck Balance

The balance of the head, neck, back and pelvis are all related and are primary to the overall balance and coordination of the body, especially during motion....

19/07/2024

Horse Geeks Podcast 127: Horses Feeling Safe in New Spaces

Buying a horse, moving our horse, a horse in a new barn for training or going on an adventure with our horse for trail riding or shows can all create stress ...

07/07/2024

Horse Geeks Podcast 126: Horse Postures and Frames

If we don't know the difference, then maybe we should. Trying to force our horses into theoretical ideals, leveraging a "correct frame" with our aids and tools, can never lead to ideal internal coordination. We can guide, but we cannot shape our horse into authentically accurate mechanical use of the body, no matter how much we know or how well we ride. It is only our horse that can alter internal coordination appropriately and in the right time in order to improve bio-mechanical coordination of movement. By thinking we know how to balance our horse better than our horse, we often wind up with complex patterns of dysfunctional compensation that can lead to behavior problems, lameness or poor performance.

Discussion about the important differences, in concept and practice, between various horse postures and working to gain the right frame while our horse is wo...

01/07/2024

My July newsletter with a lesson about our power of choice.

27/06/2024

Horse Geeks Podcast 125: The Horse Posture of Extension

This is a super important use of our horse's body that we need to recognize. When the spine is pushing downward in extension, then our horse becomes very unstable through the spine and pelvis and must use excessive muscular tension in order to maintain stability. Because this is the natural posture of the fight or flight nervous system, horses resort into this posture as soon as they lose ideal coordination. Horses can work in this posture for years, and often adopt it in order to get the job done, but it takes a serious toll on our horse's health and soundness. What we call behavior problems are also consistently linked to the horse working in the posture of extension.

Deb and I discuss what the posture of extension is, what it means, why we and our horses choose it and what purpose it serves. By thinking in terms of postur...

19/06/2024

So much confusion.... Is our horse supposed to bend through the midline like a banana on circles and turns? NO!
The spine does not work that way and when we do bend the midline into a curve that we can feel, then inverted or excessive rotation of the spine (twisting) is always the side effect that cannot be escaped. It's just how s**t works and is not an opinion. Do your own research if you don't believe me. We cannot ignore mechanical realities of the body for the sake of tradition. If we can upgrade to smart phones, then perhaps we can update our horse training too.

Discussion about the traditional idea of "straight on a circle" meaning that we bend our horse's midline into the shape of the circle compared to the biomech...

12/06/2024

By recognizing and working with thresholds, in ourselves and our horses, we accomplish a couple of things:
- we make all work more enjoyable and less stressful
- we save time by not creating resistance or defensiveness that then has to be resolved
- we remain in a curious state, which allows more options, new solutions or previously unrecognized possibilities to come to our awareness

When we look past our horse's behavior and look deeper into the intentions of our training program, we begin to clearly see the moments that personal thresho...

12/06/2024

Horse Geeks Podcast 123: Working With Thresholds

When we look past our horse's behavior and look deeper into the intentions of our training program, we begin to clearly see the moments that personal thresho...

02/06/2024

Horse Geeks Podcast 122: Uncomfortable Realizations

While we are authentically learning or making substantial changes, then we encounter many moments of uncomfortable realizations. Sometimes the realizations f...

08/05/2024

Horse Geeks Podcast 121: Intentions and Goals

Defining the difference between our big intentions and our goals is something that is beautifully shared by Trevor G Blake in his book, Three Simple Steps an...

05/05/2024

May Newsletter with a short lesson on developing through cycles of learning. The cycles from unconscious incompetence to conscious competence are universal, for us, our horses and even for the butterfly featured in this newsletter.

I am a professional horse trainer and developer of the program, Training for Optimal Balance. I share information that helps horse owners train their own horses, or helps horse professionals find a new perspective on training - and personal development is the number one side effect of authentically....

26/04/2024

Horse Geeks Podcast 120: This Whole Back Use-Saddle Fitting Thing

We look at the relationship of saddle fitting, saddle fitting issues and how our horse uses the back - all in relationship to each other - and throw in how t...

08/04/2024

Horse Geeks Podcast 119: The Polyvagal Nervous System

New guest, Dr. Anne-Marie Hancock DVM, shares information about newer research on the nervous system for both humans and horses. We discuss the vagal nerve a...

02/04/2024

April Newsletter with a lesson about turning training into a human-horse enrichment program.

I am a professional horse trainer and developer of the program, Training for Optimal Balance. I share information that helps horse owners train their own horses, or helps horse professionals find a new perspective on training - and personal development is the number one side effect of authentically....

26/03/2024

Horse Geeks Podcast 118: Getting Grounded

What the heck does getting grounded even mean? How do we recognize when we have lost our grounding, ground connection or inner stability? And... how to we ge...

22/03/2024

Horse Geeks Podcast 117: Horses Teach Us About Relationships

My very special guest, and childhood friend, Teresa Vossen helps us make the connection as a sociologist between relationships in families and our relationsh...

12/03/2024

Horse Geeks Podcast 116: Research On Horses Over Ground Poles

The research paper we discuss, sponsored by Centaur Biomechanics, is available through this link: https://beva.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/evj.17_138...

06/03/2024

The March Newsletter for Wexford Training, offering monthly micro lessons from Training for Optimal Balance methods. Hope you enjoy the sneak peek at the new, revised version of the Groundwork Workbook in this month's newsletter!

I am finally finished with the revised Groundwork workbook. Whew!! With the release of this workbook, all four of the workbooks in the series are complete. The four workbooks, Basic Handling, Groundwork, Rider Balance and Horse Balance Under Saddle are the practical application of all the theory I h...

05/03/2024

Horse Geeks Podcast 115: Horses Teach Us Resilience

With horses things will always go a bit wrong. It is not the fact that challenges cross our path, but how we recover from difficulties when they do. Resilien...

26/02/2024

Horse Geeks Podcast 114: Lunging Horses

Lunging is a groundwork training technique that is probably as old as riding horses! We all may think we know how to lunge a horse but the truth is that the ...

10/02/2024

Horse Geeks Podcast 113: Kinesphere, Lateral Muscles and Pausing

Discussion with my old Alexander Technique instructor, Jana Tift about a lot of things! Hearing Jana's description of the kinesphere, a term coined by Rudolf...

31/01/2024

Horse Geeks Podcast 112: Horse Training Matters For Health

What is often left entirely out of health issues or wellness with our horse is how we balance as a weight and mass on our horse while riding or driving and h...

21/01/2024

Horse Geeks Podcast 111: The Training Scales

Review of the traditional Training Scales or Training Pyramid which is the foundation of the German Classical method of training. The Scales invole1. Rhythm2...

05/01/2024

This month's newsletter has a short lesson on the essential spinal functions that help us understand our horse's movement. Getting familiar with the terminology and what it really means when our horse is "straight" or "lifting the back" or "dropping the back" during our training sessions is helpful for improving our horse's comfort level in work no matter how we ride or what we do with our horse.

Wexford Training Newsletter Vol 1., Issue 12 January 2024 Wexford Training Newsletter Finding Balance from the Inside Out Dear Friends, Happy New Year 2024! I hope you had a beautiful winter holiday season and got to catch up with family and friends. And now.. back to your horse time! This month’s...

28/12/2023

Horse Geeks Podcast 110: Connecting With Horses and All Animals

Interview with Kat from RichKat Ranch - who is another animal lover, nature enthusiast and shares a passion for the subtle magic involved in getting to know...