Heart Horsemanship

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Heart Horsemanship

Enjoy the Journey. Love the Horse. Elevate Horsemanship.

30/06/2025

Maverick showing baby Aramis how it's done...watch and learn baby Aramis, watch and learn 👀🤔❤️🐴

13/05/2025

Enjoying some baby horse snuggles 🥰😊❤️☀️🌴(although he is now my biggest horse 🙈😁)

27/02/2025

Very different scenery from my previous photos! ☀️🌴...still incredibly beautiful 😍 😁

All of my fur(and feather!)-family made it safely to Florida and are settling in very well to our new home 💖

05/08/2024

After Kim mentioned finding a Holistic Vet, I did some Google searches and found Dr. Amy Hayek. I contacted her and she agreed to evaluate Talon.

At the appointment, Dr. Hayek observed Talon from head to tail and tried to explain to me everything she was observing…

I was very surprised when Dr. Hayek’s main observation was an issue with Talon’s hooves; specifically, she said Talon’s heels were too far forward. Talon’s hooves had always looked healthy, he always received regular farrier care, he was never sensitive to hoof testers, no other veterinarian had ever mentioned any issues with his hooves, and his hooves appeared balanced based on the basic knowledge I had about hoof care...what on earth was she talking about?

I could tell Dr. Hayek had to explain this before as she came prepared with props and literature to help me understand. I very much appreciated her taking the time to explain everything thoroughly, and I could start to see what she was talking about once she explained it to me. However, I still could not immediately grasp how exactly his hooves needed to be changed and how this change would solve any of his issues.

Her recommendation was to pull Talon’s shoes and rebalance his hooves. She then explained I would never really see significant improvement until I corrected the hoof issue. She also emphasized that it would take time before I noticed any results from this work; she provided no guarantees or predictions on how much time as there was no way to predict how long Talon’s healing would actually take. I never would have guessed pulling Talon’s shoes and rebalancing his hooves would have been a recommendation based on the history I had provided. At that time, I believed shoes were a necessity for Eventing, so I was not eager to pull them and have Talon be barefoot…

Well…

I felt that way for a moment, but then I remembered I could not Event Talon anyway...Actually, I couldn't even get Talon to trot sometimes, so what could it hurt to try? If it didn’t help I wouldn’t be any worse off than I already was, and there was a possibility it could help as it is something I had never tried. Sometimes hitting rock bottom is a blessing in disguise—it made me open to considering and trying things I never would have tried otherwise…

02/08/2024

Despite all of my efforts to find ways to help Talon, things continued to decline…

I had to retire him from a Beginner-Novice level Event when I tried to restart Eventing with him, on trail rides I would often end up in the bushes due to his sporadic bucking and rearing tantrums, sometimes we could not pick up a trot in the Dressage arena, and I was always unsure if he would refuse to jump even the smallest of cross-rails… just some examples to illustrate how things were going for us at this time. We were REALLY struggling.

His body had become more developed from the rehabilitative work, but I could tell he was still hurting. I could feel both mental and physical tension in him during every ride. Not to mention, the constant precision I was requiring during the rehabilitative work was sucking the fun (what little fun we had left at this point) out of our rides. So, with all of my dedicated, hard work to rehabilitate Talon I had managed to create a more physically developed horse that was still miserable and in pain...ugh! Not to mention I was making myself miserable in the process. Something was clearly still missing.

Kim Walnes had known me and Talon for many years at this point and was familiar with the issues I had been having with him as well as the work I had been doing in an effort to rehabilitate him. At one of Kim’s clinics, I told her I was no longer jumping Talon. She suggested trying starting him back at jumping as if he has never jumped before in his life. Usually, I would say this is a great idea; however, it was an idea I had already tried with Talon many times at this point. Sometimes, just a ground pole being present in the arena was enough to set him off on one of his tantrums. I explained this to Kim, and we were both in agreement that perhaps just doing Dressage with Talon was the best choice at this point and to let him tell us if and when he is ready to try jumping again. I was fairly certain he would never jump again.

Kim passively mentioned it would be great if I could find a holistic vet for Talon–this would end up being the next “breadcrumb” I needed to follow…

29/07/2024

With the current events unfolding in the Horse World, I’ve been reflecting on the timeliness of writing and sharing the story of my partnership with Talon.

I don’t personally know any professionals in the horse world who haven't at some point in their horsemanship journey been taught to whip, spur, or use other domination-based training tactics. I’m sure unicorn-professionals exist that had great mentors from the very start, but in my personal experience the heart-centered horse professionals I know had to make a CHOICE at some point in their horsemanship journey to walk away from domination-based training.

Often, we get taught domination very early and very young–it is what we know and what seems to be “normal” in training horses.

Before social media, online courses, etc. we were limited to learning from those in our immediate surroundings. In my personal journey, it was only through meeting an exceptional horsewoman, Kim Walnes, that I was able to start to shift my trajectory from domination-based training to a heart-centered approach to working with horses. Without meeting her I could have easily stayed on the path of domination-based training. Kim showed me an EXIT RAMP and thankfully I CHOSE to take it.

Social media and Online Learning can be a power for good…

No longer are people limited to learning from those in their immediate surroundings. They have access to any horsemen willing to put themselves out there.

My hope is that heart-centered professionals will be brave enough to show a better way. We need to show people the exit ramp.

If sharing the story of my partnership with Talon helps even one person shift, it's worth it–the ripple effect of helping even one person can be profound. So to the heart-centered professionals that follow my page…this post is really for you…

Put yourself out there. Share your story. Help even one person see the exit ramp.

“When there is darkness, let me bring light.” -St. Francis

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