Are you the mirror, or is it your horse? We often hear the term “mirroring” when it comes to riding. We know that our horses mirror us in our emotions and behaviours. We are all too familiar with the way we can transfer our confidence and softness, or our tensions and fears, to our horse. Likewise, they can also influence us. If you’ve been on a horse that spooked, you’ve probably felt your heart rate climb and your muscles tense immediately after your horse’s did.   This doe

What is it about the end of one year and the beginning of the next that inspires us to make resolutions and change things in our lives? Is it tradition? Or is it something energetic?   February 16, 2026, ends the year of the Wood Snake in Chinese astrology. As we leave 2025, we have a choice to leave the past behind us, like a snake shedding its skin. In numerology, 2025 was a “9” year (2+0+2+5=9), which signifies endings. Now we are moving into 2026, which will be the year o

Seems like a no brainer, doesn’t it? Consistency is obviously key - we all know this to be the case when it comes to achievement. But what about in day to day riding and building a relationship with your horse? Ever heard the expression “Clarity is kindness”? This is such a key phrase when it comes to working with horses. They don’t speak our language, other than a few words here and there which they pick up along the way. We need to be extremely clear in our communication wi

Do you let your horse have a voice? Do you listen to what they have to say, or do you unintentionally talk over them? No quality conversation is one-sided. When we speak with our human friends, there is dialogue. Why, then, do our conversations with horses sometimes turn into a monologue? Photo Credit: Mutt Love Photography Horses might be non-verbal in most of their communications, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t saying as much or more than we are. Horses are highly intuit

Do you set goals? Most of us do. Sometimes they’re very specific and ambitious, such as achieving a certain result at a specific show. Other times they’re more ambiguous and open-ended, such as “I’d eventually like to show at least Third Level.”  Photo Credit: Mutt Love Photography We can easily get caught up in our excitement and hyper-focused on goal achievement. Maybe we just got a new horse, or we had a super show season, or our training at home is going extremely well. S

Riding is hard in every way. Obviously, physically it’s a challenging activity. All four quadrants of your body must be doing different things simultaneously, while sitting on a horse who has a mind of its own and is moving different parts of its body in different ways – sometimes unpredictably. Anyone who says, “You just sit there, the horse does all the work!” is showing their hand – we instantly know they’ve never actually ridden a horse. I deal with those comments by sayi

What is the voice in your head telling you? The answer to this question will provide you with a lot of insight. We are almost always our own toughest critics. So often we worry about what others think or say about us, when we should really be focusing on our own thoughts and our feelings toward ourselves. Photo Credit: Mutt Love Photography Those of us who ride in a specific discipline, such as dressage, engage in riding as a sport. We set high goals and standards for ourselv

What is success? The answer lies within asking the question. We all have the option of defining success for ourselves. We can choose to...

Did you know that success has three T’s? There is a three-part equation that seems to exist when it comes to developing equine athletes:...

What is one single thing that can turn everything in life and with horses around? You got it, gratitude. What we focus on expands. The...

Ever feel like you’re getting nowhere? Or that you’ve been riding for years, and you feel like you’re getting worse? I’ll tell you a...

Have you turned your horse into a princess? I know I have. “Princess” has been one of Lacey’s primary nicknames since I bought her, so it...

What happens if tomorrow never comes? So many of us that pursue horse sports are perfectionists, especially those involved in dressage....

Have we lost our path? There is a lot of emphasis in the horse world right now on finding kinder, more humane ways of training and...

Are you unconsciously letting your beliefs limit your learning? I remember being a teenager and being completely convinced that what I...

On May 23rd, 2025, Krypton's Justice (aka Justice) turned thirty years old. I started riding him as a five-year-old, 25 years ago. I was...

Who learns more, the master or the student? Note that the question is not past tense – who has learned more – it is present tense. A good...

Life is kind of like a Choose Your Own Adventure novel. Do you remember reading those as a kid? I loved them. I would read through,...

Perspective is a funny thing. We all see the world through our own eyes, shaped by our personal experiences and emotions. Often, we are...

Goal achievement. How many times do we get hyper-fixated on where we want to be, what we want to do, things we want to achieve? How often...