Young Horse Training Tip #3: Ride every other day
Trial and error is always a big teacher when it comes to young horse training. Sometimes, what you discover will surprise you. For many years at Halcyon Acres®, young horses were lucky to get a day off each week once training started. Probably a big part of this thinking came from the racetrack, where young […]
Will your horse drink the water you give him?
Horse owners tend to be most concerned about water during the summer months. Some forget the importance of keeping it clean. Colic can become a big problem in the winter if a horse does not have constant access to water. Just because there’s no concern for algae, doesn’t mean your trough, bucket or automatic systems […]
Good horse businesses are clear about what they do and how they help
When I talk to successful horse business operators, they are very clear about what they do and are consistent in presenting a message that reflects this. In addition, they’re passionate about their mission because their business is founded on a service or product designed to help people (and/or horses).
Exciting news from Horse Sense and Cents™
After six months in this labor of love, we have a product that everyone involved is extremely excited about – and proud to be a part of. If you’ve ever dreamed of a job with horses in the mix or want to see more detail on who’s involved, go to Inventing Your Horse Career.
How’s fighting with your horse working for you?
“Out of the quarrel with others we make rhetoric; out of the quarrel with ourselves we make poetry.” -William Butler Yeats, writer, Nobel laureate (1865-1939) Few seem to have mastered the activity of standing your ground without being combative when it comes to horses. Of course, being insistent isn’t even always appropriate, depending on the […]
Horses do the strangest things
We’ve been exploring using herd mechanics at Halcyon Acres® a bit in new and different ways (for us, anyway). After our spitfire colt of last year kept figuring out remarkable feats to get to the main herd and away from his mom at a very young age (jumping a 4-foot, 4-strand high-tinsel coated electric fence; managing to crawl through two-strands of interior electric without touching the wires; rolling under the fence; running through it; etc.), we decided (read gave up) it would be best to save the maiden mare the angst of being separated from her darling and turned the pair out with the farm-owned crew.
How to start a horse business
Thinking about starting a horse business can result in a confusing tangle of questions and uncertainty about where to start. People often jump to opening their doors in their excitement of “just do it” rather than sorting it all out and tackling the research and strategic thinking. They soon discover that what they skipped over in early planning reappears as a stumbling block.
Horses can be wonderful teachers: particularly those that shatter your convictions
Even though Rain Man was potentially one of the most dangerous horses we’d encountered, there was something about this comical kid that stole our hearts.
Horse sense rules: when scripts for success aren’t working, stop the stupidity
Of course, almost every business-savvy multiple-horse-owner who has engaged vendors for training find themselves stuck with a bill that delivers a horse that is not only ill-prepared for the stated job request, but also set back by human mistakes made in the ‘schooling’ process, ONCE. What really puzzles me is why there are so many who go back for more.
What’s all this horse talk about “respecting my space”?
Do you really want to teach a horse to learn through fear, exhaustion or pain to surrender to you? Wouldn’t it be better for both horse and human if space was shared and respect was mutual?