Author: Jini

What can you do to gain the precious trust of a previously abused horse – without using manipulation, pressure/release, or other forms of coercion? I recently received this question from one of our fellow Horse Listeners: “Hello. First thing IRead more

We talk a lot about ‘listening to your horse’ but what does that actually look/feel like, in real life? How do you know you’re actually hearing your horse, and not just making stuff up? And what happens to our horsesRead more

Join us out in the field for the next installment of trailer play (not training!) where we have no agenda and we simply let the horses be in charge of everything! In fact, my real agenda is to help theRead more

If you follow us on Facebook, then you’ll already know I FINALLY got my horse trailer! And actually, this is the first horse trailer I’ve ever owned. I’ve bought and sold cars every few years, for decades. But this purchaseRead more

Note: If you missed Part 1, you can read it here. So after finally getting all four of my horses into a trailer and moved 10 minutes down the road to our new place, we spent the winter settling inRead more

Let me start by saying that I am fully aware that the hands-down EASIEST way to get a horse to happily go into a trailer is to park the trailer in their pasture and put the horse’s hay, or evenRead more

I shot this video on Juno’s 1st birthday, doing what we all love to do best – hanging out and having adventures! Of course while viewing the footage I realized how much interesting stuff was going on at the sameRead more

We know that relationship-based teaching works really well; resulting in an empowered horse, a truly intimate, loving, soul-based relationship, and lots of fun! But can this play-based method stand up to the pressure of a deadline – a vet visitRead more

How accurately can you, your vet, or your trainer, read your horse’s body language and facial expressions to determine whether your horse is experiencing pain – even if your pony is not limping or showing any outward signs of injury?Read more

What if you can’t ride your horse? Or your horse doesn’t want to be ridden? There is such a world of pleasure waiting to be experienced simply by BEING with these magnificent earthlings out in nature. There are few thingsRead more

How is it that by doing very little with my horses; mostly meditating, doing chores, and avoiding the rain together… when I put us in scary or high pressure situations, they respond like an old cow horse? You know, oneRead more

What do you do when your horse asks you to go so far out of your comfort zone, that you start counting off a list of all the things that could go wrong…? Last week I told you how myRead more

This video from Nicole Lampe in the Netherlands is a beautiful pictorial story of how one horse can teach each another useful skills, support him through facing his fears, and lovingly support his growth and expansion. Not surprisingly, horses don’tRead more

Last week I told you about the Horse As Muse workshop I attended with Linda Kohanov and Kim McElroy and showed you some of the art I created, as the inspiration from the horses informed my artistic expression. I alsoRead more

As many of you know, I was down in Amado, Arizona last week for Linda Kohanov and Kim McElroy’s workshop combining equine-assisted learning with art and creativity. Kim is a well-know equine artist; who collaborated with Linda on the WayRead more

One of our adored readers – Emily MacDonald – asked me to make this video showing the way I teach my semi-feral horses and foals how to lead on a halter. You’ll notice that my way is somewhat backwards toRead more

For those of you who found my post about healing trauma stored in the horse’s body from previous riding experiences (using equine chiropractic, bodywork and Psych-K) weird… here’s another one to throw in the pot. Australian trainer, Jenny Pearce, tracksRead more

When my new mare arrived, some people called her “food oriented”, I called it NUTS! She used to be so crazy for treats that I was thinking about getting her a big bag of carrots and dumping them in aRead more

Klaus F. Hempfling has made his new movie available for free – all 1.5 juicy hours of it! Have a look and then below I’ll get into my thoughts about the film… I have read a number of Klaus’ booksRead more

I received this beautiful question from one of our readers in Europe. I say the question is “beautiful” because it shows this woman is in that precious space of opening, transition, and transformation. And yes, this space also feels veryRead more

I just returned from an Equinisity retreat up near Kamloops, BC, featuring trainer/filmmaker Elsa Sinclair. Elsa talked about the difference between using Extrinsic Motivation with your horse (pressure/release, whip, flag, etc.) and Intrinsic Motivation. Intrinsic motivations include things like matchingRead more

So in my continuing hunt for great horse books – and may I put in a plug here for anyone who is thinking about writing a horse-themed memoir or novel – please do so! Every month I comb Amazon lookingRead more

In my experience, the root of violence, bullying, aggression, etc. is often FEAR – because the being has been wounded and is super afraid and armored against being wounded or suffering again. We see this in the human world andRead more

This article by Stormy May was originally published in Horses for Life magazine Oct. 2008, titled: The Truth in the Back. The information in this article is very similar to Chapter 3 of Stormy’s book, The Path of the Horse;Read more

In this film, trainer Elsa Sinclair asks the question: If a wild mustang were given the choice – without ropes, halters, whips, food rewards, etc. – of whether to be ridden, or not, would the horse let Elsa ride her?Read more

Emma Massingale is a British horse trainer who came up the traditional hunter/jumper route and then migrated over to liberty training and trick riding. She has 2 fabulous films out showing her journey with her wild Connemara herd. You mayRead more

I first became aware of the icky, shocking and viscerally repulsive parallels between sexual domination and the way we treat horses when I was reading the book, Saving Baby: How One Woman’s Love for a Racehorse Led to her Redemption.Read more

I introduced you to trainer Elsa Sinclair in my consensual riding post, but I wanted to give you a little bit more… Here’s the longer trailer for the Taming Wild documentary, where Elsa asks the question: If a wild horseRead more

Following on from my book review of Riding On The Power Of Others, Ren Hurst’s story threw me back (again) into the throes of my own tangled journey on this issue of consensual riding. As Ren so rightly pointed outRead more

Whilst I really loved Ren Hurst’s book Riding On The Power Of Others, in my last book review. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about this book, Riding Home: The Power of Horses to Heal by Tim Hayes. And thatRead more

Mike Shannon has written one of the most heart-warming odes to his horse Bob I have ever read: This is Bob. As of March 17, he’s 28 years old and with me for over 26 of those years. I putRead more

I’m working my way through my recent Horse Book Haul from Amazon – talk about combining two of my favorite activities: reading and horses! And I found Ren Hurst’s book, Riding on the Power of Others: A Horsewoman’s Path toRead more

Kesia Nagata shows us, through video and photos, how she teaches my semi-feral mare to pick up her hooves and hold her feet up. And how this leads to the mare being willing to have her hooves trimmed – allRead more