Even if you never intend to work with cattle, training on the mechanical cow helps so many elements of your horsemanship and help the horse with purpose. You’ll be surprised how fun it can be. Always remember the elements of good horsemanship- they never go out the window! Straightness, lightness and responsiveness.

Community and the feeling of having someone that has your back is the heart and soul of horsemanship. This journey is hard enough, but without support it’s almost unbearable. Having the right people helps so much. What your favourite thing to do with friends and horses?

We are always waaaay harder on ourselves than we should be. And it isn’t good for us at all. Take a day (Make it a choice and action it) and choose only positive recognition for the things you do. Consciously change the negative self talk to the opposite of what your head said - just for today. Make a note of how hard you are on yourself, and start to find things to be nice about!! It’s a good start to just say ‘good job’. But really look for the best in a situation and focus on that for a bit. We could all use more support - let’s start with ourselves.

With the growth of natural horsemanship in the last 20 years has the horse benefited at all. Are we doing better or are things still tough for horses in our world. I see an enormous increase in great trainers, that is for sure. But the horses seem to be doing it just as tough and we even seem to have more issues with our horses. Is it simply a matter of predators and prey thinking too differently? Or are we becoming too soft and as a result our horses are more emotional? Something to ponder today

The ability to place a horses feet says a lot about the relationship. Horses are precious about their feet (and they should be) so being able to control them goes a long way in building trust. But… doing things for the sake of doing them can actually have a negative effect. Don’t desensitise your horse to objects - sensitise them. That is, have them check in before stepping up or over something. Not only does it keep you safe, it builds relationship.