The Magic of Horsecraft

09/02/2026

𝗦𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗹 𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀. 𝗠𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀?

Post their names.
Post their stories.

Use
Let’s honor them together

09/01/2026

We are declaring September the International Month of the School Horse.

Because before many of us had our own horse, we had theirs.

School horses taught us to steer, stop, post, fall, get back on and try again. They carried our uncertainty while we learned to use our bodies. They forgave clumsy hands and contradictory instructions. The very best of them adjusted themselves to each rider—and somehow knew exactly how much challenge that particular human could manage.

Some were saints.

Some were rogues.

Some were saints who had discovered that small children were remarkably easy to steer toward the nearest patch of grass.

All of them were teachers.

Throughout School Horse September, The Magic of HorseCraft will celebrate the horses who educated generations of riders while also asking some important questions:

What does a school horse need to thrive?

How do we preserve their curiosity, comfort and willingness?

How do we listen when they have had enough?

How can riding schools balance the needs of students, horses and the people trying to keep the whole enterprise financially afloat?

And what do we owe these horses when their teaching careers are over?

This is part of a larger experiment at Project New Start:

What can one woman do with one year of her life to create meaningful change?

One thing I can do is make sure the school horses are no longer the least-discussed teachers in equestrian education.

So please join us.

Share a photograph or story about the school horse who changed you. Tag The Magic of HorseCraft so we can find it, and use:



Let’s fill September with the names, faces and lessons of the horses who made horse people of us all.

09/01/2026

FIT TO RIDE?

I’m thinking about bringing back—and expanding—something I taught a few years ago.

Because increasingly I’m convinced that some of the things we struggle to fix with our horses cannot be fixed until we address what’s happening in our own bodies.

Mobility. Fascia. Balance. Strength. Proprioception. Breath. Regulation. Presence.

There are things I can help you with as a rider and horseperson.

And there are things I want to bring excellent movement, bodywork and wellness professionals in to help us with.

So I’m exploring a new Fit to Ride series: possibly online, possibly live at the farm, possibly both.

Not “get skinny to ride.”

Not “get tougher.”

Get your body available enough to communicate clearly, move with your horse and actually enjoy riding again.

Would you be interested?

A — Online program
B — Live series at the farm
C — Both
D — Tell me more first

And what does YOUR body struggle with most in the saddle?



For Project New Start Facebook, I would not turn it into an advertisement for your course. Make it part of the experiment you’re already documenting:

FIT TO RIDE?

One of the things Project New Start is teaching us is that “starting over” isn’t only something the horses have to do.

The humans do too.

We talk a lot about helping horses become regulated, comfortable and physically able to do what we ask.

But what happens when the rider isn’t?

Several of us are returning to riding differently this year—with different bodies, different histories, different confidence and very different expectations of ourselves.

So I’m exploring a Fit to Ride series here at the farm, looking at the human side of the partnership: mobility, balance, fascia, strength, nervous-system regulation, awareness and presence.

Because sometimes the horse isn’t the part of the equation that needs fixing.

Sometimes it’s our left hip. 😂

Would you be interested in following—or participating in—that part of the experiment?

08/31/2026

What Are We Actually Doing With These Horses?
Welcome to The HorseCraft Lab — where the stories turn into methods.

If you’ve been following Project New Start, you’ve seen the horses, the setbacks, the breakthroughs, the ridiculous moments, and occasionally a Standardbred offering some fairly pointed feedback.

But there’s another layer underneath all of it:

What are we actually learning, and how can you use it with your own horse?

That’s what The HorseCraft Lab is for.

For $55/month on Patreon, members get the practical educational side of Project New Start: training breakdowns, handouts, learning theory, exercises, real-time experiments, and the course corrections that happen when the horse disagrees with the lesson plan.

The library already includes:

Big Red, CAT-H & the Girth Negotiations
The Four Learning Quadrants
Building Learning Through Safety, Clarity & Consistency

And more is coming: positive reinforcement, food feelings, charging the clicker, Calm Default Stationing, LIMA, species-appropriate environments, and the other tools we’re using with the Project New Start horses.

This is not meant to be a collection of commandments.

It’s a working laboratory.

We borrow good ideas. We study learning theory. We try things. We watch the horse. We adjust.

And sometimes the horse says:

𝘈𝘣𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘯𝘰𝘵. 𝘗𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘥𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺.

Fair enough.

The horses remain in charge of peer review ...

08/30/2026

What If the Threat Isn’t the Behaviour We Need to Fix?
~ Big Red, CAT-H, and making the whisper matter.

A horse turns his head.

His eye hardens.

His mouth tightens.

He gnashes his teeth.

He threatens.

Eventually, he bites.

Which part is the problem?

That question got very real for me recently with Big Red.

My old thinking might have been:

Don’t retreat when he threatens or you’ll teach him that threatening works.

But then I realized I was asking the wrong question.

What if I had already ignored five communications before the threat?

And what if I could make one of those earlier signals effective enough that he never needed to escalate?

That is where I’m starting to explore principles from CAT-H — Constructional Approach Training for Horses.

The goal isn’t simply:

Stop the bite.

It is:

Make the bite unnecessary.

That means getting much better at seeing threshold, breaking the saddling sequence into tiny pieces, noticing the first emotional change, and allowing Big Red’s communication to actually influence what happens next.

I’ve written a much deeper breakdown for Project New Start Patreon members in the new Methods We’re Using series — including where positive reinforcement fits, what I’m changing about my own timing, how I’m separating the saddle and girth questions, and what horse owners can begin watching for themselves.

Because “listen to the horse” is easy to say.

It gets interesting when the horse gives you an answer you didn’t want.

08/24/2026

𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘂𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁.

The steady one.
The tolerant one.
The one who taught us how to steer, how to breathe, how to try again.

The school horse.

I’m naming this year, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗬𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗹 𝗛𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗲, and going forward I am naming September as the International Month Of The School horse, in honor of the horses who have carried our dreams upon their backs.

I want to hear your stories!

Post a photo.
Tell us their name.
Tell us what they taught you.

Use the hashtag so we can find each other and read them all.
Let’s make the quiet teachers visible.

08/23/2026

𝗜𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗮 𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗹 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲:

Reins were earned...
Saddles were earned ...
Balance came first...
Horses had rotation built in...

𝗦𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 - 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝗳 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗹 𝗛𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗲.

I am proposing ways to make the world a better place for the beloved horses who carry the hopes and dreams of so many ... AND a better place for the over-worked, heart-sick horse pros trying to keep their lovely old schoolies sound and sane, year after year.

If you are a horse pro, what are some of the things you do to manage YOUR school horses? If you have some tips, please share!

If you have questions about how I have helped other riding schools, DM me.

In the mean time, share your thoughts, and love your schoolies!

Take a chance.
Paige XOXO
The Magic of Horsecraft™
Anything is possible (together!).

08/22/2026

08/22/2026

Riders are taught how to steer.

They are rarely taught how to regulate.

Until that changes, nervous system problems will continue to look like horse problems.

They are not.

08/17/2026

When Horse Welfare Comes Full Circle

In 1989, I was 18 years old and travelling on a Young Riders scholarship when I met William Micklem.

William was designing bridles and explaining the thinking behind them: the horse’s face contains delicate, sensitive anatomy, and our equipment should be designed with that anatomy—and the horse’s comfort—in mind.

This was long before horse welfare became the widespread conversation it is today. William was already asking better questions.

Thirty-seven years later, Laura Bishop drove from Collingwood to deliver two gorgeous Micklem bridles and breastplates for Red and Smile, generously provided by William and Horseware Ireland.

Laura and I also had the pleasure of exchanging stories about helping racehorses move into new chapters. Her experience with off-the-track Thoroughbreds and the LongRun Thoroughbred Retirement Society resonates deeply with the work we are doing with our former racehorses through Project New Start.

At The Magic of Horsecraft, we believe equipment should support communication, never replace it. A thoughtfully designed bridle cannot create trust—but it can help us remove unnecessary discomfort and make more room for the quiet conversation between horse and human.

That makes the Micklem bridle a beautiful fit for our work.

And on a purely personal note: after all these years, I finally have a Micklem of my own! I am completely tickled pink to be riding Red into the sunset, in my happy place, wearing a bridle whose story has been woven through so much of my life with horses.

Thank you, Laura, William and Horseware Ireland. Some gifts are useful. Some are meaningful. This one is both.