Phoenix Farm & Equestrian Services

10/03/2023

Please share with your horsey friends!

07/23/2023

Excellent article

https://www.horsenation.com/2023/07/17/training-in-the-right-way-what-is-dressage-and-why-do-we-do-it/?fbclid=IwAR0CYic4i2RTOb6ylrNwERSNu3BgJpapcCVpOuWG1sU1DCi51dnXfoCqfbs

"Whenever you see a rider and horse in harmony and balance, performing their jobs fluidly and enthusiastically, you are witnessing the product of horse training and riding in the right way. No matter what, that is a product of what dressage was initially meant to be." Gwyneth McPherson is an FEI rid...

05/28/2023

ARENA GROOMING PATTERNS 🚜

Horse arena footing doesn't stay in prime condition without consistent maintenance. Regularly grooming your arena will keep sand and additives well mixed, and will keep your surface level. Here are some suggested grooming patterns. Change up the pattern each day so that your tractor doesn't create compaction.

LEARN MORE ABOUT ARENA MAINTENANCE 👇
https://premierequestrian.com/horse-arena-maintenance/maintenance-101/

05/19/2023

Absolutely

S***k your baby horse.
I don’t mean beat them. I don’t mean give them a little tug on the lead rope. I mean a rude horse deserves and understands some rudeness right back at them far better than a sweet whisper in their ear.
I mean, when your c**t or filly is running you over or throwing their ass at you or throwing their feet at you or snatching at you with their teeth, S***K THEM. Their mama would never tolerate that behavior from them. The old babysitter gelding in their pasture would not tolerate that behavior. YOU SHOULDNT TOLERATE IT.
They don’t like you because you’re sweet to them. They “like” food, water and safety.
You want your horse to be fed so you bring them food.
You want your horse to have water so you keep water in front of them.
What do you do when you want them to be safe? You discipline them when they are unsafe. You teach them to respect humans and make good choices. When they don’t respect humans and humans get hurt what happens? THEY ARENT SAFE. They can’t be treated when they are sick. They can’t have their feet cared for. If they are hurt you can’t fix them. If something happens to you? What happens to your sweet dream horse? They aren’t going to be safe. No one wants a disrespectful dangerous horse. I don’t care how pretty they are. I don’t care how much money you paid for it. I don’t care what names are on its papers. If it’s a complete s**t, it’s a complete s**t and the good horse owners? They don’t want it! I don’t want it! You know who does want it? The meat man.
If you love that horse, don’t be afraid to give it a s***k when it’s rude.
Credit to the OG author Melissa McPherson White

04/19/2023

Excellent Denny-ism, as always

Rein contact

On the heads of 99.99% of horses being ridden, there is either a bridle with a bit of some sort, a hackamore of some sort, or some other type of bitless bridle.

Attached to that head device, from the bit or from some other contact point, run reins or ropes or some other types of lines, which in various ways feed into the hands of the riders.

Generally speaking, most of this has to do with steering and going at a pace that the rider wants, and with stopping.

Control is the main reason for bridles and their various attachments, and here is where there is an enormous range of degree. We see some horses trussed up like the proverbial Christmas turkey, with lines going every which way, often connected to bits that appear to have been designed to stop a charging bull rhinoceros.

Other horses are ridden in very light to virtually zero contact, being asked to balance and steer, stop and go in far more subtle ways.

I think that a large part of this immense variety must be related to the particular need and desire for control of the particular rider.

Some riders are total “control freaks”. They must “own” every footfall the horse makes. Some do this in rough ways, others through years of schooling, but either way, that control is front and center.

I watch some riders walk, trot and canter, even on the most uneven terrain, on almost floating reins, leaving it up to the horse to figure out how to use its various body parts.

Other riders want to have a horse trained to be within the constraints of leg to hand, but who generally leave the horse alone unless they feel the need to intervene.

Some horses handle constraint, some resent it, some battle to get away from it. Some riders have great tact in the application of control, others want total submission, many fall between the extremes.

Horses are able to be ridden by humans in large measure because they can be controlled, but the application of that control can cause the horses huge misery if it is done badly.

Much of learning “how to ride,” to put it in simplest terms, has to do with how the human deals with reins.

03/14/2023

Actual quote told to me by various people over the last 6-7 decades---words used might vary slightly but the gist remained constant---

“You have to make that horse more afraid of you than the thing he’s scared of.”

Another variation, same general idea---

“You have to show him what will happen to him if he doesn’t do what you tell him to do.”

The idea behind both of these statements is that fear and force are useful horse training strategies. If the horse sees something that scares him, and he won’t go, punish him until he does go. If the horse won’t get in the trailer, make it so painful that he goes in. If a horse stops at a jump, hit him and spur him. If you put your leg on a horse and he doesn’t move away from the pressure, kick harder. If that doesn’t work, use your spurs. That will make him move away. If a horse gets strong while you are cantering or galloping, get a more severe bit. If a horse won’t put his head down, strap him into draw reins.

It is a long list. There have been all sorts of ways and strategies and types of equipment created to make horses do what humans want them to do.

I started riding about 70 years ago, got my first pony in 1952, and the “You have to show that pony who’s boss” concept was pretty much standard procedure.

There are two big problems with the fear and force approach. The huge one is that it works. Horses do usually submit to pain and fear, and when they do, it reinforces the idea that it is, therefore, a valid training theory.

The other problem, though, is that while fear and pain do get the horse “to do as he’s told,” it leaves the horse basically fearful, nervous, anxious, on edge, so although the horse may be rideable, he is never calm and relaxed about it. He may seem so if he has been brutalized to the point of total submission, but even then there can be things that trigger his resistance.

The good news about all this is that in 2023, there is a whole lot more knowledge about kinder, gentler training methods. The bad news about all this in 2023 is that many riders don’t know about these better ways, or do know, but choose fear and force despite it.