CH Equine

10/07/2026

Blue skies, fresh hay, baling on a beautiful Colorado fall day. There’s something satisfying about seeing the barn fill up. Feeling blessed. 🌾🚜🐴

10/06/2026

You may have noticed we've been quiet for a while. Here's the backstory. 🐶

Back in March, we started fostering puppies. One of our little fosters decided our photo storage drive looked like a great chew toy. No big deal, I thought, it's backed up on our other drive.

It was not backed up on our other drive. 👀

Well… technically it was. We had about 5,500 raw files from the camera saved. The rest of our photos were scattered across three different drives, with nothing together or organized. So we just spent several days sorting through everything and rebuilding our library. The upside? I'm feeling inspired to get back behind the camera, so expect more from the barn soon!

Lesson learned: keep your photo library organized, and back up the organized version. 😉

The best part of this story, though: we adopted the mama dog from our first foster litter, and she's now a barn dog in training. We absolutely adore her. ❤️

If you've ever thought about fostering, we highly recommend it. You get to help lots of pups find their forever homes… until you foster "the one" you can't let go of.

10/05/2026

Love the Movements

You should love the movements that lead to the upper-level work (piaffe, passage, canter pirouettes) more than the upper-level movements themselves.

Without quality time spent on the elementary movements, the advanced movements can't be performed correctly or sustained over a horse's career. The work done in early and middle training is invaluable. It gives the horse the strength, flexibility, suppleness, understanding, balance, and discipline to perform advanced movements without being harmed by them.

Riders should put their heart and soul into the elementary movements just as much as, if not more than, the advanced ones. These movements aren't a mere stepping stone. They are the foundation everything else relies on, and if the foundation isn't laid correctly, everything built on it will eventually come down.

Correct advanced movements are the result of a properly laid foundation. When a horse has been prepared and developed well, the advanced work comes far more easily and with much less stress.

10/03/2026

Fancy movements don't make a horse well trained. The foundation does.

The first photo shows collected work in the arena, and that's usually the moment people notice. The rest of these photos show what actually builds it.

Stretching in a relaxed, swinging trot. Galloping out across the field. Going over logs. Walking out alongside a friend. Working in open spaces, where the horse has to find his own balance and stay mentally relaxed without the arena walls to lean on.

Rhythm. Relaxation. Connection. Straightness. Forward. Balance.

These aren't "beginner" concepts we check off and leave behind. They're the qualities that make everything else possible, and we keep coming back to them at every level.

That's why some of the best rides aren't the ones where you accomplish something new. They're the ones where:
• the transition gets cleaner
• the horse becomes straighter
• the contact gets softer
• the back begins to swing
• the response comes more easily

That is progress, even if no one watching would call it impressive.

At CH Equine, we believe advanced work should grow from a horse that is mentally confident, physically strong, and correctly prepared. Varied work, both in and out of the arena, is a big part of how we get there.

Build the horse first. The movements will follow.

What does foundation work look like for your horse right now? We'd love to hear about it in the comments. 👇

10/03/2026

You love your horse. You want to do right by him. But how do you know whether the work you're doing is actually helping him?

You've practiced that movement hundreds of times, and your horse knows the routine. But familiar doesn't always mean correct.

Is he developing strength and balance, or finding his way through the exercise with tension? Are you seeing relaxation, or simply a lower head?

Your horse tells you through his movement, his reactions, and the way he feels underneath you. Learning to read those signs is how you become his voice and make informed decisions about his training.

You don't need to be a professional to develop a better eye. Whatever your level, you deserve to understand what you're asking of your horse, why it matters, and how it affects him.

Every time we swing a leg over a horse, we are either training him or untraining him. Understanding the horse underneath us helps us make those moments count.

Join us for a two-day Equine Biomechanics Symposium with Dr. Gerd Heuschmann, veterinarian, author, and horseman.

🐴 Mornings: slideshow lectures on equine anatomy and biomechanics
🐴 Afternoons: Dr. Heuschmann works with real horses and riders, putting the morning's lessons into practice
🐴 Ask questions during the lectures and between horse-and-rider pairs

No horse needed. Come as an auditor and learn.

📅 October 24–25, 2026 | 8 AM–5 PM
📍 CH Equine · Brighton, Colorado
💲 $225 for the two-day auditing experience

👉 Register here: https://form.jotform.com/chequine/dr-heuschmann-symposium-training

09/07/2026

YOU MAY NEVER WATCH A HORSE MOVE THE SAME WAY AGAIN.
🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇

Most of us were taught to look at the obvious things.

Is the horse's head down? Is the neck round? Is he tracking up? Is he performing the movement?

But what is happening inside the body?

• Is the back truly swinging?
• Is the hind leg carrying weight—or simply pushing?
• Is the base of the neck lifting?
• Are the muscles supporting healthy movement, or is the horse compensating through tension?

Those are much harder questions.
Do you want answers?

This fall, Dr. Gerd Heuschmann returns to CH Equine for an extraordinary study of the horse.

We will spend two days immersed in equine anatomy, biomechanics, and training, beginning each morning with an in-depth lecture and then taking that information into the arena with real horses and riders.

And the symposium is only the beginning.

Dr. Heuschmann will remain at CH Equine for four additional days of training rides, creating an incredible week focused on understanding and improving how we train horses.

This isn't just for dressage riders!!

It's for anyone who believes that understanding the horse's body should influence how we train it.

Click the event links below for more information:
Equine Biomechanics Symposium ~
October 24th & 25th
https://www.facebook.com/share/1DE9AJ4qUi/
Training Ride ~
October 27th through the 30th
https://www.facebook.com/share/1DcVu8eLAb

Training Rides are just about full! Don't miss out!
🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇

08/27/2026

What Is Round?

Over time, the term “round” has become misunderstood and, in many cases, used incorrectly.

Today, when people hear that a horse is “round,” they often look first at the position of the neck. The neck may be short with a tight arch, and that picture is commonly mistaken for collection. If the neck looks round, people assume the horse must be working correctly.

That focus on the front of the horse is exactly what can lead riders to overuse their hands in an attempt to create a certain shape. When the rider focuses on making the neck round, they begin riding front to back rather than back to front.

The correct understanding of roundness begins with the back of the horse.

A truly round horse has a back that is being used correctly. The back is lifted, supported, supple, and able to swing freely with the movement. This allows the horse to move more efficiently and carry the rider with greater ease.

A round, supple back also makes it much easier for the rider to sit correctly. Instead of sitting on a back that is dropped, rigid, or braced, the rider is supported and lifted by the movement underneath them.

When the rider turns their attention to the horse’s back and develops the movement from the hindquarters forward through a supple topline, they are riding back to front.

The next time you see a photo or video of a horse with a beautiful, arched neck, look beyond the neck.

Look at the back.

Does the back appear dropped beneath the rider, or does it look lifted and supportive? Does the movement travel freely through the horse’s body? Does the horse appear to carry the rider, or does the rider seem to sit down into a hollow space?

The beautiful posture of the neck will come, but it is secondary. It should be the result of correct movement through the horse’s body and a properly functioning back.

You do not create roundness by shaping the neck. You create roundness by developing the back.

07/04/2026