Ashley Jantzer Equestrian LLC

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Ashley Jantzer Equestrian LLC

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Instruction, training, and rehabilitation rooted in high-quality horsemanship, promoting balance, confidence, willingness, and long-term soundness across disciplines.

07/17/2026

Some nice moments in a lesson with Tressa Boulden working on teaching this pony how to start to thinking about taking the bit forwards and downwards, and helping her gain confidence in understanding how to push on the bit. This is a point where everything feels a little fragile because this pony is very sensitive and previously would either curl her neck and come way behind the vertical or tighten the underside of her neck and invert. Looking pretty isn’t the purpose here, it’s working on being functional so I can support her balance.

07/15/2026

Classical riding centers heavily around working a horse with, and not against, their nature. I spend a lot of time thinking about what this means, and particularly what it means for individual horses who come across my path.

Part of working with a horses nature involves understanding their desire to move, and being careful not to shut their movement down in order for us to feel safe.

A lot of horses, but it seems mustangs in particular, fall prey to programs that rely on desensitizing, shutting them down, and asking them to perform circus tricks and other flashy maneuvers for the sake of humans. Sometimes this type of training occurs fast in order to get the horse “gentle,” but in this case gentle means we’ve taken the horses nature away, and we’ve asked them to tolerate human antics with little backtalk or opinion so that we can feel safer. Not all mustang gentling is like this, but many that I’ve worked with have been exposed to these types of programs.

Pictured is the now soft muzzle of a mustang who is with me for a short time. He experienced the above training, and he has an uncanny ability to be frozen even in movement. He goes through the motions, and tolerates a lot while he checks out and goes somewhere else in his mind. To an uneducated eye he looks like quite the bombproof horse, but his owner found out the hard way the cost of riding a horse that had been trained to check out.

What I love about classical riding and good horsemanship is that the relaxation we look for in the horse can’t be forced or faked. It isn’t always smooth or pretty, especially when asking a checked out horse to move and feel their movement. It’s also tempting with a horse like this to be too careful and walk on eggshells (we do the same thing with traumatized kids too), but what I’ve focused on with this horse is being steady, confident, and assured. I’ve asked him to learn to move in a better way, and I’m very careful to not overreact when his movement is bigger and more erratic than I’d like; they can’t be told it’s safe to move and then get punished if their movement scares us.

As he’s learned to move in a steady tempo that is correct for him and stay in alignment, he’s found his balance and is starting to come over his back, breathe deeply, blink, and lick his lips. He used to purse his lips shut, hold his breath, tense his tail and ears, take short choppy strides, and his mouth would be bone dry. He’s beginning to find a greater range of motion, and the soft lipstick ring around his mouth is proof that he’s starting to let go and that his energy is getting freed. I am quite proud of this, because this is a softness that cannot be forced or artificially created.

07/12/2026

Being able to take lunge line lessons to work on the seat is a very special gift, and a rare opportunity now. However, there are also ways to get creative to work on developing your seat on your own.

Here I've put myself on a 20 meter circle to give myself a lunge line lesson minus the lunge line. Learning to sit properly can help the horse to open and swing their back, and horses greatly appreciate when we work on ourselves so that we can help them.

07/11/2026

It's so easy to forget how far our horses and ourselves have come when we are in the thick of learning. For myself, I've battled throwing out decades of sitting perched on top of a horse in the name of "equitation," being asked to ride backwards against the horses' hind leg by compressing them into a frame, and then feeling like I had to throw it all away and start over from a purely horsemanship perspective.

Years ago I started asking more questions around how to learn to sit into a horse, how to go with and influence them from a functional standpoint. Those years of undoing were necessary, but it sure feels good in the last few years to give myself more permission to ride the horse, and not get so caught up in overthinking.

Pictured is a horse that also had to have a lot of old training methods thrown out. When I met her, she had learned to really back off the bit and come behind the vertical. She would chomp the bit but her mouth was bone dry from tension, and her gaits lost their diagonal balance and coordination. Now, a little over a year later, she's starting to have moments of carrying the bit, her mouth is soft with a visible lipstick ring, and she is becoming more able to keep her shoulders balanced and upright underneath of her. It was easy to forget where she came from, but looking back it's hard to believe this is the same horse.

Most of us have come so much farther than we realize, and when things feel stagnant or less than ideal, it can be a gift to be able to look back and really admire the progress made.

07/08/2026

None of us get to make progress without experiencing discomfort and setbacks as part of the learning process. When I teach, the biggest thing that I see that gets in the way of a student's growth is taking bad rides and bad lessons or "slow" progress personally. What feels like a bad ride is an opportunity to dig into the things that we might need to focus on and get better at. But, if a bad ride or progress that isn't moving as fast as someone thinks it should sets someone into a tailspin of doubt, frustration, and making it about them, then they can't really show up to help the horse anyhow.

I've learned to feel and appreciate the very small, but monumental, moments of harmony that appear in my rides, and then I cling to them like my life depends on it. Those moments can be built on once we have them, but that does not mean their won't be times of struggling, both from our horses and ourselves.

It's also important to recognize within yourself what your measure of progress is. For some progress is measured through validation from peers, awards, or recognition from instructors or clinicians. At the end of the day, the horse really is the sole measure of progress, and for me the opinion of the horse is what I care about the most. Even on the hard days, am I seeing an overall trend in my horses finding better strength, suppleness, balance, and joy?

Each year I look back and am proud that I often don't recognize who I was back then as a rider, and I hope the same for my students. I try not to protect my students from the discomfort that comes from learning, and I appreciate that my teacher does not shield me from that either, otherwise, I would not be able to grow nor help my horses do the same.

06/21/2026

Equitation isn't about a certain look; it's about being able to be effective in order to help the horse balance, open their back, and to allow energy to flow. Good equitation requires strength, suppleness, and stability on the rider's part, as well as an ability to balance with a horses' center of motion. Crookedness and lack of forward in horses are problems that can be solved by developing good equitation, and, it's easier to aid and support a horse where they need it when we have balance in our own bodies. There really is no good riding without taking time to develop good equitation, regardless of discipline, because it is the foundation for everything else.

06/07/2026

Many times I think correct work looks boring to a lot of people, but to me there is nothing more beautiful than a horse finding their balance! When a horse works in balance by being aligned and working in the correct tempo they can start to open and also find relaxation.

Here my student Kim is supporting her young Friesian by helping her organize her body so that she can find rhythm and relaxation.

06/02/2026

Many of us get taught to push, pull, jab, and grind our seat and legs in an attempt to shove a horse forward and mash them in a particular shape. When riding like this, horses quickly get described as dull, unresponsive, and against the aids. But what is actually happening is that the aids are against the horse.

I see more and more horses described as dull who are actually quite the opposite. They are refined and sensitive, but have learned to ignore aids that work against them.

Horses don't really require some secret and complex concoction of ingredients to move fluidly, but they do require correct and balanced equitation on the rider's part, tact, an ability to align the horse, work the horse in the correct tempo to aid in their balance, and have a correct understanding of connection.

I am looking forward to a few more days with my teacher to really help develop my seat so that I can ride and aid my horses in a way that helps them without hindering them. And, to gain more and more tools to support my students in their own riding.

05/10/2026

The effects of working a horse in balance are far more reaching than just being able to ride your horse better. Issues that can be hard to solve often melt away when horses are worked in a way that brings them into balance and relaxation.

Many of us spend energy on thinking about how to fix issues that are not only an inconvenience, but are also dangerous. Horses that have difficulty being caught, standing quietly tied, standing for the farrier, bridling or saddling comfortably, getting in the trailer, or who display insecurities away from their herd mates certainly need an education in these things. But, if we can't see the forest for the trees then we miss out on critical opportunities to educate the whole horse, and watch what we thought was the problem dissolve in front of our eyes.

I have been able to see this happen time and time again, where a horse who once lacked confidence with life skills suddenly gained an ability to be assured in themselves through correct and educated work. Horses begin to feel better in themselves through how you ask them to move in balance, and soon you may have a horse who stands quietly while tied, can tolerate leaving a buddy, and who seems to have an overall sense of peace in their lives.

Educating a horse in specific skills is of course important, but that's only one piece, and learning how to guide a horse into balance is the ultimate skill to helping a horse thrive in a world with us.

Photo credit Jorja Custer

05/09/2026

Learning requires both repetition and engagement. This was a great conversation I got to have in the other part of my life today when coaching preschool teachers.

Kids learn when they are actively engaged, and get to practice skills in order to master them. I don't think adults and horses are much different. Our issue is that we often get bored with the repetition part, especially because most of us are needing to master foundational concepts which aren't usually considered "fun." The engagement piece is also critical; we have to be actively engaged in absorbing and utilizing the information that we are learning.

Horses also benefit from this, and it's pretty easy to spot the horses that haven't been engaged in learning. Horses that experience flooding and extreme desensitization are arguably not engaged at all anymore, and therefore aren't actually able to learn. Keeping their minds supple and repeating skills (which is different than mindless drilling) can be so valuable towards helping a horse learn.

It requires a high level of feel to teach a horse while retaining their natural curiosity and engagement, but the reward is so high when horses are educated this way.g

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Ellensburg, WA

Website

http://www.ashleyjantzerequestrianllc.org/

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