Prairie Diamond Horsemanship

07/12/2026

06/27/2026

Unsaddling Koda

06/26/2026

Koda is so amused…

One of the heifers ripped up the tarp so now it’s more of an equine desensitizing station.

06/19/2026

Go Zone: The go zone is located from the driveline at the withers, back. If you take a lesson on lunging or cattle cutting, driveline is a term you are very likely to hear. The divide between relationship (blue) and go (green) zones is what is referred to as the driveline. This line is important to understand because pressure behind the driveline signals to horses (and livestock) that they should move forward. When you think about life in the wild, large prey animals are attacked from behind, usually taking down the hindquarter and either attacking the belly (canines), the spine (bears, felines), or the throat (felines). Running is the best way for horses to stay safe as injuries from fighting can still prove fatal—even if they overcome the predator. Moving forward from pressure in the go zone isn’t always as intense as the life or death situation of a predator attack; horses also push each other around using pressure in the go zone. When establishing and enforcing boundaries, or determining who gets what resources when, horses may nip or kick at each other's hindquarters and ribcages to drive each other away. Stallions are known to “snake” their heads at members of their harems to move them to areas defensible from rivaling studs or to gently tell rambunctious horses to knock it off in order to maintain peace within the herd. When a young horse is up to shenanigans, it's common to observe the lead mare send them to the outskirts of the herd and keep them out when they circle around as a way of maintaining calmness within the herd and teaching the mischievous one to settle. When the mare sees fit that the youngster can return, she’ll bring her energy back down and offer her relationship zone once again, inviting the youngster back to eat, drink, and travel with the herd. Like the mare and the stallion use pressure in the go zone to move and shape behaviors, when used mindfully in conjunction to the other zones, humans can use this zone to shape behaviors through movement too. You can’t progress if you can’t move forward, and sometimes both horses and humans need a little bit of a push to overcome, to be better, to thrive.

-Abbie, PDH & WDR
*made by a human 😉

06/19/2026

Relationship Zone: The relationship zone, highlighted in blue, is located from the ear to the withers of a horse. Similar to how human friends tend to walk shoulder to shoulder, horses who are partners in their herd dynamic typically walk around with their relationship zones connected. For a while I struggled to see the herd dynamic implication of this zone because while yes, you can observe horses standing and traveling side by side, more often one is guiding and the other is at the hip following. It’s easy to see it be a consistent rule with humans, but in herd dynamics I honestly couldn’t pick it out frequently enough to see it as much of a generality because being “attached at the hip” is such a natural thing for horses. This behavior is generally a more confident horse with a less confident, often younger horse; a mare and her foal, a maternal mare and a youngster, a gelding and his buddy, 2 mustang stallions in a bachelor band, or any other combination of 2 confidence levels. When observing "attached at the hip" horses from elevated areas, I noticed that similar to how a good real estate agent shows a house to a client, the guiding horse will often bend their outside shoulder forward and their inside shoulder back just a little bit. The following horse tends to stretch their neck out a little, and may have a slight tilt in their head. This makes a line from the first’s shoulder to the second’s jaw. It’s subtle but enough for the relationship zones to connect. From the ground is difficult to point out, but if you observe these herd dynamics from the back of another horse or platform, it's easier to see. It's interesting to me to watch because it doesn't matter how far away the two horses are, if they are mentally connected, they nearly always have a line between their relationship zones. This observation allows us to better understand building proper relationships with horses because we humans have to shape our own behaviors in order to allow horses to return the gesture. Just like in human relationships, you can’t have a true relationship with a horse without nurturing the relationship yourself.

- Abbie, PDH & WDR
Art and article made without AI

06/19/2026

The stop zone, highlighted in red, is located from a horse's ear and forward. If you are in the stop zone, or there's pressure in the stop zone, horses are very likely to-–you guessed it—stop. People, things, and energy within the stop zone create a barrier making stopping the easiest thing to do. A horse cannot move forward if there is nowhere for them to move forward to. When lunging a horse, it’s commonly taught to “get in the horse’s eye”. That really means to move your energy to the stop zone of the horse, where the eye is. When teaching a horse to stop, it’s common practice to ride them to the fence and ask them to stop a stride before they touch the fence. The fence is the extra stop zone barrier enforcing the bridle (bit or bitless), and it makes the horse stop as that is a whole lot easier than jumping the fence. The stop zone is also why it can be difficult to teach a horse to jump, particularly competitively. You have to teach them that they can go over a barrier in their stop zone. It’s incredibly easy for a horse to have an unconfident moment when coming up to the jump, and that’s when they basically say, “Oh no! Something in my stop zone! BRAKE!!” and refuse the jump. Oftentimes this sends riders flying over their neck, adding more pressure in the stop zone, so the horse usually will fly backwards. If you haven’t seen this exact scenario yet, search “horserider fails” and you’re bound to find videos of these incidents. It’s very natural for horses to stop when something presents in their stop zone, so especially for jumping horses, trainers and riders have to untrain the stop zone response for the jumps. This is where the relationship and go zones have to be utilized more than normal to give the horse the confidence and forward energy to see the barrier and overcome it. Humans are very similar. When a barrier presents itself, it’s plain natural for us to hit the brakes and give up; however, if we utilize good relationships and build our confidence and forward momentum we are bound to overcome them. Like training a jumping horse, it won’t happen overnight, and it takes a lot of flexibility and strength, but it is never impossible to overcome.

06/09/2026

That creaking you hear is the sweet sound of arthritic horsegirl joints.

06/08/2026

Koda in her element 🍀🌻