Lydia Scott Equine Services

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Lydia Scott Equine Services I have 20+ years experience with a variety of horses. I offer services in Foundation Training, Mentorships, Trail and in barn lessons.

10/23/2026

It begins!

She has already been introduced to R+ at this point but here we are starting to talk about position and moving together. So far she has a tendency to want to follow behind- which I am not surprised but I want to start helping to build her confidence so I am asking her to
Come up on my side.
At the end of this video there was a big flock of turkeys off in the pasture she was keying in on so I joined her. Letting her know I see what she is valuing as well..
building rapport and having conversations.
She is still quite jumpy but she is starting to open up as well as starting to think about our engagement.
How I am utilizing treats here is quite different than bribery. Utilized as a high motivating reinforcer to build skills verses a quick fix to address a problem.

This beautiful girl has arrived! This is the mustang mare I mentioned a few times in previous posts. She came out of the...
10/22/2026

This beautiful girl has arrived!
This is the mustang mare I mentioned a few times in previous posts.
She came out of the wild at 9yrs old 6 months pregnant shipping to slaughter, when her wonderful human scooped her out of the pipeline very traumatized and has spent the last two years gentling and giving her a soft landing ā™„ļø
She has been at my barn for a few days now and we are just starting to get to know eachother.
She has a strong bond with her human but has little to almost zero experience with other people.
The first two days at the barn she barely moved in her paddock. She was very ā€œ shut inā€. I gave her a couple days of only feeding and cleaning interaction before beginning to explore engaging with her.
Yesterday and today I began short sessions introducing her to R+ for talking about moving together. She is responding really well and quickly becoming curious. We havenā€™t started to work on problem solving or even very specific criteria but itā€™s fun watching her curiosity start to wake up.
Iā€™m not doing any R+ for touch with her because she is quite skeptical/jumpy about being touched. I do not want to overlay that with R+. Once she starts getting the hang of moving together, we will start to talk about targeting. This willl be our intro to touch.
Videos to come soon!

10/19/2026

Urban threshold.
Mental dexterity practice.
Same activity, different context.

10/17/2026

This mare is turning out to be an exceptional trail horse!
She has that lead horse vibe strong!
Thoughtful, aware, confident, curious.
I am thrilled with how she has opened up and the enthusiasm she shows out on the trail.
This is a trail she has never been on. I am a guide- there when she needs me and occasionally reminding her we are in it together šŸ˜† but mostly at this point I am
Practicing staying out of her way and letting her practice navigating because she was really owning the experience.
Itā€™s so fun when they get to the point you can apply their skills and expand their threshold of what they know to different places and situations and their foundation shines.

These gorgeous Autumn days out with the horses are really something special šŸ’—
10/17/2026

These gorgeous Autumn days out with the horses are really something special šŸ’—

Ok this picture might not look horse related at all and I get that but I didnā€™t know how much learning and beginning to ...
10/08/2026

Ok this picture might not look horse related at all and I get that but I didnā€™t know how much learning and beginning to do Human Hanna Somatics was going to be related to learning Equine Hanna Somatics either.
I donā€™t have a whole lot of words for this journey yet as I am just at the beginning but profound is a word that comes to mind.
As I begin my own Hanna Somatics journey, I truly believe it will change and deeply nourish my journey with horses.
We have a Hanna Somatics workshop coming up here in a couple weeks and I am so excited to share with you all here!
I have a client who has a severe hip hike on one side. Even with the little bit of intro knowledge I have now, I asked her to do just a couple Hanna Somatic movements in her own body and when I went to recheck, her hip hike was unnoticeable šŸ¤Æ we had to lengthen her stirrup two holes on that side! I will get in the habit of starting to document this stuff because it is wild and powerful and beautiful!! And watching the evolution with the horses as well..
Iā€™m feeling very grateful, quite inspired and deeply uncomfortable in the best way šŸ˜‚ like what I imagine a caterpillar in a cocoon or a tiny seed trying to root and stretch through the soil to the sun might feel likeā€¦
Does the Sunflower photo make sense yet? šŸ˜†
I just wanted to share a little bit.., I have a feeling in time there will be much more to come šŸ’—

10/08/2026

This video isnā€™t that exciting šŸ˜‚ but I said I would do a follow up to the trailer video, so here it is! And if you think I just got lucky with this guy, this is how all my horses load šŸ™‚
Itā€™s a skill I really want them to be comfortable with.

10/05/2026

One of the many things I LOVE about hiking with horses is how much we can learn about them from this perspective!
I know hiking is not possible for everyone but if you can hike with your horse, I recommend it, even if they are a great riding horse!

In an industry being so heavily focused on riding ( I canā€™t even count how many times I have had someone ask me whatā€™s wrong with my horse when we are out hiking šŸ˜†), I really like to emphasize what an incredible practice this can be for so many reasons!
It can be great for us as humans to build awareness and confidence and get familiar with our own thresholds / that we are so often asked to ignore/be over threshold and itā€™s quite normalized.
It can also be great for building rapport, expectations and boundaries.
And it can be really good as demonstrated in this video, to learn about our horses and how they navigate a space and experience.
This mustang is showing us he is a heavy scenter. Nose to the ground smelling the trail as he walks. If I was riding I might feel
the need to take this experience away from him or he might not even explore in this way because of his association with carrying a ridder.
When I take horses out on the trail I want them engaged in the experience , not dull or ā€œ obedientā€, which can actually be more dangerous- a post for another time.
So why does it matter to understand this horse is a heavy scenterā€¦ any ideasā€¦? I would love to hear from you all!
Please respond in the comments with your thoughts :)

09/30/2026

I am passionate about trailer training.
This is a skill every horse should have in my opinion and we have to understand it is a really big ask. We are asking our horses to go against what they know as safe. To get into a box, take away their ability to move and then move them to a new experience is a learned skill not an expectation.
This was the beginning for this previously feral youngster. He had only had one experience with trailering at this point and that was being driven into a trailer and taken from the only home he had known.
If I can I try to involve myself as little as possible at the beginning and let them experience the trailer in the way they feel they need to without being confined or controlled. He had a buddy in there, who was making a ruckus šŸ˜† and yes I use food! It is a high motivator and the action of eating can help them relax. To be clear I would absolutely not use R+ with treats at this stage or make the trailer the only place he could eat.
This week I will post a follow up to how this horse loads now. He trailers solo or a trailer full of horses and loads and hauls like a dream!
If I need my horse to get in a trailer, I donā€™t want to wonder if today they will load or not or budget for how long it will take. My goal is to open that trailer door and if anything have to ask them to wait a second before hopping in.

09/26/2026

Took this young blossoming trail pony out to work on threshold.
He has a little bit of trail experience already but he was started with very high pressure training and has quite a bit of internalized anxiety. When I work with horses out here it is important to me that they can be in the experience not just get through it.
This horseā€™s human would love to be able to take her pony out for solo adventures and I think that is absolutely possible with this lovely little dude.
This session was about expanding his threshold layered with a rainy day, going out solo while his new friends were back at camp and checking out this bridge. He was learning about boundaries and expectations while he is feeling emotional as well as still having agency within those boundaries.
This video is an example of allowing our horses to draw themselves with curiosity instead of pushing them.

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Ridgeway Road
Pleasant Hill, OR
97455

Telephone

+15418523634

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