Whole Horse Forward Equestrian Training

10/31/2026

10/22/2026

What if the goal isn’t to teach a horse NOT to spook, but to help them learn how to recover?

Watch what happens when an unexpected engine starts nearby and frightens Scout. His reaction is dramatic, but what I really want you to notice is what happens next.

Rather than trying to stop his reaction or control his fear, I give Scout the freedom to move through the experience. As he begins to settle, reconnect with his environment, and return to familiar behaviors, I use my bridge signal (clicker) and positive reinforcement to reinforce those moments.

This is one of the reasons I find the reverse round pen such a valuable tool, especially in the early stages of a horse’s education.

It creates a learning environment where horses have freedom of movement, opportunities to make choices, and the ability to develop confidence in their own responses.

We often focus on teaching horses how to behave when everything is going well. But what happens when something unexpected interrupts that learning?

A horse who stops moving isn’t necessarily emotionally regulated, and a horse who spooks hasn’t necessarily failed in his training.

What matters is what happens afterward.

Can the horse recover? Can he reconnect with his environment? Can he voluntarily return to the learning process?

These are skills we can nurture through thoughtful, systematic positive reinforcement training.

We can’t prepare our horses for everything that might frighten them. But we can help them develop the confidence and emotional resilience to recover when it happens.

And sometimes, the most valuable learning happens in the moments we didn’t plan.

10/08/2026

This week’s Learning Lab is about fun, expression, energy, and individuality in our training, ( join Learning Lab in the comments) Bunny is such a great example of what can happen when we leave room for those things.

Bunny is an eight-year-old miniature horse, and we work with her at liberty most of the time. Her workspace usually has lots of things available—targets, cones, a pedestal, a Reverse Round Pen, hula hoops, Snuffle Pastures, jackpots, even a trailer. We may be working on one specific exercise, but all of those other things are still part of her environment.

Bunny has always been incredibly confident and curious. She’ll go underneath the Reverse Round Pen, knock poles and cones over, pick things up and carry them around—she likes to investigate and interact with her environment.

One day we were just playing around and lowered some of the Reverse Round Pen poles into little Xs to see if she would liberty lead through them. There really wasn’t a training goal—we were just curious to see what she would do.

She walked and trotted through the low Xs, so we knew she understood that option was available. But then Bunny chose to jump a higher section instead. Nobody sent her over it. Nobody asked her to jump. She chose it.

And that gave us information: Bunny likes to jump.

In this video, I’m actually getting ready to work on trailer loading. Bunny has already been exploring the Reverse Round Pen, knocking some cones and poles around, and then she starts jumping it on her own. She throws in some little bucks, she gets playful, and she’s clearly having a great time.

I think one of the things that can be difficult for us as trainers is allowing that kind of freedom. We can get very attached to how equipment is supposed to be used: “Don’t knock that over. Don’t go underneath that. That’s not what that’s for.” And sometimes we have to be willing to let the horse explore—and yes, occasionally we may have to be willing to let them break something.

Obviously, we still create an environment that is safe. But within that safe environment, we can give our horses some credit for being capable of navigating and experimenting with the world around them.

Because if we had continually told Bunny, “No, that’s not what the Reverse Round Pen is for,” we might never have discovered something she genuinely loves doing.

Today, Bunny does entire little jumping and agility courses at liberty. And that came from something very simple: we left enough room in the training for Bunny to show us who Bunny is.

09/20/2026

MINI COURSE MONDAY: Contrafreeloading into a training session.
***See where Talisman started in his trailer loading sessions in the comments 👇

Here’s something interesting: The SnufflePasture contains the exact same food I’m using for reinforcement in the training session, and there isn’t any available food in the trailer, yet this horse, Talisman, chooses to leave freely available food to come train with me!

That’s contrafreeloading—choosing to work for something that is also freely available.

But there’s another reason I intentionally use the SnufflePasture around training sessions like trailer loading.

Grazing and foraging involve rhythmic searching, picking and chewing behaviors that can support a shift toward the parasympathetic—or “rest and digest”—state. So I can start here with a more regulated horse, train, and then offer an immediate return to familiar foraging if the session has raised his arousal.

Watch the whole pattern:

Forage → choose to engage → load → stand → calmly back out → forage again.

The SnufflePasture isn’t the reward for getting in the trailer. It’s part of the emotional regulation strategy surrounding the entire session.

And I think that’s one of TheSnufflePasture’s most valuable uses.

07/28/2026

I’m excited to announce I’ll be hosting the Learning Lab Weekly Discussion group inside Shawna Karrasch Equine community

A new season of Learning Lab starts August 9 with the video lesson release. The live discussion group is Saturday, August 15 at 4:00 PM EST.

Who is Learning Lab for? It’s for trainers, other equine professionals, and anyone dedicated to a horse in their life who wants to understand how to apply positive reinforcement and sharpen their observation skills to make better training decisions.

As a trainer-guided group, I ask thought-provoking questions about the week’s video lessons that Shawna and Jessie create from real-life training sessions before we come together for the discussion group.

Lesson 1, The Bridge Signal, might include questions like:

* What is your horse’s default position teaching them?
* Why do some behaviors seem to fall apart while others become reliable?

If those questions make you curious, I think Learning Lab might be a great fit! We’d love to invite you to experience one full week of a Learning Lab cycle.

We’ve worked really hard to make Learning Lab one of the most affordable and accessible educational communities available, where you get to know each other and each other’s horses similar too an in person experience at a barn, only this one is virtual!

Comment “LAB” below, and I’ll send you the details, my coupon code, and answer any questions. I hope to see you there!

07/26/2026

Mini lesson Mondays: Trailer loading, working on the butt bumper.
We see a lot of videos showing horses going on the trailer with R+ but what about the harder parts like getting them comfortable with being confined? This shows how I introduce confinement, which by nature, is the 1st moment in trailer loading we take away one of our most important reinforcements CHOICE

07/18/2026

We are honored now to be able to have ALL of our clinics recognized by both the Karen Pryor Academy (KPA) and the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants.

We are honored now to be able to have ALL of our clinics recognized by both the Karen Pryor Academy (KPA) and the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC).

You can now receive continuing education units for attending anything on our list. Will put the schedule below!

07/16/2026

Welcome the sweetest little Tennessee Walker Juliette and her person Wendy to Whole Horse Forward, and positive reinforcement!

06/17/2026

Mini Lesson Monday: The Right-Hand Turn

Why spend so much time teaching a simple right-hand turn?

Because it’s much more than a turn.

For horses that tend to crowd, rush, or cut in front of their handler, a well-understood right-hand turn can help create space, encourage thoughtful movement, and support emotional regulation. Instead of rehearsing “pushy” patterns, we’re building new movement patterns that invite balance, awareness, and connection.

I also consider right-hand turns an important safety behavior. A balanced horse should learn that reinforcement isn’t only available for coming toward the handler. They should be just as confident moving away, yielding space, and staying connected while increasing distance.