I was 15 when one day I arrived at the riding school and a young black horse named Farao was standing in one of the boxes. He was beautiful, but there were quite some problems: Farao didn’t like to be touched and he didn’t let himself be haltered without trying to kick you first.
Fella was a 12-year old mare, that was tensed and angry during lunging. No bend, short strides, ears flat, swishing tail, nasty looks. The previous weeks her owner focussed mainly on liberty training, to build a..
I’m standing next to a small mare, named Bet, and her owner Myriam in a muddy arena. Myriam has tears in her eyes while she’s explaining: “Karine, I’m struggling so much with my mare Bet. ..
You live in your body. Your body is your home. It’s your instrument. With your body – your senses – you observe the world. Thanks to your body, you can express yourself and move around in this life. ..
“Sometimes you think your body is relaxed, but when you do the Softness Response you notice that there was still some tension somewhere. After doing the SR technique your body just feels better, and you just..
Too tense muscles in the rider. You would think that mainly novice riders have it, but you also see it quite often with very experienced riders. And you also see it when people do groundwork, or liberty. It often..
Years ago… I lie on a leather couch, in the office of a relaxation therapist with an enormous black mustache. He teaches me to release unnecessary tension in my muscles on “command”. I had read a..
“Bonding Time” is the first connection exercise of Horsefulness Liberty Training. While you are doing it, it’s important to practice yourself in being fully present. This means: no distractions like reading or..
Do you sometimes have difficulties with a certain character trait of your horse? A trait that arouses irritation, incomprehension, or frustration in you? And have you been looking for a “solution” for this character..
A fit horse that has good endurance, is supple, strong, and moves in balance. That’s what every trainer/rider wants. But what about the rider himself? The truth is that many trainers/riders are far from fit …..
Pure presence with horses Whenever I leave my house because I need to travel, I always say goodbye to my horses, no matter how short my travel will be. So the evening before
Last week I was interviewed for “The Whole Horse Podcast” by Alexa Linton from Canada. Alexa was especially curious about the breath work I do with my students. These are some of the things we talked about ..
Increase your knowledge about horses, learn how horses communicate, take your training skills to a higher level. If that is your goal then you should first of all know what type of learning style suits you best. ..
Wico, a young black Shetland stallion, didn’t hold back to kick out firmly with his hind legs when he was being fed. It was also very difficult to touch or stroke him, he usually ran off quickly if someone..
Because of the Corona crisis which is influencing the whole world, many people are in a state of heightened anxiety. That’s why, in this 5th episode of the Horsefulness Training Podcast, I want to teach you the..
These are uncertain times at the moment, the corona crisis is causing a lot of fear and stress. It’s better, however, that we remain calm, healthy and positive. I made a video about how horses can help us with that ?
When we think about playing horses, we often see the image of young frolicking horses running behind each other in the meadow, bucking and playing dominance games. That’s right, of course, young horses play..
Some horses have difficulties opening themselves up to their owner. They don’t feel safe enough. Or they feel uncertain. Sometimes they have fear, fear of humans or fear of what is to come. Some horses even..
You must have seen it already: your horse drives another horse from its spot (or vice versa). That spot can be at the drinking trough, a spot in the shade, or just a place without clear meaning. Taking the spot of..
When you see all the problems in horse training and the so-called “problematic” horses, you might be under the impression that horses really don’t like to be trained, also not in groundwork. It could make you think..
One day a lady attended a 3-day workshop I gave at my place in Belgium. Her horse was still young and the lady was there because she wanted to start her 3-year old gelding in groundwork. That was of course very..
I’m happy to announce that from now on you can purchase and follow the different parts of the Horsefulness Groundwork Program separately! In the past this was not possible, but because I sometimes got emails..
A while ago I was shown a horse video. The video was titled “funny horse video”, or something like that… The intention was that it was a video to laugh with. You know such videos: horses that open..
A few years ago I noticed something very special with my horse Niki, who then stood in a stall for about 3 hours every evening (she was fed a special kind of dried grass before she joined the group again at night). ..