Body Awareness and Movement Awareness
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. ..
Cassandra pulled the reins out of Sofie’s hands
“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..
Excess muscle tension in the rider and how to solve it
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..
The Softness Response in December’s Find Your Feel Masterclass
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..
60 things you can do while doing “Bonding Time” with your horse.
“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..
Less nice character traits of your horse: accept or change them?
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..
Why it’s important to be physically fit as a rider/trainer
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
Pure presence with horsesWhenever 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
“The Whole Horse Podcast” interview about the breath
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 ..
Improving your horsemanship skills by following your personal learning style?
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 was not being unrespectful, he was feeling anxious
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..
How horses can help us during the corona crisis
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 🙂
Lila plays the “Chase Game”
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..
Is your horse Shutting himself off?
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..
Your Spot My Spot: know what you’re doing!
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..
Do horses like groundwork training?
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..
Do you make excuses or do you make progress?
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..
***NEW *** Start with the first part of the Horsefulness Groundwork Program
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..
Many people take the training and handling of their horse for granted
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..
Are you catching the subtle signals your horse is giving you?
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). ..
Nurturing the natural curiosity of your horse
Horses are naturally curious. They are curious as a foal, when they start to discover the new world where they are born in, and this continues for the rest of their lives. That is, if their trainers and handlers are..
How you can lie down with your horse in a natural way
Who doesn’t dream of being able to lie down by their horse? Or even better: that your horse would lie down with you? To clarify, I’m not talking about “training” horses to do so. Of course,..
10 tips for a positive mindset when training your horse
Everybody knows somebody who always seems to have fun when training his horse, even if it’s not going that well. A trainer like this sees every difficulty as a possibility and sees opportunities where others..
An enthusiastic greeting
Latte is the 13 year old mare of Diana, from the UK. Diane is a member of the Horsefulness Liberty Training Program. Diane posted the video and comment below in the Members Facebook Group. “I just wanted to..