When leading your horse, regularly ask him to stay out of your personal space = min 3 to 4 meters distance. When you lead your horse at a distance, you are leading your horse from the "lead position". Be calm and polite when you ask for more distance.But there's also something else that is important, and that is:
If you’re not connected to yourself, your horse will also be less connected to you, and thus it will be harder for your horse to stay focused on you and the training you're offering him. So whenever you feel you are losing your groundedness, when you lose your calmness,
I recently had a conversation with a new student. This new student - my guess is he was about 50 years old - came to me because he had a few problems with his 14-year-old mare: biting him when he wants to saddle her, pushing him against the wall when he wants to clean her hoofs, pulling on the rope
Some days, some situations, and some experiences can be difficult... You might wonder how you will cope with it, or if you will be able to solve the problem you're facing. This is also the case when it comes to horses and training horses...
It has now been 1 week since my family and I returned home from a month-long road trip to and through Portugal. The trip was fantastic, and we made a lot of great memories. However, there's 1 memory I don't like to think back on ...
When I advise people to spend time on Bonding Time with their horse, the answer is sometimes: "I already spend undemanding time with my horse in the field, so I know how it works, and I know how to do it". However, ...
In the riding school where I rode as a teenager, there was a mare, Muguette. She wouldn’t let anybody touch or halter her without pinning her ears and giving you a (very!) nasty look.
Joey was about 4 months old when he was taken from his mother in a brutal and aggressive way. Three strong men cornered him to grab him, then they forced him to go on a trailer without his mother while screaming at him and hitting him with a whip.
Today is International Women's Day. And that is necessary. Because worldwide women still receive less or worse education, violence against women is higher than against men, women are still paid less for their job, etc.
My first own horse was Niki. She was 12 when she was given to me by an acquaintance. She was sweet and willing, but very energetic and quickly stressed. She also couldn’t stand still easily.
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.
“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..
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
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..
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..
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..
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). ..