Grice, Lindsay Articles

HorseWise: Three Ways to Look at a Circle

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March 21, 2012

By Lindsay Grice - A rider can communicate confidence with her eyes in any class and, of course, pilot her horse much more effectively. I tell my students that their eyes should shift between three different pictures as they ride.

HorseWise: What Makes a Professional?

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March 21, 2012

By Lindsay Grice - I thought about the qualities that I have seen in my most successful students over the years. Beyond putting them in the winner’s circle, these traits will help them to be successful in life.

HorseWise: Worse Before Better

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March 21, 2012

horse kicking, horse rearing, horse bucking, horse acting out, horse misbehaving, lindsay grice

By Lindsay Grice - From a trainer’s point of view, I can tell you that during the education process the horse often gets worse before he gets better. I regularly see the scenario of a home raised and broke horse, accustomed to marching to his own drum, realising that he’s not the King of the Hill anymore when he finds himself answering to the trainer each day.

How do Horses Learn?

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March 21, 2012

Lindsay Grice, how horses learn, horse's brain, horses social animals, horses safe herd, horse survival, equine neocortex, understanding horses, how horses perceive world, fright-flight response, horse brain

Without a doubt, an awareness of the way horses learn has helped me to train more efficiently, effectively, and safely. Like a detective, I approach issues by asking the question, “Why might this be happening?” I look for clues and go through my mental Rolodex of equine behaviour facts to solve the puzzle.

How to Beat Horse Show Nerves

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March 21, 2012

By Lindsay Grice - Although confidence improves the more often you show, it is helpful to take an honest look at the source of your nerves (what’s the worst thing that could happen, and would it really be that bad?), and block out the distractions.

How to Choose the Right Bit

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March 21, 2012

By Lindsay Grice - As the conformation of every horse’s mouth will vary, it’s helpful, once you’ve determined the family or general type of bit, to try it for a few days to see how your horse responds. Unfortunately, this can become an expensive process and most horse owners have quite a collection of “experiments” at the bottom of their tack boxes.

How to Identify Leads and Diagonals by Feel

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March 21, 2012

By Lindsay Grice - Knowing what diagonal and lead you’re on is a matter of feeling the rhythm and footfalls of your horse. Knowing which foot hits the ground when puts a rider in tune with his horse. He is more able to influence his horse’s movement if he times his aids according to the rhythm of the strides.

How to Shop for Horse - 5 Keys to Success

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March 21, 2012

By Lindsay Grice - When I have a client who is looking for a horse, I often need to remind her to shop with her head and not her heart. Colour, cuteness, or a fancy pedigree must take second place to other more basic qualities: temperament, tolerance, training, talent, and soundness.

Making the Broke Horse

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March 21, 2012

By Lindsay Grice - Broke. Finished. Made. The term for a horse with all the kinks ironed out differs across disciplines, but the concept is the same. This is an educated horse who knows his job. This is an experienced horse; he’s had his education tested out in various environments.

Points on Praise for Horses

Updated:

March 21, 2012

By Lindsay Grice - You’ll find that in the course of training your horses, you’ll be essentially asking them questions, and making it difficult to make the wrong choice, and easy and pleasurable to make the right choice. The challenge for a horse trainer is to find the perfect balance of pressure and reward for each individual horse.