Always On Stride Horsemanship

Did you know that massage can help to improve a horses posture? When muscle tension is released it allows the body to move and create better posture.

I’m sometimes asked how do you know if a horse needs massage? The best indicator is how much jiggle does your horses muscles have? Healthy muscle has jiggle to it when the horse walks and will have give when you press on it. If the muscle feels hard or if the horse flinches away from pressure, then that muscle is either sore or very tight. Massage can help keep you and your horse enjoying the ride. - Michelle L Arnold - Always On Stride Horsemanship

Massage therapy can help your horse stretch out tight or sore muscles and improve posture. As a certified equine massage therapist, I can determine if massage therapy is suitable for your horse's health and well-being. Send me a pm, I look forward to hearing from you! Always On Stride Horsemanship

I am a certified equine massage therapist and I have a couple spots open in June! PM me for more information. I would love to meet you and your horse! Always On Stride Horsemanship

Massage is a wonderful tool to help your horse to feel their absolute best. Give your horse the gift of massage. I have a couple openings left in May! Michelle L Arnold

A gorgeous day to give a horse a massage and then get some yard work done at home. A perfect time to have the music loud singing and dancing on the way 💕🎶🎤 Always On Stride Horsemanship

I hope stories like this continue to rock the dressage world. When I was young, I wanted nothing more than to be a top dressage rider. At this point in time I find most top dressage competitions to be a disgusting display of force and cruelty. I would love to see how we treat these horses to change.  This article has been translated to English. Always On Stride Horsemanship
Here the article is in English: it is surprisingly good.

Patrik Kittel’s horse lost oxygen: ”The tongue is blue-purple” Dressage star Patrik Kittel's horse lost oxygen in its tongue during two World Cup competitions. A series of pictures that Sportbladet has accessed reveal that

Educate your eye. For too long we have been taught that seeing a horses chin tucked to their chest is right. It is not right. It is cruel. It is destroying the horses tendons and ligaments in their neck. Horses noses should not be tucked in behind the vertical from ear to nose. Please stop doing this. Please stop rewarding this. Please start thinking about the welfare of the horse. Always On Stride Horsemanship

Horses learn when they have given the correct answer by our reaction. If we don't notice and reward their first attempt, they may think their response was wrong. Horses are subtle. The best trainers notice the try and reward it. Always On Stride Horsemanship

Another amazing ride with this awesome mare at Drunken Spur Ranch. - Always On Stride Horsemanship

The best days always include this view. Always On Stride Horsemanship

Many therapies can go hand and hand. I became a certified equine massage therapist through Delaware Valley university over the course of a full semester. The class is designed for adult students in that it was held over a full weekend every month for a semester. 6 hours of field work one day, 4-6 hours of class. Practice and do reports on at least 25+ massages in between classes. By the end of the course, I had already given well over a hundred massages. Combined with my over 40 years experience riding, training and showing, it seemed the perfect choice and I absolutely love helping horses and their owners live a better life. Let’s set a time! I can’t wait to meet you and your beautiful horse. Always On Stride Horsemanship

How important is your horses development to you? Taking your time, teaching without drilling, working them without pushing them to the point of exhaustion, can be the difference between having a lifetime partner, and having something you can show right now.

Haven’t we already figured this out? Hasn’t it already been proven that a relaxed state of mind is going to absorb and retain more information? Yet pain based and fear-based training persists. Horses do what they’re told because they are afraid not to. I grew up with that style of training. I’ve since learned that there are different methods. I find them to be better in the long run because the horse trusts me and when I ask them to do something new and different they have tons of try. They are not afraid of giving the wrong answer because they know so long as they are trying, I’m gonna tell them good job. This results in having a horse that is brave and confident and likes to be with you because you make them feel good about themselves and you have given them the tools to know how to handle new situations

There have been studies done that indicate that relaxed horses learn better than tense horses. I would have thought anyone with half a brain could have figured out that, though.

Bad riding, rough training quickly takes most horse above what we might call their “anxiety threshold,” the point at which they become so nervous that they get tight, resistant, and we know what happens then---The less able riders ALSO get tight, often frustrated, angry even, and the whole shooting match begins to spiral out of control.

So many so-called trainers are too rough, too sharp with their hands, their spurs, their whips, and their attitudes. These are the riders, trainers, teachers who use all those devices, pain inducing bits, the apparatus designed specifically to force submission. Sometimes drugs when the horse fights back against the pain.

Correct riding is partly physical, certainly. A rider who bounces around, has poor balance, over-active hands, these will upset a horse. But riding skills can be learned. What is more important is the human’s philosophy of riding and training, and by that I mean does this human think that riding a horse is a test of wills between horse and rider, or is riding a system of quiet communication, taught over time to allow both horse and rider to learn a common “language”?

Relaxed horses come from relaxed riders, and by relaxed I don’t mean Old Sloppy Joe, but relaxed enough emotionally to become able to educate rather than dominate the horses they ride.

I don’t care how skillful the rider may be, if domination is the go-to training choice, that rider is a bad rider. There are lots of winning riders who are bad riders.

Yes horses can sometimes be silly or playful but if they are being uncooperative or aggressive it is almost always a reaction caused by fear, pain or confusion. They start off honest and curious. It’s up to us to keep them that way. Mishandling can ruin a good horse quickly.

This is huge and it comes down to your personal beliefs and experiences. Do you want to dominate or lead? I choose leadership over domination but it isn’t always the easiest path to follow. It takes time, education and dedication. What will you choose?

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The greatest challenge today in horse training is understanding the distinction between domination and leadership. The line between these two methods is trust. You might want to read that again. This might be the most important horse training concept that I can share with you.

Domination is a false or confused version of leadership that lacks the element of trust. Domination and leadership can sometimes appear to be similar, but they are absolutely different for a horse. In the extreme, domination and leadership look very different.

Take for example Olympian Andreas Helgstrand who was exposed on TV for his total domination approach to training dressage horses in Denmark. He and his assistants bullied and tortured hundreds of horses every year with no evidence of building the trust required for teaching leadership to prospects. I am not writing today about the obvious use of domination, but rather the smaller everyday examples of domination that are more easily confused with leadership.

For me the temptation to dominate comes most often when I am in a hurry. It could be anything like I need to get a horse somewhere and I am running late and he won't get on the trailer, or a horse has a shoe half off and I need to remove it quickly. I feel there is "no time" to use the trust I have worked to build in the horse in order to lead him through a difficult moment. A lapse of awareness in these moments, driven by impatience, takes over and I "get er done" without realizing that in the process my domination has undermined the horse's trust while it undoes my work to teach the horse the comfort of human leadership.

Horses, being herd animals, have a herd mind without a lot of individuality in moments of fear. When a threat is perceived, the herd looks to the leader to flee or fight. For this reason, horses need leadership. With a baby it is easy to constantly offer leadership when doing the small things like picking up a foot or leading them through a gate. Each time we take the time to lead and avoid domination, we build trust and hopefully by the time the horse is ready to be ridden there will be sufficient trust to lead them through more complex and scary moments from the saddle.

One dry summer when the rattlesnakes came down from the hills for moisture into the flats, I was riding a young prospect in the shady woods. I heard a sound that I thought at first was crickets but turned out to be a big, coiled rattler ready to strike. By its size, I figured that it could reach us. My horse was braced but in that moment there was enough trust to quietly back up, turn and go.

By contrast, while doing hunt Staff work I had it ride down into a rocky Pennsylvania ravine to retrieve two young hounds that had gone to the bottom for a drink. I was on an auction horse that had been dominated into distrust and always felt that he had to solve every problem he encountered on his own. Twice on the way down he spun and tried to escape the task. Spinning on a fairly steep rocky slope like that is dangerous. There wasn't enough trust to overcome his fear with steady leadership. We both had survived two of his dangerous spins but the risk of more was too much. I stopped leading and began dominating.

Was that the best solution? Hard to say. If I let him solve it his familiar way and leave the ravine, we might never find those two young hounds again. Had I started his hunt training too soon? Maybe. After that experience I never took him hunting again. Dangerous horse pursuits like fox hunting, cross country jumping or polo, require a rider to avoid painting themself into the corner of domination because there was not enough trust in the horse.

It comes down to awareness. Do you understand the trust level in a horse you might work with or ride? Do you know when you cross over from leadership into domination and why? And if you find yourself dominating, do you have the skills to minimally dominate so as to not destroy what trust there is? Or do you believe like Helgstrand that domination is the most effective method? He says it's necessary and his horses win Olympic Medals. This is one of the most important topics of the day in the horse world.

Helping this wonderful dude with a massage. Part of the massage is helping the horse to learn how to stretch out those tight muscles. It’s easy for humans to tell another human stretch your head this way, and it’ll ease your neck pain. For the horse, I show them and help them find ways to ease muscle tightness as much as possible. It’s amazing the trust they show me by allowing me to massage sore muscles. Horses, by nature, do not like to show weakness. Having them trust me with this secret is an honor.

Most of us have to be our own cheerleaders ( and if you’re not then start now! ) but in case no one has told you lately I am proud of you !!!!

Happy Halloween !! 🎃🎃🎃

Fantastic weather for a massage and body work on this handsome boy. Always On Stride Horsemanship. Charming Creek is a scenic facility!

Super excited to start working with these 2 amazing boys and their family! They will both need some careful and thoughtful planning to get them back into condition as they both have their own individual challenges. I will keep you posted as we enjoy this journey! Drunken Spur Ranch

The most important part of any session with your horse is a slow warmup with stretching. This increases bloodflow and mobility while helping to prevent injury in both you and your horse!

After a nice ride and a bath. Spending some quality time with this guy.

Everything we do affects their posture and everything they do can affect our posture. Learning to work together and follow each other’s motion is important in creating a smoother ride for both of you.

𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘃𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗲.

It's an essential part of good horsemanshipe, a contributory factor to ensuring health and extends your horse's working life.

As I get ready to make some Easter candy and break out my favorite cookbook, I come across the reason I will always try to be a better rider, horseman, trainer, instructor and person. This horse here was my biggest challenge and my best teacher. She made me question everything I had been taught and had me asking ‘Is there a better way?’ I will always be grateful to Stride for she is a huge part of who I am today. Enjoy the holidays everyone!! ••• Stride and I at the Lebanon area fairgrounds a few (hahahaha) years ago 😃 •••

Have you ever seen this lump on a horse’s neck? As a massage therapist, trainer and instructor I have seen it far too often. It is the unfortunate result of horses being forced to hold their necks in a position that will cause permanent damage. Let them carry themselves more naturally, a fit horse with slow methodical training can carry themselves beautifully but it can (and should) take years to achieve this level of fitness and training. Most importantly, at the highest level of fitness and training, a horse’s nose should never be pulled back towards the chest. Sadly, once a horse starts to be ‘broken at the third’, they will often default to this posture and it can be extremely difficult to help them hold themselves naturally ever again. knowledge is powerful. We all hold the power to make horses lives better starting today 🐴💕