A lot of times when people hear “24/7 forage access” they immediately picture extremely overweight horses just standing around a hay bale. Wasting hay underfoot, gaining weight by the minute, and extremely unhealthy. I completely agree that that’s a problem! But the solution is not 2 flakes of hay two or three times a day and a scoop or two of feed. That is also equally problematic and unhealthy for your horse. Not only are you just begging for ulcers and gut issues, you’re inviting a whole slew of behavior problems. Your horse’s basic needs are just not getting met and they are suffering. So what do we do instead? We provide them with forage responsibly. • Slow feeder nets at a healthy height that never run out (the slow feeder should be adjusted so that your horse can eat as many hours as they want, and only reach about 2% of their ideal bodyweight at the end of the day). • Grazing muzzles • Rotational grazing or strip grazing • Track systems • Spacing resources apart to encourage movement (like hay on one side of the paddock and water and shelter on the other) • Diversifying forage sources (enrichment activities, different hay net locations, different types of forage, etc) • Providing safe forage types (this one is critical! Test your hay or pasture). • Make sure your horse is getting proper dental care and their gut is healthy (this one is really big, and often overlooked or only casually considered). I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again and again. Not providing proper forage sources or quantity is one of the top reasons for difficult behaviors in horses. Meeting your horse’s core needs is *critical*.

A stand-stay might look like a horse simply standing still, but really there’s an entire conversation taking place. Your horse is learning when to wait, when to respond, what the click means, how to receive reinforcement, and how to settle back into a relaxed default while waiting for what’s next. Every repetition strengthens that loop. And that loop in turn becomes a functional structure for all training. This is why I spend so much time teaching foundation behaviors. They are useful skills on their own, but really what I’m after is the framework they provide that supports everything that comes later. From leading to riding, you need all the pieces of the loop. When we understand all of the behaviors happening between one reinforcement and the next, training becomes clearer, smoother, and far more intentional. We see a significant decrease in food anxiety, confusion, frustration, and inconsistencies. The result is a happier horse, better results, and happier human. ❤️ If you’re the kind of person who loves understanding what’s happening beneath the surface (not just copying exercises) I think you’d feel right at home inside The Willing Equine Academy. It’s the place I’ve built for horse people who want to think differently, train intentionally, and keep learning long after one video ends. thewillingequine.com/academy

This is why I have 61 voicemails, 40 unread text messages, and literally thousands of unopened emails… and I have no intention of doing anything about it. I’d rather be splashing in the creek with my horse. So… that’s what I’m going to do. 🐴🌊

When I first started introducing food rewards into my training my horses were anything but happy and relaxed. Frantically searching for the food. Doing all kinds of things without me asking. Unable to settle and relax. Clearly not having a good time, despite my best intentions. 😩 Fast forward MUCH trial and error, I now know where I messed up. I created more energy, without providing structure and clarity. I asked for more motivation, without considering underlying factors that influenced how my horse felt. I rushed into the fun stuff, without laying a solid foundation first. But I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I was trying my hardest to do right by my horses, and it felt like I was absolutely failing them. I was determined not to give up though. I knew deep down there was something to this whole “positive reinforcement” thing and it could work. I just didn’t know how to make it work for us yet. So I struggled, and stumbled, and made many mistakes. And we did figure it out. Eventually. But it left me with a soul deep knowledge that I wanted to help others so they didn’t have to struggle quite the way we did. And so… The Willing Equine Academy was born! One of the first of its kind. A place for caring and deeply invested equestrians to learn how to integrate positive reinforcement focused training into their partnership with their horses. In a way that provided clarity, structure, compassionate guidance, and warm welcoming support. So if any of this struggle and frustration sounds familiar, I created The Willing Equine Academy just for you and your horse. ❤️ thewillingequine.com/academy ✨

Have you ever gone an extended period without sleep? Most new parents will know *exactly* what I’m talking about. Sleep deprivation is a *real* problem for both humans and horses. Not enough sleep can lead to an endless list of problems for both us of. Behavioral and physical. Yet, most people are unaware of how much sleep their horses are *actually* getting. Specifically REM sleep, which can only happen in a recumbent position for horses. And they need about 40 minutes a day like that to meet their basic needs. So if…. • your horse is showing any kind of behavior problems • you’re not sure how much time they spend laying down • they are reactive to touch, resistant to bodywork, are very stoic, reactive, or lethargic • you know your horse is not getting 40 minutes of laying down time regular, or maybe even just in the last day or two You now know one of the MOST important things you should be focusing on. Not your next show or your next ride (cancel those), nope. You need to be laser focused on figuring out why your horse isn’t sleeping. Could be pain (hoof, dental, joint, nerve, muscle, ligament…) environmental, lifestyle, neurological, stress… there’s a lot of potential reasons. But we can’t ask our horses to carry us around or do much when they are missing a basic component to a good quality of life. When they aren’t the thriving.

Where are my elder emos at? 🖤🎧🤘🎸 This is the kind of music I regulate to best. It soothes my mind and helps me stay in the moment. Embracing it helps me help my horses. I usually don’t listen to music while training, but I often do during bodywork. It allows my mind to drift a bit and “feel” the bodywork a little more. Instead of trying to “make” something happen. When I was first learning how to do bodywork on the horses I didn’t listen to music, but then one day I gave it a try and River (this beautiful mare here) told me YES DO THAT MORE. Haha. They know best!

Do you struggle to control your energy? ⚡️ Or struggle to understand how to change your energy to support your horse? That’s because you’re missing a key bit of information that most people don’t know about 🔑 When people (professionals and amateurs alike) say that it’s about “energy”, they actually are talking about a lot of different things. • Body movements • Intention • State of your nervous system • Breathing • Where you’re focusing Our horses learn to recognize these differences, they become “cues” as to what to do and when to access reinforcement or avoid aversive consequences. In other words, when you “decrease” your energy 📉 it might look like softening your gaze, slowing your feet, breathing out, turning your body to the side slightly, visualizing the horse slowing down, etc. And when you “increase” your energy 📈 this might look like picking up the pace, moving with more intention towards the hind end, focusing on the horse, etc. With practice your horse learns to identify these as cues (or clues) as to what you’re wanting, and they respond in kind because they’ve learned through practice that responding accordingly gets… 👉 Something pleasant 👉 Relief from or avoids an aversive It’s all science, it’s all basic learning theory, and all horses/people can do this. Too often though words like “energy” are thrown around as if it is a behavior in itself, when really in this context it’s just a term to refer to an overall collection of behaviors we do and our horses learn to respond to. I personally don’t refer to “energy” much for this very reason. I prefer to break everything down into tangible and actionable steps my students can learn to do *right now*. I find the results are better and longer lasting, and my students are more confident and successful earlier by approaching coaching in this way. While there is magic ✨ and an art 🎨 to training and our relationships with horses… everything doesn’t have to be *so hard*, with so much trial and error. Some things really are just plain and simple, and learning how to identify the plain and simple can free you and your horse to experience the magic and experience the art. Thewillingequine.com/academy

So many approaches to working with horses rely on hours and hours of repetitive training. More ground work. More sweaty saddle pads. More time in the round pen. And the worst part about it? None of it seems to stick. Take a few months off because you’re sick, get injured, or you’re just plain tired and need a break…. And your horse now needs lots of refreshing. Maybe even sent back to the trainer for a tune up. 😩 I know this because this used to be my reality too. Maybe not for every horse and every situation, but often enough that I should have recognized it as a red flag. 🚩 It wasn’t until I started training differently that I realized what I had been missing out on. How ineffective and inefficient a lot of horse training is. You know what I do now? 30 minutes a week. 😌 Yup. That’s the training time I spend with most of my horses every week. For some, where fitness is involved, we do a couple days a week. But I could still take a long break (months or a year even) and we’d pick up almost exactly where we left off in the learning department. Sure, muscle will need time to rebuild. But they remember everything, because they ENJOY it. They want to do more! It’s not something we are doing TO them, it’s something we are doing WITH them. And for severe behavior issues with a deadline? Mhmm… 20 minutes a day tops. That’s it. So if you feel like you’re on a carousel going nowhere with your horse? And you’re desperate for some time back in your day. It’s probably time to make some changes. ⬇️ thewillingequine.com/academy (link in bio 🔗)

There’s two more really cool things about this video I want to share. ⬇️ 1️⃣ River used to be scared of water 🙈 She wouldn’t even walk through a puddle let alone swim in a creek and ride through it. When she was a foal I spent a lot of time counter conditioning water through associating it with good outcomes. We did lots of clicker training sessions and simple feeding near and in water. It wasn’t complicated, it just took time and consistency. She also did a lot of observing the adult horses (particularly her adopted mother, Tiger) and that helped tremendously. But really, I contribute a lot of her change of heart on water to the power of classical conditioning. (And naming her River probably had some play too 😆😉). Classical conditioning is one of the tremendous benefits that comes with positive reinforcement focused training (clicker training). It’s built in to everything you do with your horse, as long as it’s done well. (I can’t stress that last part enough!) 2️⃣ While River picking me up IS magical, it’s also not just something that I get to experience because I got “lucky” with her. Experiences like this are both an art and a science. There’s certain a magical component to it, because horses simply just ARE magical, I don’t want to dismiss that at all, but that magic is supported by years and years of: • intentional effort • patience • personal growth and change • dedication through ups and downs (and trust me.. there’s been a lot of downs) • research • practice • training • my own skill development • just plain and simple time Really what I want to express is that as you’re here doom scrolling in social media 😉 (I’m the worst, no judgement)… watching videos like this and thinking to yourself “I wish I had that with my horse.” Don’t stop there! Go get it! Maybe it’ll look a little different than this, but you can have your own magic with your horse. First you’ll have to put in the work, but before you know it… this will be you and your horse. ✨ And if you’re ready for the magic, let me help make the work part ALSO feel magical. ➡️ thewillingequine.com/academy