Blue Mountain Equestrian

26/04/2026

Girls just wanna have fun, and that's exactly what Abilene, Ellen, Dusty and Mini did today .

02/02/2026

If the exercise does not work for the rider or the horse, there is permission to change it.

Exercises are tools, not rules.

In movement and motor learning, the focus has shifted away from reproducing a “correct” shape and toward achieving a meaningful outcome. The purpose of an exercise is never the exercise itself. It is what the exercise is meant to develop, whether that is feel, coordination, range of motion, responsiveness, or a new movement option.

Pedagogy is the study of how people learn. Good pedagogy prioritizes understanding over compliance, experience over repetition, and adaptability over rigid application.

It doesn’t ask, “Can the rider perform the exercise?” instead we should ask, “Is the exercise supporting learning?”

When an exercise creates tension, frustration, or awkwardness, it is no longer serving its goal. In those moments, insisting that the rider conform to the exercise can block learning. The nervous system does not organize efficient movement under strain or confusion.

Exercises may be effective in principle, but they are not always appropriate for every rider in their current state. When the physical demands of a task exceed a rider’s available range of motion or coordination, the learning objective is often lost. Thoughtful modification preserves the intention of the exercise while supporting the rider’s ability to engage without strain.

Good teaching adapts the exercise to the human and the horse in front of us. We all bring different structures, histories, and movement capacities. Shaping the rider to the exercise often leads to compensation. Shaping the exercise to the rider allows for better learning.

If the outcome you are seeking is better feel, clearer communication, or more fluid movement, the path there should invite exploration, not force compliance.

Adaptation is not a lack of discipline. It is skilled pedagogy.

If the exercise does not yet fit the body, we have full permission to modify.

21/01/2026

One of the biggest myths in the horse world (and still surprisingly common in lesser educated dog training circles) is the idea that giving a horse a treat or positive attention when they’re anxious, spooky, or upset will reinforce that emotion and create a horse who continues to be anxious or spooky. But simply put, you cannot reinforce emotions, only behaviors. This is why understanding the emotional state behind a behavior is essential if we want to support the horse effectively. Emotions may influence behavior, but they are not directly reinforced, because reinforcement requires an observable action.

Take this example from my eventing days: I once listened in on a lesson with a talented upper‑level rider whose new horse had begun refusing ditches. The refusals had escalated to spinning and bolting, and the rider believed the solution was to punish the refusal harder: more kicking, more yanking, more smacks with the crop. But the refusal of these ditches was rooted in fear, and so all this punishment did was create more fear. It didn't punish the behavior of refusing, it actually made it more problematic. Every time the horse approached the ditch, the fear of the obstacle was then compounded by the punishment that followed. In her mind, she was correcting the behavior. In reality, she was intensifying the emotional state driving it and justifying the horse's feeling that they needed to stay far away from that pit.

The coach took a different approach: stop punishing the horse when he stops, and reward him instead. Let him pause, and give him comfort. Don't push him to do it if he doesn't want to. Now, if we followed the myth that this would reinforce bad behavior, we would expect this horse to continue refusing and the issue to remain. But instead, within fifteen minutes, the bolting and increasingly dangerous responses stopped. By the end of the lesson, the horse was stepping over small ditches with growing confidence.

This is because the fear causing the refusals was an INTERNAL state. While reinforcement or punishment can modify actions, and while emotions may accompany actions they are NOT what is punished or reinforced in operant conditioning. This is also why when we support a spooky horse, they become more confident rather than more flighty, and in cases like this when we are soft in the face of their fear or anxiety we can soothe them into becoming more confident. In a majority of cases, addressing the emotion rather than the behavior is the true cause behind change: and thanks to classical conditioning, we know we can change negative feelings and memories and slowly turn them into positive ones.

We see this with progress in all types of animals and behavioral issues - you can change emotions (from positive to negative or negative to positive) through changing the association and experiences which will then change problematic behaviors. Or you can reinforce / punish actions which can create mixed results. By definition it is quite impossible to create a situation in which you encourage fear or anxiety by providing comfort or rewards, with even very recent information coming out proving that horses are more relaxed and less fearful given scratches and reassurances versus not getting such support. So the next time you're worried that petting your scared horse is going to do damage or create more anxiety, rest assured that your kindness isn't going to come back to bite you for doing so. Behavior doesn't happen in a vacuum - it happens as a result of a combination of factors including (but not limited to) memory and past experiences, emotional response, and their physical state.

16/01/2026

Abilene and Ellen were so happy to be back in the saddle again .
A great way to start the new year!

27/11/2025

Signs of stress in the horse aren’t always going to be as overt as explosive behaviours, sudden displays of aggression and clear outward reactivity.

They’re prey animals and are experts at masking pain and discomfort as a result.

They “injured” prey animal is the one selected as a meal by predators. Horses have evolved with this in mind.

The eye does tell us a lot about the internal state of the horse, though.

Tension of the eye is a reliable way to start to catch even fleeting moments of low grade stress.

The stressed eye takes on a triangulated shape, with the eye lid pulled up in tension, often creating wrinkles.

A relaxed, but alert, eye is much softer in the lid, with the lid taking on a shape that more closely resembles an upside down “U”.

Starting to notice the subtle changes in your horse’s expression can help you to notice rising stress before it explodes into highly noticeable, oftentimes dangerous behaviour.

It can also be the difference between noticing injuries as they begin subtly and less severely or waiting until a substantial issue has developed.

The facial expressions of the horse have been chronically undervalued over the tradition of horse training and it’s only been in relatively recent years that this has been emphasized more.

This has led to a lot of people downplaying the significant of the subtle signs of stress.

But, with the growing body of scientific research, it is becoming more clear which behavioural signals are correlated with stress response.

This research demands a shift in how we view the horse.

And that can start with YOU and your application of this newfound knowledge.

Noticing stress behaviours and working to low stress as a result could be the ticket to dramatically lowering the number of injuries sustained by riders and handlers.

It will also improve the welfare of the horse and promote more empathetic training practices.

10/11/2025

🔥 DESENSITIZING: WHEN “TRAINING” BECOMES TRAUMA 🔥

I saw a video recently that I can’t stop thinking about.

A man was “desensitizing” his young filly — swirling a whip around her until she became terrified.
Her eyes widened, her body tensed, and she tried to escape.

He said,

“She doesn’t win until I release the pressure. Once she relaxes and I release, she’ll gain confidence.”

But what I saw wasn’t confidence.
It was the moment she gave up.

Her curiosity disappeared.
Her trust disappeared.
And all that was left was fear — and a desperate attempt to stay safe by not feeling anything at all.

That’s not leadership.
That’s survival.

This is what we still call “good horsemanship.”
We’ve been taught to believe that when a horse stops reacting, it’s learning —
when so often, it’s just learning that its feelings don’t matter.

A horse who’s truly confident doesn’t stand still because she’s shut down.
She stands still because she feels safe.

You can’t build trust by being the thing they’re afraid of.
You build it by being the reason they don’t have to be afraid anymore.

Real confidence doesn’t come from fear and release.
It comes from connection. From curiosity. From safety.

Share this post if you agree!

If you’d like to understand what leadership through connection really looks like, start here:
👉 https://www.livingthehorse.com/speakhorse 
-Jean

05/11/2025

24/10/2025

Smoochy time 🦄🦄

25/09/2025

DO HORSES REALLY ENJOY BEING TOUCHED, OR JUST TOLERATE IT?

Touch is part of almost every interaction we have with horses – grooming, routine handling, tacking-up, vet visits, even a pat after a ride. Touch is also a routine feature of equine-assisted services, yet surprisingly little is known about how horses themselves experience it. Do they actually enjoy it, or does their experience depend on having the choice to engage – the freedom to say yes, or no?

A recent study compared two situations using therapy horses who were regularly involved in equine-assisted services. In the ‘forced touch’ condition, horses were tied up and touched continuously on different body areas (neck/shoulder, body, hindquarters) using patting, stroking, or scratching. In the ‘free-choice’ condition, horses were loose in a round pen and could only be touched if they chose to come close enough.

The results showed clear differences. Horses showed more stress-linked behaviours – oral movements, restlessness, and tail swishing – when touched without the option to move away. When free to choose, they often carried their heads lower (a sign of relaxation) and spent over half of the session out of arm’s reach. Stroking was more often linked with relaxed, low head carriage than scratching or patting, and touches on the hindquarters produced fewer stress responses than touches on the neck or body.

The researchers also looked at how the horses responded to different kinds of people. Around experienced handlers, horses were more likely to hold their heads high and showed lower heart-rate variability – signs of vigilance or anticipation, perhaps expecting work. In contrast, their responses with less experienced people were generally more relaxed.

Touches on the hindquarters were linked with fewer stress behaviours, while touches on the neck and body produced more tail swishing and less relaxed postures. Horses were also more likely to lower their heads – a calmer signal – when touched on the body or hindquarters than on the neck.

Why does this matter? Horses in all kinds of contexts – riding schools, competition yards, therapy programmes, or leisure homes – are routinely touched and handled. These findings show that the manner of touch, the part of the body involved, and above all the horse’s ability to choose whether to participate all shape how she/he/they experience the interaction.

The welfare implications are clear: allowing horses more agency in how and when we touch them may reduce stress, strengthen trust, and make interactions safer and more positive for everyone.

For me, the sad part of these findings is that horses are rarely given a choice about when or how they are touched. And many people don’t recognise when touch is causing the horse stress.

Study: Sarrafchi, A., Lassallette, E., & Merkies, K. (2025). The effect of choice on horse behaviour, heart rate and heart rate variability during human–horse touch interactions. Applied Animal Behaviour Science

20/09/2025

Abilene and Ellen enjoying some horsing around on this glorious day .

18/09/2025

LET'S MERGE - 1973 (URGE TO MERGE x LITTLE PEG)

In The Electric Horseman, the horse named Rising Star was actually a five-year-old bay Thoroughbred named Let's Merge. Robert Redford, who played the protagonist Sonny Steele and did all his own riding in the film, was so impressed with Let's Merge that he purchased the horse after production wrapped and kept him at his ranch in Utah for the next 18 years until the horse passed away.

Charles Robert Redford Jr. (August 18, 1936 – September 16, 2025) was an American actor, producer and director. He received numerous accolades including an Academy Award; a BAFTA Award; and five Golden Globe Awards, as well as the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1994; the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1996; the Academy Honorary Award in 2002; the Kennedy Center Honors in 2005; the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016; and the Honorary César in 2019. He was named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2014.

The rest is history ... ❤❤