Rudy Horsemanship

Rudy Horsemanship Encouraging equestrians to Dream Big with their horse and then we show them how to live those Dreams. Ask about Video Review lessons!
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Danee Rudy runs Rudy Horsemanship based in Jonestown PA. Danee has competed through PSG level Dressage on the same mustang that she gentled for the 2008 Midwest mustang makeover earning 6th out of 60. She also has an extensive show jumping background and enjoys bridleless riding. She now competes in Working Equitation and is loving it! Danee has a broad education including horse and human biomech

anics, starting young horses, teaching advanced riders and absolute beginners. She has a way with words and her teaching style is very direct, but also a little tongue in cheek, which often results in lots of laughter and BIG results. Danee creates 95% of the content on the page. Lisé Lavine is also an instructor at Rudy Horsemanship, is clinic coordinator, and may be who you chat with if you message the page (If not Danee). Lise has worked hard to overcome many body issues, which makes her a great teacher that many can relate to. Lise is a spunky cheerleader to all the students and friends at Rudy Horsemanship, has a great eye for detail, and is just plain fun. Danee and Lise teach clinics and lessons on and off farm. Their students are doing everything from learning basics and ground work, to earning their bronze Dressage rider medals, riding bridleless, jumping, obstacles, and more. Join a clinic, haul in for a lesson in Jonestown PA, utilize one of our many lesson horses, or sign up for video review lessons with Danee from anywhere in the world!

06/19/2026

Renvers in hand! Watch poor Dudley struggle. 🤣

06/18/2026

Just because a horse is lovely for you to take Lessons on, doesn’t mean you’re ready to take one home.

06/17/2026

DO SPANISH WALK!!!!
Not only is it biomechanically fabulous for your horse, but learning to put it together and forward motion takes A LOT of timing!!
Alicia is ROCKING IT!!!!
This kid has naturally great rhythm and figured it out very quickly. I haven’t done this with near enough students. 🫣 but those I have done it with have not picked it up near this quickly.

I guess I need to get more of my lesson Horses Spanish walking!

Considering how life-changing this one stretch is, you would think I would remember to do it twice a day. 
06/17/2026

Considering how life-changing this one stretch is, you would think I would remember to do it twice a day. 

You want enough bend in your elbows that you have room to take or give! If your elbows are near straight, you can’t give...
06/17/2026

You want enough bend in your elbows that you have room to take or give!
If your elbows are near straight, you can’t give.
If your upper arm is straight up and down, you can’t use your hands without pulling your elbows behind your back.

Lisé is doing an amazing job of making her ridiculously short arms look not short by having them so well placed! That is especially important in this picture because this is the FIRST ride for this mare in tack! This is her first time being ridden in a saddle and the Hackamore (her handful of other rides so far have been in a halter and ba****ck)
(I guess I should do a post on “middle age lady c**t starting”)

The only thing I’m going to add is don’t do this stupid thing with your pinky. I’m not sure how she hasn’t broken it yet. I understand her cheating with the pinky when one-handed, but she has no excuses to handed on a baby horse…. So I’m going to use public shame to see if I can get her to finally fix it!!!! Everyone please make fun of her dastardly pinky!! And if you have stories (or better yet pictures) of finger injuries sustained while riding with extended digits, please share!!!!!!!!

(we should probably also shame Andrea Mills into putting on a damn helmet,  because I think harassing her might actually work. Don’t even bother telling Ada to put on FREAKING SHOES!!! Because no amount of pestering her will be successful. Her piggies were meant to be wild and free apparently.)

Yes, this is how I show my friends love. ❤️😆🫣.

Today Bri was working on Dudley’s transitions online. Somewhere in this Horse’s past somebody was hard and fast about g...
06/15/2026

Today Bri was working on Dudley’s transitions online. Somewhere in this Horse’s past somebody was hard and fast about groundwork. (likely Clinton Anderson style- yeah, I’ll say it).
Last week she was a little too abrupt, and that brought out tension in him. This week she over corrected and was a little too soft. She would use her body language, but then not follow through right away, because she was focused on not being abrupt. But then he started to ignore her, and blow through her requests.

This is pretty common.
Judging how much pressure to use is a huge part of horsemanship, and the point that I want to make in this post is that there is no single answer that’s always correct!!! Sometimes you’re gonna have to get in their face and be loud and be seen!!! and the very next time you might have to bring it back to a whisper.

Sometimes being on this pendulum is definitely a bad thing as you bounce back-and-forth between causing fear, and being totally ineffective 🫣. But there’s also no such thing as just staying perfectly centered in some make believe perfect middle ground!!! Ideally, you need to learn to work this pendulum with purpose and make it really work for you! If a horse is being emotional and not paying attention, you might need to swing towards the assertive side, but then the moment the horse is focused you need to be able to immediately and dramatically dial it in.
Sometimes you barely give the horse a whisper and you give them a lot of time to figure out and complete your request. But other times you need to demand that they are timely!! And sometimes this happens back to back and you need to know how to use your body language differently, depending on which side of the pendulum you’re currently tapping into.

Whether it’s ground work or riding, sometimes we want an immediate transition and sometimes we want a soft relaxed one. Learning how to ask for each is one skill set, and learning which one is ideal in this moment is another skill set!! 

If you feel like you are always soft and quiet with all of your requests, think about working in some “I need this NOW” type requests. And if you are used to asking for big things now (maybe your initial horsemanship Education was Clinton Anderson DVDs 🫣) maybe focus on some soft gradual transitions and changes of position.

I will say the one thing I’ve always given Clinton Anderson total credit for is lighting a fire under the asses of the stereotypical too soft Grandma type middle-aged women who have no boundaries with their horses. If that’s you, then I guess go ahead and get those CA DVDs. But if you’re the type of person that already tends to go hard, or be abrasive, and is quick to punish, then maybe learn some clicker training. 
Learn to use the cookie and the stick!! And if you are a taskmaster, then try to focus on more praise, and if you know you are a pushover, then learn to shake the damn lead rope!!

But the point that I really want to make is that master Horsemen are not some perfect middle ground-  rather they are the people who have mastered both ends of the pendulum  and can swing back back-and-forth between extremes when necessary!

It’s amazing how often people don’t actually know what a haunches in is…. Like they do a counter shoulder in, and they...
06/14/2026

It’s amazing how often people don’t actually know what a haunches in is…. Like they do a counter shoulder in, and they think it’s a haunches in.
Spoiler: it’s not
I don’t judge people for not knowing what they don’t know, but this is a common one!!

And then I have a lot of students that do know what a haunches is in is, but they still get very confused by the terms travers and renvers. Again, no judgment! It IS confusing!!!! But it would serve you well to learn these terms to where they feel natural.  And also how to position your body into each one without having to think so hard about it!!

This picture is ALMOST a haunches in/travers…. The angle is fine,  but badger needs more bend through the rib cage,  and a little right flexion at his poll joint, before I would call it a haunches in.  Right now it’s more like a nose to the wall leg yield. Emmy is doing a great job, positioning her hips!  But in this moment of time, her shoulders are facing a little too much out instead of looking straight ahead,  which is probably why Badger is not quite bending. (he is definitely one of our harder horses to get this movement on!) she could also take a couple steps to lift the inside rein,  to help get some lateral flexion without losing the angle. 

But I’m using this picture not to point out what’s wrong but to show people that you can just GO TRY IT!!!!! so what if you only get half of the requirements?  What’s the alternative? NOT practice until it’s perfect??? (Another spoiler: that’s NOT how practice works!!!)

I’m gonna keep repeating this phrase-
 It’s only hard until it’s not!

Master the free walk to working walk to collected walk transitions! The free walk to working walk is honestly one of the...
06/12/2026

Master the free walk to working walk to collected walk transitions!

The free walk to working walk is honestly one of the hardest dang transitions!!! Yet you have to do it at the lowest levels! Start with a horse on a completely loose rein, like pictured…. (not a competition style free walk.) Pick up one rein, and ask your horse to soften to it. “Soften” can mean a few different things. Maybe you ask for bend. Maybe you lead that front foot onto a turn. Maybe you ask the opposite front foot to abduct (away from body). Maybe the horse just softens the poll and jaw.
Maybe try all those things! If it’s not going great, try the easiest one. If it is going great, try the ones that’s the hardest. But the idea is that we want to pick up just one side and wait for the horse to respond with softness. Too often we gather up both reins, and the horse’s initial reaction is to brace!!! Fix that one rein at a time.
Then you can start going from free walk to working walk ON A CIRCLE!!!!
One of my biggest complaints with Dressage test is that we always have to do that transition on a straight line or from a diagonal into the rail.

But another transition you’re really going to want to master is from working walk to collected walk back to working walk without marring the rhythm! This is going to help you dramatically when it’s time to do walk pirouettes (which double coefficients) and will also help build your piaffe!
How much can you collect the walk without losing rhythm?

If you’re getting the same heat wave that we are, this is a great time to work on some advanced walk work!

If you really struggle with fear, I encourage you to DO SOMETHING!!! Push the edges of your comfort zone in any directi...
06/11/2026

If you really struggle with fear, I encourage you to DO SOMETHING!!!
Push the edges of your comfort zone in any direction that they will move.
Maybe the canter just horrifies you.
OK, so don’t canter, but do other stuff!
Practice your sitting trot more.
Try riding one-handed. 
Go for a walk around the outside of the arena.
Sit on your horse ba****ck.
Ride other horses.
Make your horse a master of canter on the lunge line.
If you are afraid to ride at all, still go to the barn, still do ground work, still tack up. Start a physical fitness program.

Your wants and dreams may shift.
THAT’S FINE!!!!! 
You might regain your confidence and more and ride, wild and woolly into the sunset! 🌅
Or you might shift your goals completely and find out that you really enjoy doing liberty.
Or you might sell the horse that’s not a good fit for you and that horse goes onto flourish with someone else and you instead take riding lessons and enjoy riding lots of different horses that are better suited for you

None of these things are failures. 
Stop focusing on what you can’t do and focus on what you can. Grow in whatever direction the sun shines!

Address

81 Huckleberry Road
Jonestown, PA
17038

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 9pm
Tuesday 9am - 9pm
Wednesday 9am - 9pm
Thursday 9am - 9pm
Friday 9am - 9pm
Saturday 9am - 9pm
Sunday 9am - 9pm

Telephone

(717) 623-3409

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