Eicher Horsemanship

08/15/2025

We are wrapping up the first week of Whispers training here with me before she is up for sale to a lucky person!!

This mare has been so easy to work with so far. Thoughtful, kind and willing she has spent her first week getting saddled up and round pen work, as well as walking on the hot Walker and standing tied in the hub of activity at the barn.

She has had to deal with horses coming and going from said hub, she has seen the tractor working the outdoor arena at close proximity, she received a massage and has loaded and unloaded with confidence each day!!

I am very pleased with all she has tackled this week. A few more things on groundwork I want to check off before throwing a leg over but it won’t be long!

08/11/2025

Yesterday we welcomed in a new horse for training who will also be for sale!

Whisper is a 3 year old bay AQHA mare, standing at 14.3 hh and 1100 lbs. She will get her c**t start and be available for sale then. She came from Shelton Quarter Horses in Council Idaho.

She trailered nicely, and once at my place we trimmed her a bridle path, braided her tail, got the fly boots on and took all her measurements and “before” photos.

She is a sweet mare and I am excited about our time together.

08/02/2025

Hey friends!!

I know I have been very quiet this summer here on this platform. I have had a lot going on in my life, family medical emergencies that lead to months in and out of rehab centers, endless doctor follow ups and more.

Trying to split my focus between my house and the boarding barn in Star I am working at.

Playing with Suede my yearling and making sure I am giving him adequate attention while he is young, growing and learning many early lessons.

And my own kids who have shown more interest in horses this summer than ever before.

Finally I think life is settling back into a routine where I am going to get some more lessons up and running. If you are interested in scheduling time with me please comment here and or message me.
I will be reaching out to several of you very soon as well.

05/13/2025

Resharing this. My original content was recently taken without permission or credit and is being posted by another page as their own.

Buck Brannaman said something I wrote into my clinic journal and have been mulling over a lot. A clinic attendant asked how many times she would need to correct something that her horse was doing. Buck said “If you are asking that question it means you have already failed at this whole thing! It tells me and the horse you are putting mental limitations on how many times you are willing to correct it. If you find yourself asking “how many times.......” you might as well quit cause it means you aren’t willing to do whatever it takes to turn out a good horse. You have to be willing to do it as many times as the horse is going to do it and nobody knows how much that will be. Do it till it’s fixed.”

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I have been finding this quote pop up in my brain in a lot of areas of my life lately. This is one of my favorite parts of riding and training horses. I find SO many areas where this journey is more about me and my character than about a step by step program for the horses. How often do I let my emotions take over and make me ask that question, how many more times will I have to......reassure the horse who spooks.........clean up the kids toys.......wash these dishes.......fold laundry........work thru a disagreement with my husband......correct that behavior in my kid......deal with a difficult go worker.......correct the buddy sour horse........remind the horse to keep out of my space.........fill it in with your own situation.
Learn to recognize when you have set mental limitations and how that self sabotages your progress with frustrated emotions because it isn’t happening in your timeline.

04/04/2025

I know the weather is getting so nice and y’all are excited for lessons to start back up. I need a couple more weeks to get the ponies back into the swing of things.

Most of us don’t love the idea of trying ride even a small buck like this so it’s important for me to get them all saddled up, warmed up and back into the working mindset. Even some of the older horses can get a little froggy in the springtime lol.

I promise!!! SOON🥰

03/12/2025

We all know spring is here when the muck buckets around the barn start looking like this 🤪

02/23/2025

Consistency vs Creativity

As I have encountered more and more horses and owners over the years something interesting has come up often.

We have to learn there is a need to balance consistency with creativity.

Horses and humans thrive with consistency. It helps with feeling safe. It gives clear parameters of behaviors. It allows us to build muscle memory and proficiency of skills.

But to much consistency can also produce boredom. It can produce dullness and frustration.
Apathy and carelessness. For both horse and human!!

Creativity can bring fun and inspiring experiences. It can be very engaging for horses and humans to mix up routines and activities. It can be so satisfying to accomplish a new version of a familiar task.

Too much creativity can feel like chaos though! Is can be discouraging to never master or understand the goals each day. It can create a sense of tension and always second guessing if you truly hit the mark.

Learning to balance the two can be very tricky. Some of the equation comes with the personality of the horse. Some horses NEED greater amounts of consistency in their lives. These horses are often the ones that view life with more skeptical viewpoint, the nervous type. Yet with NO creativity they don’t grow their tolerance for the unknown.

While other horses truly need us to be more creative or they feel the need to act out OR shut down in response to soul crushing levels of consistent drills and expectations. Often a more confident curious horse. Yet these horses need to realize there is comfort within boundaries of consistent ex*****on of skills.

For instance we need a horse to consistently respect the halter and the constraints a halter asks of them, to safely lead somewhere, stand tied or be loaded into a trailer. Yet we can do a lot of things in fun ways to keep the horse connected and listening to us, like when you do catch your horse what if you sometimes backed thru a gate or stall door instead of walking forward thru it? Or stop halfway thru and back up before going all the way thru? What if you send your horse out of the gate in front of you but sometimes walk ahead of them?

Sometimes I ask my horses to lunge on different lengths of lines, sometimes with trot poles, sometimes with barrels set up like a tunnel, sometimes loose in a round pen, sometimes with a saddle on sometimes without. But always when I lunge them, they have to listen to the halter and rope and always I pick the direction and speed they go.

These are just a few examples of this concept. Learning to balance it can be tricky at times. All consistency can be boring but all creativity can be chaotic.

Photo credit Stephanie Ratto Photography

02/19/2025

You know…not every horse is actually gorgeous. Not every good working horse has great conformation. Not every horse has the ability to build heavy muscling. Not every horse will get fat.

Just like people horses are all unique. They have flaws, they have weaknesses. My girl Serenity is an interesting case. Under a saddle she isn’t ugly. She doesn’t appear to have obvious issues.
In some ways she is a pretty nice little horse honestly. But she is quite dainty. Her feet while fitting to her overall size are a 00 size. Her height on a good day is 14.2 and she generally weighs in at 850 lbs.

Strip away her saddle and the flaws start to make themselves painfully obvious. She is genetically swaybacked. The medically correct term is lordosis. She will never have a great top line, no amount of feed, supplements or exercise can fix this for her. Hers is a structural flaw in her body.

She looked like this despite having never carried a rider before her 15th birthday! No one caused it, she was born with it.
And it also causes her to appear skinnier than she actually is, though as previously stated she IS quite small. It makes certain movements more difficult for her.

It can be worked around. She is strong, healthy, and happy. She carries me and my heavy saddle without much complaint for hours on end at times.

Serenity reminds us to not judge a book by its cover. Pretty is as pretty does and in this Serenity is very very pretty 😍

02/14/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/163EcZ1jt5/?mibextid=wwXIfr

QUICK TIP
Broke to lead vs Broke to follow

Often times when we get young horses in that are home grown and started, we run into a leading issue. It’s not a big deal but is often confusing to the owner when we try to explain that the horse isn’t very halter broke. A halter broke horse is broke to LEAD.

When a horse is broke to lead, they follow the leadrope where ever it takes them, it doesn’t matter what’s on the other end. It can be a person, a dog, a horse trailer, a hot walker, etc. The better they are broke to lead, the more they will listen to the leadrope in a difficult situation.

When a horse is broke to follow then they follow a person around and they happen to be wearing a halter and leadrope. Generally when they get startled the leadrope means nothing and they try to drag the person off or they get loose.

So as a c**t starter which one do we want? Well BOTH of course! We want them broke to lead to help them through difficult situations. It makes them safer to lead and ride, and we can keep them from running off and getting hurt. It also helps them be tied up.

We want them broke to follow so that they are easier to catch and we can build a better relationship with them. Horses who follow and willingly choose to be with us tend to have more confidence in people and enjoy being around them.

If you’re raising a young one of your own, get BOTH of these things good! If you don’t know how then call your favorite trainer and get a lesson. They can also check your work if you think you’ve already got it good. 🤠

01/10/2025

A trailering tip for today!

01/05/2025

I found two hidden treasures at the thrift store today.

As I thumbed through the one book it really struck me that if more people would study this type of book we could spend a lot less time arguing and throwing around opinions and false information in Facebook groups.

Now granted some information needs updating occasionally but man these really are a gold mine of correct conformation terminology, photos showing footfalls of the gaits, equipment glossaries ect….

I will be adding these to my equine lending library.
If you are local to the Middleton Idaho area and want to come check out the library please reach out! I have both fiction and non fiction, books and dvds in my library ready to take your horse knowledge to the next level.