Holistic Horsemanship

Holistic horsemanship is an approach to horse care and/or training, which considers the whole picture. Looking at everything you have in place, and how what you are doing with your horse influences your relationship. For example:

  • the terrain your horse has access to
  • whether they live in a herd
  • if they have horse friendly shelter
  • how natural their diet is
  • whether you give them a lot of medication
  • if they are barefoot

These are some of the management questions that are important in holistic horsemanship. There are also handling and training considerations such as:

  • whether you use equipment for control or connection
  • do you ride with your posture
  • if your training is results based or for therapeutic purposes

It is important that this approach is free of judgment of ourselves and others, and rather that it is a wish to learn alongside the horses for the sake of the partnership between us.

 

What Is A Shut Down Horse?

by

It is only really possible to discover the difference between a shut down horse and a connected one when your own agenda can take a back seat. That will always be a work in progress for most of us, because it is normal to have an agenda, and it isn’t inappropriate to have one. The issues usually arise when the human agenda conflicts with the horse agenda, and that happens fairly regularly in a horse-human partnership. Even for those who prefer to avoid riding or training. 

Read more