🎧 Ten Minute Tuesday is here! This week’s challenge is all about perfecting your practice. Not practicing EVERYTHING, all the time. That causes confusion - for horse and rider. Pick just one thing for you and one thing for your horse. 📝 Take 10 minutes and answer these three questions: 1️⃣ What do I need to practice to get where I want to go? 2️⃣ What does my horse need to practice to get where we want to go? 3️⃣ If we practiced only those two things for the next three weeks, what would happen? Better yet… Who would you become as a pair? This week, don’t worry about accomplishing more. Just commit to practicing those two things every time you’re with your horse. 👇 Share your answers below! I’d love to hear: - What’s the one thing you’re practicing? - What’s the one thing your horse is practicing? Let’s encourage each other and see where three weeks of intentional practice takes us. 💙🐴

I created a new post category called, Resources I Love. It's just a place for me to put random things that I liked and you might find interesting along your journey 💙 But, for the topic of the day! Notice the Moments of Connection This week, I want you to spend ten quiet minutes simply watching a group of horses. No agenda. No trying to figure out who’s “dominant.” No assigning personalities or telling yourself a story about what you’re seeing. Just observe. One of the easiest things to notice is the direction each horse is facing. Pay attention to moments when two or more horses naturally align their bodies so their spines are parallel. They might be standing shoulder to shoulder, grazing several feet apart, or resting across the pasture—but when their bodies are aligned, they’re sharing a moment of connection. As you watch, ask yourself: - Which horse was already standing there? - Did another horse choose to align with them? - How long do they stay in that position? - When one horse shifts away, does another adjust to stay connected? - Does the same horse always seem to initiate the alignment, or do those roles naturally change? You may notice that leadership isn’t nearly as fixed as we’ve been taught. Instead, horses often take turns influencing one another, responding, following, and reconnecting without force or fanfare. Most importantly, resist the urge to decide what it means. Simply notice what happens. Leadership begins with observation. The more carefully we watch horses, the more we realize they have been communicating all along—we just haven’t always been taught the language.

One of the things we explored at Happy Horse Camp was synchronization. Not control. Not obedience. Synchronization. This is the ability for two nervous systems to find the same rhythm and move together. This week, I want you to spend 10 minutes seeing how closely you can match your horse. If you're leading your horse: can you match their front footfalls and their rhythm? How hard or easy is it for you to stay with them? If you're standing still with your horse, can you match their breathing? Does your horse take more or less breaths than you do? If your horse is out in the pasture grazing, can you match their front feet stance with your legs? What about their hind legs? Can you be interested in the grass too? If they walk around, can you match those front footfalls? Dip in to what you feel here. When do you feel like a connection is made and the following gets easier? Does your horse get more tense when you do this or do they relax? Do they get curious about what you are doing?

I realized that I forgot to post the weekly experiment here! You should have all gotten it in your newsletters, but I would love to know how the experiments go. Tell me what you learned, what you felt, were you able to do it? Ten Minute Tuesday: Can You Lead From Behind? Most of us are used to leading our horses from the front or right next to their head. We guide, we push, we pull. We decide where we’re going. But what happens if you don’t? Try this when you visit your horse today: Grab your lead or longe line and go into an arena or paddock. Instead of sending your horse in a circle… just walk. Let your horse choose the direction. You follow. You stay beside them (at a safe distance). You choose the pace. If they stop and look at something—pause. Be curious with them for a moment. Then ask them to go again… without changing your position. What do you notice: • Do they feel more relaxed? • More confident? • Are they looking for you? • Trying to pull away from you? • Are they confused? Try it and tell me what you notice 👇

This week’s 10-minute experiment I call The Energy Ladder. Master the rungs and then climb the ladder faster to refine your horse's response. Start on the ground. Ask your horse to walk off. Either straight ahead with your or out on a circle, doesn't matter, whatever is easy for you. How did it feel? Do they walk on promptly with purpose at the lightest touch or maybe just your intention? No? Good. Now you can play with The Energy Ladder. What is the least amount of pressure or ask you'd like to use to get your horse moving? Save that as your first rung. What are you ACTUALLY having to do to get your horse moving? Save that as your third rung. Your second rung will be an action in between the first and third-pick whatever aid or combo of aids that works for you. The fourth rung is an action bigger or more enticing than the third rung. This could be using a tool - like a stick - or using something like food. What is going to really motivate your horse, KINDLY? Start asking for each rung of the ladder VERY CLEARLY and SLOWLY. Whenever your horse moves off, give a big HAPPY release! Simply notice when your horse goes. Is it always rung 3 or do they start moving off sooner? This week is about gathering data and noticing. Next week, we'll work on refining the ladder! If you want to hear more talk about, listen or watch this week's podcast episode. Here is a video of me doing this in the backup 👇