✨ Consistency beats intensity with horses...always. Five or seven calm repetitions over five or seven days will outperform one big training session anyday. Horses learn through repetition they can process and not through pressure they feel they have to survive. Think of those horses that do not want to enter an arena or lunge pen, it is a message. 'I do not want to go in there, it does not feel nice!' Big efforts can feel productive but steady, predictable practice is what builds understanding, confidence, and reliability. People think I spend days on end, and many hours training my horses. This is far from reality where doing what I do as a horse professional and educator, unfortunately my horsemanship pretty much most of the time comes last. It is a sacrifice very common for those that help others. So, I always take it as a compliment because I know it's the break down of subjects and training over sessions when I can that creates this illusion rather than the latter. Some subjects are revisited months and even years later, but the horse never forgets. I will never take that for granted. Therefore and with certainty I know good horsemanship can be built in layers, so long as we understand the why, the how and the bigger picture. 👉 Question: What is one exercise/communication/subject you are training that might improve more through repetition than effort? Zoë 🐴✨🫶

Just reading through posts and I am thinking @Zoë Coade shall we all create a recommended book list? Alongside all your wonderful classrooms 🙂 We all have so many we have read and been inspired by📚📘📕📖📙📗 🐴🤠🌟 Thoughts? I am not sure how to set up in the skool so sharing this post for now....maybe another page just share where we can add our "Book Brief" recommendations??? ☺️🫶🐴🥕

✨ A calm-looking horse is not always a comfortable horse. This is what I believe can make horsemanship difficult. Stillness can come from understanding but it can also come from confusion, shutdown, or lack of options. True comfort shows up as curiosity, softness, processing and the freedom to respond, not just the absence of movement or expression. Learning to tell the difference matters because a horse that looks easy isn’t always a horse that feels safe or understood. 👉 Question: What signs help you Get Good at telling the difference between true comfort and quiet compliance? Zoë 🐴✨🫶

✨ Horses learn in windows (moments), not in straight lines. There are moments when a horse is open, curious, and available and moments when they’re simply not. Pushing through a closed window doesn’t create progress. It creates what I refer to as negative tension. So the more tools we have, and the courage to stand behind our knowledge the sooner we can turn this around in to positive tension. This also helps prevents roadblocks in our progress. Our job isn’t to force the lesson, it’s to notice when the window opens and Get Good at stepping in quietly. 👉 Question: What tools do you feel are missing in your knowledge set allowing you to turn tensions around more positively. Zoë 🐴✨🫶

✨ Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result doesn’t create better horses - it creates stuck patterns. If we want different responses, calmer reactions, or more willingness, we must change first. Growth on the human side is not optional, it’s the foundation. Great horses aren’t raised by repeating old habits. They’re raised by humans willing to Get Good at learning, adapting, and doing better. 👉 You being here tells me you’ve already chosen that path. Question: What is one skill you need to Get Good at changing now, besides what you may have already mentioned in other posts, and to support your horse differently? Zoë 🐴✨🫶