Category: Advice

The Prep Before the Trail

Last week Monica wrote about riding different horses on the trail. This week I wanted to talk a little about riding non-trail horses on the trail. In my experience, a lot of people buy horses for a particular job like dressage, eventing, barrel racing, jumping, reining, skijoring, mounted shooting, or any number of other jobs. After…



Changing horses

I have ridden quite a few different horses in my life. It’s not because I am a professional rider or even a competitive amateur. Quite the opposite. For most of my life I have depended on the kindness of friends (and even strangers) who let me ride their horses. I’ve also moved around a lot…



To Lead or to Follow – Gaining Confidence (and Not Always Staring at Horse Butts)

My horse, Prophet, used to hate to go on trail rides. Asking him to lead the group was the equivalent of asking me to lift a car over my head or sing in key. It just was. not. happening. I’m talking full-on tantrum – spook like it’s his job and he’s looking for a promotion,…



Precious Hooves – Shoeing for the Trail

Is your horse barefoot? Have two shoes? Four shoes? What is the best shoeing strategy for trail riding? I recently had the opportunity to spend a day with my farrier, Jen Poulin, and interview her about farriery (yes, that is a word) for the trail horse. She gave me a lot of great information which…



Outfitting a Horse Trailer

I am an organization geek so when I recently bought my first horse trailer, I spent a lot of time outfitting it so that the horses would be comfortable and our gear would be easily accessible without the tack room being a jumbled pile of stuff. I thought that I would share what I did…