Foundation Articles

Does Your Family Complain About Your Horse Time?

If you are the sole horse person in your family, you may find that the flack about riding you get at home makes your horse time less enjoyable. If riding plays a large part of optimizing your physical, mental, and emotional health, constantly having to deal with this...

Your horse is better cared for than you are. And that needs to change.

Did the title of this post get your attention? If you're like me (and at least 97% of all the horsewomen in the world), you may be wondering what on earth I'm talking about. Of course he's better cared for! He depends on you to feed him, keep him in a safe and...

5 Steps to Better Understanding Your Horse – Day 5

We've made it to Day 5 of 5 Steps to Better Understanding Your Horse! The steps so far: Be Still Be Curious Be Patient Be Open To wrap up the series, I'm going to share the most important step - the 1 Step to Rule Them All. Be Respectful This is the foundation on...

5 Steps to Better Understanding Your Horse – Part 4

Hope you've found the first 3 posts in this series helpful! Today's step is: Be Open To set the stage, let's start with what "openness" is in this context. In an article on PsychologyToday.com, Ingrid Clayton, Ph.D., states that to" be open" means the following: "For...

Your horse is better cared for than you are. And that needs to change.

by penny | Mar 3, 2021 | Find Yourself on a Horse, Foundation, The Horsey Life

Did the title of this post get your attention? If you're like me (and at least 97% of all the horsewomen in the...

5 Steps to Better Understanding Your Horse – Day 5

by penny | Jul 31, 2020 | Foundation, The Horsey Life

We've made it to Day 5 of 5 Steps to Better Understanding Your Horse! The steps so far: Be Still Be Curious Be Patient...

5 Steps to Better Understanding Your Horse – Part 4

by penny | Jul 30, 2020 | Foundation, The Horsey Life

Hope you've found the first 3 posts in this series helpful! Today's step is: Be Open To set the stage, let's start...

5 Steps to Better Understanding Your Horse – Part 3

by penny | Jul 30, 2020 | Foundation, The Horsey Life

Welcome back! If you've been following along, you'll remember that we covered the first two steps of the process, Be Still and Be Curious in the posts Monday and Tuesday. If you haven't read them yet, visit part 1 HERE and part 2 HERE. OK, everybody ready? The third...

5 Steps to Better Understanding Your Horse – Part 2

by penny | Jul 28, 2020 | Foundation, The Horsey Life

Welcome back! Today we're on the second step in our journey toward better understanding our horses. (If you missed yesterday's post, you can read it here). Today's step is Be Curious Be Curious Being curious is vital to learning, and retaining, new information. Think...

5 Steps to Better Understanding Your Horse – Part 1

by penny | Jul 27, 2020 | Foundation, The Horsey Life

Have you ever had your horse do something totally unexpected? (If not, I’d love to meet your horse!!) It seems that just when you’re on cruise control, everything’s humming along smoothly - bang. Weird response from your horse. A sudden spook at... who knows? A shift...

Welcome to the Horsey Life

by penny | Feb 3, 2020 | Foundation, The Horsey Life

Welcome to the Horsey Life My goal in creating this blog is to share some of the knowledge (and wisdom) I’ve gathered over the past half-century or so of my own horsey life. Think of this as you’re home away from the barn.. A place to learn, and laugh, and grow. A...

Stressed? Do These 3 Things Before You Visit Your Horse

by penny | Dec 6, 2015 | Find Yourself on a Horse, Foundation

You’ve had a long day - perhaps even a long week, month, or year - and you’re ready to head to the barn to see your horse and de-stress. Before you pull on those barn boots, take five minutes to run through these 3 simple exercises. You and your horse will both be...

Welcome to the Horsey Life! Sharing Wisdom for Horse Owners

by penny | Apr 30, 2011 | Foundation, The Horsey Life

Welcome to the Horsey Life! I'm looking forward to sharing lots of wisdom for horse owners (most of which I've learned from horses) over the past several decades, and I hope you'll come along for the ride! To give you a little bit of my background, I'm a woman of a...