Wearing loose side reins connected to her halter What is the drive line? (video with Katy Pistole, Beautiful Brokenness Ministries) April 29, 2023 Training All the building blocks! - Freya is 13 months. As I think about her training, a few things become evident. First, the time is short. Once she is a fully trained horse, she (Lord willing) will be enjoyed and ridden for many years to come. Secondly, she has wonderful energy around her. She is soft and connective, She is curious and kind. I want to preserve all those characteristics in her as she grows up. Primarily she is still operating in mostly a naturalistic (instinctual) way to new stimuli. Her life is a series of moments, and she has the default horse wiring to tell her what her response should be- But what is being layered into her now -over, and over, and over again- is focus. Keeping her attention on me as I ask her to complete very accomplishable tasks. One little learning lego block after another. There are [...]

Enjoying the sweet spring grass What is a surcingle and why is Freya wearing one? Ladies and Gentlemen- we have a yearling! It’s going to be the year of firsts. Let me say, as a lay-horse-trainer, the learning is both challenging and relaxing. Here’s an example: Everywhere Freya goes, she first goes backwards. She walks backwards before she walks forwards. This is the “gold” standard of teaching according to Katy Pistole of Beautifully Broken Ministries. Any why? It has to do with the specific way that God built Freya’s brain. Freya is a left-brained (dominant or confident) extrovert (curious) horse. The positive side of this is that she is very engaging. She loves to be where the action is, where the people are- to be the center of it all. The negative side, if left unchecked, is that she could become pushy, dominating, and unaware of people in her presence. We desire to see her become all the beauty that God has built into her little horse spirit. And not just for her, but for all the [...]