horses and sunsets

“he’s of the colour of the nutmeg. and of the heat of the ginger…he is pure air and fire; and the dull elements of earth and water never appear in him; he is indeed a horse, and all other jades you may call beasts.” ― william shakespeare, henry v

[saintdevote]

First female winner at Badminton in 11 years. First female New Zealand winner ever. First four-star win.

[shenotbusybeingborn-isbusydying]

Unstoppable

Wild Atlantic Way/ Ireland: https://vimeo.com/179194372

[tolackcolour]

Most of the time the sun’s retreat marks the end of a ride -with thoughts of dinner on both parties minds- but not always. Sometimes there are those nights when the sun dips down below the trees without you noticing (except for the way that the world gets a little quieter) and your horse doesn’t turn and look longingly towards home but keeps walking towards the falling sunlight, ears and eyes and brisk steps saying, “lets go just a little further..” and you agree with him, enchanted by the stange light reflected in the creek, a shining silver path straight into the mouth of a sun gone to sleep. We walk until the sun is gone, and until the last glimmers of refracted light have disappeared from the creek bed, and the whole world seems cloaked in thick velvet and the only sound for miles is the rhythmic splashing of Osiris’s hooves striking water. We’ll walk like that, a waiting game of trading light, until the moon rises over the mountain, painting the world in shades of blue and leads us back home to our beds.

[icallheruns-old]

horseback riding expectation: there is no greater bond than one between a rider and their horse. No one can ever understand the joy of riding such a majestic and heavenly creature. We are One.

horseback riding reality: this is my Giant Dog she waits until my face is next to her butt then farts in it

[clickerpunk]

Sometimes i feel like the shittiest horse owner ever. But when i get to the barn and see a horse who desperately wants to be with me i become sure that i’m at least doing something right. 

Like if i call her when she’s in the field, she instantly drops whatever she’s doing to come with me. 

I’ve stopped using a leadrope when i go get her because i don’t need one. She follows me anyway. 

If i bring one of the other horses in instead of her, she will look so concerned that i’m leaving her behind and tries to squeese her way in too. 

If i put her in her stall with a pile of hay before brushing or training, she will refuse to eat the hay and instead hang out of her stall waiting for me to bring her out. 

While the other horses are difficult to bring in, she refuses to go back out. Doesn’t matter how green the field is or how nice her friends are.

i’m a shit rider and trainer but at least she enjoys doing stuff with me. 

[howaboutanothercupofcoffee]

I can relate to this so much

[horsiie]

Horse in Motion, Eadweard Muybridge, ca. 1886

[silly-fox-in-sox]

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Frosted is very happy to be out on a frosty morning.

[elliebirduh]

autumn walks with the fire beastie <3

[elliebirduh]

[icallheruns-old]

dis nerd

[atasteofsunshineandwhiskey]

[mother-of-friesians]

paard by Willem Bosveld

[icallheruns-old]

my cousin had a go on the boy <3

[silversnaffles]

reblog if you own an arab horse - full bred or part bred!

I have a pb Arab called Amera, and I just love seeing other people’s arab pons too, so reblog and I’ll follow and probably fall in love with your horse/s! 

[silversnaffles]

Okay I didn’t realise more people had reblogged this so I’m now going through and following people 😂 sorry for the wait! Also a lot of people who reblogged this I already follow so just a heads up! 💕

[won-der-land89]

[bovicola]

[icallheruns-old]

summer

[theclassicalhorse]

Clicker training tends to focus mostly on the Positive Reinforcement aspect of training. That is, the trainer will look for behaviors that they can reward their horse for. The goal is to create and expand these good behaviors until the horse has a large and varied skill set. In addition to this, clicker trainers will often look for ways to lessen or eliminate the use of correction or pressure-based training.  Safety, of course, is always the #1 concern for both horse and handler. So in order to create a situation where we can focus mainly on the reward part of training, steps need to be taken to ensure our safety. This includes working with a protective barrier (putting a fence between you and the horse for instance), working in a quiet and familiar environment in the beginning, and also by establishing foundation behaviors that will help a horse learn to be patient and respectful. So what is to be done about the bad behaviors then? Simply ignore them? Well, yes. Ignore and do not reinforce. What is not reinforced will soon fade away and the good, reinforced behaviors will take its place. Clicker training is about rewarding what you like and ignoring what you don’t like. But………won’t I be letting my horse get away with being bad? Well, tell me what being ‘bad’ looks like to the horse. How often do you believe that horses are intentionally trying to misbehave or ‘one-up’ their humans? Take every bad behavior you’ve seen a horse do and really think about where that behavior is coming from. When you really analyze the situation, you’d probably discover the same thing I have: that the bad behavior is often a manifestation of fear, confusion, anxiety, frustration, over or under-stimulation, or any combination of these things.

Mary Kitzmiller ~ Mary Kitzmiller Horsemanship  (via theclassicalhorse)