Farm Vlog #1 (Hannah and Daisy)

Since October of 2017, I have been working and riding with my good friend Hannah Neumann. She is an assistant trainer at a successful barn in the south during the summer. During the winter months, she comes back to finish off her college career. Hannah has always been a good friend to me, but this winter she went above and beyond to help me pursue my passion of working with horses.

Over the past couple of months she has helped me learn as much as I possibly can. She not only coaches me but always tells me the reason behind everything I do on the horse. This helps me to understand the horse I'm on and also hone my ability to feel a horse.

The biggest thing she has been pushing me to understand is when a horse is in their happy balance place. This can only happen when a horse is moving up and forward, engaging all of their body while moving as one. Their neck is below the line of their withers and their nose is slightly tucked in. This allows for the horse to be balanced all over and, therefore, happy.

A happy horse is able to move and feel comfortable. When the horse is blanketed, there is no need to pick at the horse as they quickly are able to find their balance point on their own. In order to help you best understand what a balanced horse looks like I decided to take a video with Hannah. In this video you will first see the horses natural canter. This is the type of canter she would perform in her pasture or when being ridden and not being helped. The second time you will see the horse canter while being properly balanced by the rider. Once the horse is put into her balanced position she should keep balanced until told otherwise by the rider. The horse will also catch on and realize they move the best when in this balanced position. Once they figure this out they will always keep this position.