Reflections on a Clinic, a Successful Show, and the Barefoot Advantage

This excerpt from our August 2025 newsletter shares a note on our recent Dave Ellis clinic--where Mary rode several of her hunter-jumper trainees, a bit of team pride for our current Hoof Beats Competition team, and also Mary's thoughts on the advantage that barefoot horses have in the show ring. -ed.

...This has been such a full and wonderful summer and there’s so much more to look forward to. 

Hunter-Jumper trainee Marcus rates his cow.

Our clinic with Dave Ellis was the best yet. Like I said last letter, he is so good at finding the little pieces that make the big differences. We started with a general discussion about what we were doing with our horses and what we wanted to improve on. My desire was to improve my trainees’ flying lead changes, and Dave really delivered! His consistent focus on communication and lightness was perfect; both my young horses came away better prepared for their future in the show world. Enjoy the photo album!

We followed Dave’s clinic with the Evergreen Classic Horse Show in Cle Elum, where our Hoofbeats Competition Team dominated their divisions. Lily Robertson, Elly Dam, Hadley Wolslegel, Daniela Dam, and Bella Greimes rode like young professionals, winning champion, reserve champion, and top-ranking slots in nearly every class they entered. In timed events they placed consistently within fractions of a second of each other for those 1st, 2nd, and 3rd slots, and consistently several seconds ahead of other competitors.

Small Steps Forward: How trailer loading training makes everything better for you and your horse

 by Mary Gallagher

I have always invested a great deal of time in training my horses for trailer loading. And I mean investment…a horse that loads and unloads confidently and calmly, ready to travel, is a horse that is a great deal calmer and more confident in general. I use principles I’ve developed over the years in trailer loading training every day in my training sessions, with a wide array of horses, whether they get trailered or not.

The key to successful training for trailer loading (that applies to every interaction with your horse) is remembering and advancing in a positive progression. Before starting your session, remember where you were the last time and advance in some small way from there to end the new session.

Colt Starting for Every Rider

by Mary Gallagher

We've just completed our clinic with Martin Black (March 2025), and I’d like to share some insights and thoughts here, while they are fresh, with thanks and news as well.

Colt starting for every rider. My favorite part of Martin’s clinic each year is the colt start. While we may think of colt starting as a whole other thing, separate from the familiar parts of a clinic, I consider it the most foundational and essential, and not just for the owners of the colts (and the colts themselves)! So much of what we expect from and do with our horses is distilled in every aspect of Martin’s guidance of the young horses, with their raw emotions and fresh view of nearly everything. To watch Martin work with them is to see horsemanship and horse psychology in its simplest and most direct form. You don’t want to miss it!

Happy New Year, with Gratitude for 2024

 

As winter deepens, the days are wetter, colder, and shorter, suggesting a time to pause, reflect and give thanks for all that we have done and learned over the past year. It was such a full and productive year, there is no way to include everyone and everything that made it special. So I’ll start with gratitude for what IS… Martin Black IS with us March 26-29!!! Reserve your spot ASAP. Every year brings new experiences and insights from Martin’s unique perspective on horsemanship. The clinic sessions are fun and engaging, the colt starting session is great to watch, even if you don’t have a colt—there is plenty of horsemanship insight to be gained from watching Martin engage them, setting positive patterns for their future. We also love the daily Q&A with Martin in the comfort of our classroom. I am very grateful that Martin spends time with us every March. And now back to Nature…. For me, I look to the sun, from which we get our life force … and it sure shows up beautifully on the Olympics! When I see the sun ignite the tip of Mount Angeles, I feel new hope. For me, it’s like a prayer warming the heart, sending away the damp and cold. It’s an inspiration to live with this level of beauty every day at Freedom Farm. And here comes 2025, full of possibilities!

The Tough Love of Leadership: Teaching a Reactive Horse, Part Two

My trainee a little further on in his training--a good boy.

by Mary Gallagher

Continuing the story of “Teaching the Reactive Horse to Think..”, posted June 5, 2024. I described
helping a young, adrenaline-fueled gelding to find his feet and settle down enough to solve problems. He had spent his early years in an institutional environment with no way to learn about being a horse in a world he found confusing and scary. His new owners had sent him to me for some basic reorientation and connection training. -MG

My reactive young trainee had been lunged a lot but not taught to think. In his previous situation, his turn out privileges had been taken away because of his incessant running, which left lunging as his only other option for exercise.  For him, the round pen, too, was just another place to run away while checked out.  This disconnected behavior was not solving his problems, gave him little or no relief, and left his humans feeling beyond frustrated.  As I saw it, it was time to give this oblivious, hyper energy some purpose.  

The Ins and Outs of Trailer Loading

by Mary Gallagher

Trailer loading—a task that needs a lot of practice—was the theme of last Friday’s Ground Work class. Getting a horse to be okay at loading into  a scary cave on wheels is a challenge for the horse and handler. We warmed up using our foundational skills to establish communication cooperation and confidence in our horse partner. We did this through exercises like front end and hindquarter yields as well as stepping over and stopping over a pole going forwards and backwards.

Teaching a Reactive Horse to Think Through Problems on His Way to a Safer Life, Part One

By Mary Gallagher

Does your horse look to you for leadership?

The reactive horse generally does not, and that’s why we can learn a lot on the subject from teaching a reactive horse to respond in situations with confidence rather than react in fear.

Recently I had the opportunity to work with a horse that did not look to the human for leadership—not his owners, and certainly not me, when we first met. He was what you would call ‘over the top’—scared of just about everything, scared of his environment, and prone to avoiding any connection with humans—to the point of developing some truly dangerous behaviors. He would easily get out of control, spooking and bolting while being handled, snorting and acting totally checked out. His head carriage tended to be extremely high, and he’d be focusing and fully absorbed far out into the distance, ready to bolt (again) at any moment. Not a safe horse to handle.

So here he was, and I needed a plan. I returned to a diagram I have developed over the years (some of you may remember it from earlier blog posts), The Optimal Teaching Gauge. (I used to call it The Leadership Gauge.) It lays out where the sweet spot can be found between the human and the horse, with a range of behaviors to either side. It’s an assessment tool and a sort of compass for planning how to work with a particular horse, while developing your own leadership.