K.I.C.K. Your Fear of Horses is a guide to help those who are plagued with horse fear get back in the saddle and ride with confidence. The book is based on the authors personal experience as well as the journey of three women who also went from fear into confident horsemanship. The author, Heidi A. McLaughlin, hopes that this book will help others gain the confidence they need to find true joy in the saddle. The book quotes the advice from many accomplished experts such as Chris Cox (who also wrote the Foreword), Stacy Westfall, Richard Winters, Karen Scholl, Mike Kevil, Steve Halfpenny, Dr. Robert M. Miller and Rick Lamb. Heidi explains the meaning of K.I.C.K. in great detail: Keep at it! Don't give up. Invest in a well-trained horse and good equipment Courage needed to gain Confidence. Knowledge needed to overcome the fear. And Heidi presents numerous practical hints to help get you on your way out of fear and into knowledge, which leads to confident riding....fearless riding! Her personal journey as well as her gift for writing makes this heart-warming "how to" book a must-read.

Riding Home:The Power of Horses to Heal, Horse Nation's must read book of 2016, is the first and only book to scientifically and experientially explain why horses have the extraordinary ability to emotionally transform the lives of thousands of men, women and children, whether they are horse lovers, or suffering from deep psychological wounds. It is a book for anyone who wants to experience the joy, wonder, self-awareness and peace of mind that comes from creating a horse/human relationship, and it puts forth and clarifies the principles of today's Natural Horsemanship (or what was once referred to as "Horse Whispering") Everyone knows someone who needs help: a husband, a wife, a partner, a child, a friend, a troubled teenager, a war veteran with PTSD, someone with autism, an addiction, anyone in emotional pain or who has lost their way. Riding Home provides riveting examples of how Equine Therapy has become one of today's most effective cutting-edge methods of healing. Horses help us discover hidden parts of ourselves, whether we're seven or seventy. They model relationships that demonstrate acceptance, kindness, honesty, tolerance, patience, justice, compassion, and forgiveness. Horses cause all of us to become better people, better parents, better partners, and better friends. A horse can be our greatest teacher, for horses have no egos, they never lie, they're never wrong and they manifest unparalleled compassion. It is this amazing power of horses to heal and teach us about ourselves that is accessible to anyone and found in the pages of Tim Hayes's Riding Home. The information and lists of therapeutic and non-therapeutic equine programs, which are contained in the book, are also available at the book's website.

A practical guide to using reward-based training techniques to create a true partnership with your horse. This leads to lifelong connection, effective problem-solving and joyful performance.

A memoir detailing a woman's insights about being an anxiety-ridden but passionate equestrian. After returning to riding as a mother, she is determined to follow her dreams despite the fear she is somehow lacking in talent or ability. An in-depth look into the heart and head of a returning adult equestrian, this message is not limited only those with horse experience. In fact, Confessions of a Timid Rider is the perfect book to read for anyone whom even for a moment questions their value in their designated profession or life choice. This book will inspire you to pursue your dreams despite the inner voice that says you arenÕt good enough.

A new book especially written for the time-starved 21st-century horse owner! Do you day after day make a promise to train yourself and your horse to be better at something, but when you get to the barn there just doesn’t seem to be enough time? Don’t worry, what really matters is the quality of the training you do manage to fit in. It really is possible to carry out good quality, progressive training with a horse in only three minutes a day. Educator and horse trainer Vanessa Bee’s “light bulb moment” was when she realized that if a training session had a realistic goal, every horse achieved the goal in under three minutes. This led her to create techniques appropriate for use in brief digestible lessons that ultimately produce significant gains in short sessions. This refreshing new method offers 35 ground exercises, 24 ridden exercises, and 25 “real world” exercises that will get you out and about with a safe, sane, well-trained horse.

This book describes how every horse can be handled and ridden without the use of fear or force. Starts with an unhandled foal and covers starting a horse under saddle without bucking, chasing and fighting. The book also covers trailer loading, leg handling, riding, leading and common problems people have with horses. This book challenges many of the accepted practices used in horse training today.

This practical book helps you interpret and connect the physical signals that horses display in response to their environment. These signals are evident in the everyday actions, gestures and attitudes that horses communicate to each other, but are often so subtle that they can go unnoticed by humans. This book aims to rectify that, offering horse lovers and equine professionals an opportunity to gain a unique insight into their 'horse's world'. Key features: includes detailed description of language signs of domestic horses, with a special emphasis on calming signals includes 275 pictures to visualize various language signs, calming signals, behaviour sequences and facial features presents communication ladders to show how a horse responds to incentives in his environment, and what signals he uses at certain moments contains tips on the use of the communication ladders and calming signals to improve the socialisation, training and wellbeing of your horse considers equine psychological stress from an environmental perspective, providing a valuable alternative to the current common clinical perspective. After reading this book you will be more astute in spotting calming signals, displacement activities, stress signals and distance-increasing signals, and better able to see which stimuli your horse can handle and which he cannot. This means you will know what to do to calm your horse before his stress rises to an unmanageable level. Language Signs and Calming Signals of Horses is both fascinating and important reading for any equine veterinary practitioner, student or nurse, as well as horse owners and trainers.

This marvelous book, borne of a unique collaboration between Dr. Allen Schoen—a world-renowned veterinarian and author—and trainer and competitor of many years Susan Gordon, introduces the 25 Principles of Compassionate Equitation. These Principles, conceived by Dr. Schoen and Gordon, are a set of developmental guidelines, encouraging a level of personal awareness that may be enacted not only through the reader's engagement with horses, but can be extended to all humans and sentient beings he or she encounters. The 25 Principles share stories and outline current, peer-reviewed studies that identify and support methods of training, handling, and caring for horses that constitute a safe, healthy, non-stressful, and pain-free environment. Through their Compassionate Equestrian program, the authors encourage all involved in the horse industry to approach training and handling with compassion and a willingness to alleviate suffering. By developing deeper compassion for their own horses, and subsequently, all equines, equestrians transcend their differences in breed preferences, riding disciplines, and training methodologies. This leads to the ability to empathize and connect more closely with the “global collective” of horses and horse people. In doing so, a worldwide community of compassionate equine practitioners and horse owners will emerge, which will not only benefit the horses: People involved with horses are found in many influential segments of society and have the potential to affect wide circles of friends, acquaintances, and co-workers from every walk of life. These are simple changes any horse person can make that can have a vast impact on the horse industry and society as a whole.

A new edition of a highly respected textbook and reference in the rapidly emerging field of equitation science. Equitation Science, 2nd Edition incorporates learning theory into ethical equine training frameworks suitable for riders of any level and for all types of equestrian activity. Written by international experts at the forefront of the development of the field, the welfare of the horse and rider safety are primary considerations throughout. This edition features a new chapter on research methods, and a companion website provides the images from the book in PowerPoint.

*THE TOP 10 BESTSELLER FROM THE MOST DECORATED BRITISH FEMALE OLYMPIAN IN HISTORY* 'Refreshingly honest [...] a highly enjoyable, fascinating read.' Horse and Hound _______________________________________________ "To ride into that arena, next to a sea of British flags and hear the roar of clapping and cheering, was so exciting. It's a sound I will never, ever forget." Charlotte Dujardin and her charismatic horse Valegro burst onto the international sports scene with their record-breaking performance at the London, 2012 Olympics. The world was captivated by the young woman with the dazzling smile and her dancing horse. But no one quite knew what it took to get there, nor how hard the path to success would be - until now. Dujardin began riding horses at the age of two, but dressage was firmly the domain of the wealthy, not the life of a girl from a middle-class family. Her parents sacrificed all and with a undeterred focus, Charlotte left school at 16 to follow her dream. When she was invited to be a groom for the British Olympian Carl Hester, she began to ride Valegro, a dark bay gelding and an unbreakable bond was formed. This is their incredible story.