















Featured Articles
Read the featured posts from across each topic
The State of the Industry
There are times in training where I have to protect a horse from their owner’s enthusiasm or greed, usually it’s when people want too much too fast. Other times I have to push clients whose anxiety is holding them captive, or reassure them that their horse is really capable of more. I have no problem doing either, but in both cases I ask my clients to trust me. You are not just paying me for my skill, you are paying me for my experience, and so much of that is timing and good judgment. You can always come back the next day to jump higher, or push the extension more, but if you ruin a horse’s confidence, or injure your client, that is not something you “fix” the next day.
Memoirs of a Working Student
To be honest, I didn’t think I wanted to be an instructor. I didn’t see myself as a teacher, a coach, or a mentor, and to be very honest again, the thing that changed that was the need to pay my bills. Beggars can’t be choosers, and when I was getting started, I had to take whatever work I could get. To my great surprise, I enjoyed teaching much more than I expected.
The Young Horse Diaries
“To be ethical in this industry, you must love. You must recognize that you are able to eat because these animals exist, that you can support your loved ones, and that you can fulfill your own needs, all because they exist. If that doesn’t offer a reason to be kind, gentle, attentive, and most of all caring, then I do not know what does. Paychecks cannot get you out of bed every morning with a smile. You don’t hear thunder in the middle of the night and worry about the horses because you are paid to. What makes you do this job well, what makes you viable in this industry, is your love. Love for these beings who sustain you, who carry you, who give you a place, a purpose, a people.”
— Victoria Lee Lustig
Nice horses are not just bred, they are made, or they are unmade. And we need to understand that. No matter its bloodlines, a horse needs to be developed, trained, and conditioned to live up to its potential. By the same token, if a horse is not developed, or developed badly, that horse cannot reach its potential, no matter its raw talent. The U.S. horse industry talks about wanting to improve the bloodlines in this country, but we need to change that conversation.