Black Raven Equestrian

Homeschool Horsemanship Group ⭐️ Opening Available!

We have one homeschool group opening starting in September!

This opening is for a full group, so families will need to organize themselves and register together.

Two options are available:
✨ Ages 8+
Minimum 4 children, maximum 6
✨ Ages 6+
Minimum 2 children, maximum 3

A great opportunity to learn about horses, build horsemanship skills, and spend time at the barn as part of your homeschool week. No horseback riding is involved.

📩 Reach out for more details

Horsemanship Homeschool Program - Black Raven Equestrian 4-Week Homeschool Horsemanship Program, similar to our regular program, this offering provides hands-on experience with a stronger academic focus on horse behaviour and anatomy.

How are your riding summer goals going?

I’ve personally been crushing my riding goals this summer like I haven’t before and I think I’ve figured out why.

I’ve been planning my rides, riding with purpose, and making my riding time a priority. I put it in my schedule and make it happen, even when I don’t feel like it. When the air quality is good, I ride five or six days a week, sometimes 2 horses per day.

I’ve been following a riding program all summer, working with coaches, and putting a lot of focus on improving myself as a rider. Every arena ride has a plan, and even when I’m out on the trail, I’m riding with purpose.

And you know what I’ve noticed?

Most of the time, the issue isn’t skill, it’s the lack of a plan.

My arena rides have actually gone from 60–90 minutes of riding to sometimes just 30–45 minutes, and I’m getting much better results. Much better results !!

Why? Because riding endless circles and repeating the same exercises over and over doesn’t necessarily make your horse more rideable. It can make them fitter, bored and often even harder to ride.

Quality over quantity. Purpose over repetition.

If you want to finish your season strong and feel like you’re actually making real progress, I have some availability for private lessons with your own horse. I’d be happy to help you put a plan together and make the most of the rest of your riding season.

Let’s ride with purpose and make a proper plan for you and your horse. To be honest, I wish I had taken that approach years ago. Riding with purpose and riding consistently multiple times a week with a plan and coach has changed so much for me.

The internet can make starting horses under saddle look like a wild event, bucking, running, and all kinds of crazy moments. But honestly, it doesn’t have to be that way.
This is Hola’s very first ride, and there was a lot of time spent on the ground before we ever got to this point. We try to make those first rides as calm and positive as possible. There’s no need to rush it.
Every horse is different, and starting a horse is a process. You have to listen to the horse in front of you and adjust along the way.
Hola is such a lovely mare, calm, sensible, and level-headed. She’s making this part of the process really enjoyable.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcSApmgMfJ3/?igsi=dGN2aG4wdm42ZHRy

The internet can make starting horses under saddle look like a wild event, bucking, running, and all kinds of crazy moments. But honestly, it doesn’t have to be that way. This is Hola’s very first ride, and there was a lot of time spent on the ground before we got to this point. We try to make those first rides as calm and positive as possible. There’s no need to rush it. Every horse is different, and starting a horse is a process. You have to listen to the horse in front of you and adjust along the way. Hola is such a lovely mare, calm, sensible, and level-headed. She’s making this part of the process really enjoyable.

Happy Wednesday !

Early morning work so we can take it easy later! 🌅
Get the horses worked while it’s cool, then we can slow things down and enjoy the rest of the day.

Hola, just got here! Meet this beautiful 5-year-old Quarter Horse mare. 🤍 She’s one of Lea’s client horse and is here to get started under saddle

Much can be accomplished by schooling at the walk.

Horses have an easier time holding their balance at the walk than at faster gaits, and the walk is very calm, and the horse has time to understand and to process little signals from the rider.

So much of teaching a horse to understand the human equivalent of something like “Two plus two equals four” is by repeating simple aids until there is a conditioned response.

A certain set of pressures and releases by the rider is requesting a certain response from the horse, and many of these can be more clearly applied, and therefore more clearly understood, at the slower and quieter pace of the walk.

Leg yielding, simple transitions, as well as the basics of more complex movements can be taught in the steady and measured pace of the walk.

The walk is often somewhat neglected as a training pace.