equestrians from around the world
By Raquel Ferreira
I am 21 and I'm from Portugal and I've been riding since I was 8, and used to do dressage. I had I my first and only horse when I was 16 and he was 3 at that time. When he was 4 he had an injury in one tendon so we couldn't even take him outside because he wasn't allowed. So I had to find a way to make something entertaining for him, and that was when I started trick training. I began reading a lot and teaching him some simple tricks, like kissing and smiling. I used to spend a lot of time in his stable, watching him eating, brushing him, etc and that was when it all started. We began to enjoy each others company and once he was allowed to go out and do some very light work I began to do liberty work to enhance and build our relationship as well as his physical fitness and performance. I started to get really interested in horses behavior and understanding how they see us and how they see the world. I started to take trick training to a whole new level because I understood it engaged my horse's mind making him think and also improving his reasoning capability. Teaching him tricks allowed him to think for himself and also taught me how to be patient and how to understand him better. Almost 5 years later of owning him he now knows how to perform a large number of tricks and 2 years ago we also got started in bitless/tackless riding
My horse Belmonte
From having a tendon injury to trick training , bitless/ tackless riding and liberty work.
6 Love Thy Horse Magazine