Herd-Bound Horse Help

Editor’s Note: Amy Skinner is a regular guest columnist and has been a horse gal since age six. She has presented twice at the Best Horse Practices Summit and is the author of To Catch a Horse: Finding the Heart of your Horsemanship. She rides […]

Orange You Antsy?

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published several years ago when we interviewed Maine game warden John MacDonald. Since then, we’ve noted several shootings of horses by deer hunters. Maine game warden John MacDonald has seen a lot in his 10 years as a warden […]

Welcome Ranger Ready – Goodbye ticks

We’re excited to welcome Ranger Ready to our growing family of advertisers. Use the code “equine10” and receive 10 percent off your order. Ranger Ready is fittingly based in Connecticut, where tick-borne illnesses like Lyme disease are a constant concern among outdoor enthusiasts. It partners […]

Horse Trailer Safety & To Do’s

Spring means getting the cobwebs out of training AND trailering. Elm City Trailer’s Bobby Fantarella has these suggestions for making sure the riding season is full of good, SAFE times. Some of these tips are D-I-Y. Others need a mechanic. Fantarella writes: Most manufacturers recommend […]

Horse-related Spring To-Do’s

In some parts of our horsey world, spring has sprung. Trail riding season is coming and it pays to formulate a spring To Do list and tackle it before the season is upon us. Here are some preliminary suggestions: 1. Consider flies before […]

Snubs and hobbles can help a nervous horse

Scatterbrained horsemanship like mine has a way of leaving holes in training. That’s ok, I tell myself. Exposed holes get filled and the return to fundamentals makes for an improved horse, an improved rider, and, most importantly, an improved relationship. Read about filling Holes in […]

Groundwork helps fill in holes

Recently, I went back to basics with Jolene, the mule. We have a history of holes in our training and I figured it’d be helpful for both of us to review some basic understandings. Here are two things we worked on over the course of […]

To Wear or Not to Wear, that’s the Helmet Question

Culture and vanity vie against common sense and science in plenty of our personal decisions. Take tanning: This year, the World Health Organization added tanning booths to the list of the most dangerous forms of cancer-causing radiation. People get skin cancer and die from frequenting […]

Peters on weighty matters

Dr. Steve Peters, the neuropsychologist whose collaboration with horseman Martin Black produced Evidence-Based Horsemanship, joined the call for better horsemanship through better personal health with his recent Personal Statement, posted on the Evidence-Based Horsemanship facebook page. It echoed recent BestHorsePractices posts, which explained research and […]

Welcome Elm City Trailer!

We welcome Bobby Fantarella and his company, Elm City Trailer to the NickerNews and BestHorsePractices family! For years, Bobby was that friendly, knowledgeable guy I’d visit with at the Equine Affaire. I still have my awesome trailer (a four-horse, gooseneck by Featherlite) purchased from Bobby […]