First Do No Harm

By Katie BonifaceLeisure Hobbies

First Do No Harm episodes

March 23, 2022 Why does my horse....? Insert problem behaviour here
As a child getting bucked off happened every time I rode my horse. My mum bought me a book, "why does my horse...?" insert problem behaviour here and the question has plagued me ever since.
In todays episode Sarah and I talk about my 20 year trip down the rabbit hole over this question and how the way we deal with this question continues to evolve in our holistic horse handling program. If you have ever ask "why does my horse...?" make sure you listen to this episode as we dig in to some of our foundational skills on creating happy, consenting, willing horses that enjoy learning and ask to be ridden.
Love this episode and need to know more? Register for our holistic horse handling program here, opening again soon.
1 hr 11 min
March 16, 2022 Overcoming doubt and uncertainty as an amateur rider
There are so many things that come up for us when working with our horses that make us feel unsure, unsafe, doubt whether we are good enough, or if we ever can be good enough. In this episode we go through these conversations and more with Sarah and how she navigates her own personal battles with this as an amateur rider.
Check out our holistic horse handling program, expand your tool kit and become the trainer you've always dreamt you could be
1 hr 17 min
March 09, 2022 If you were dating your horse, how well do you think it would be going?
How well do you think your relationship is going with your horse? I recently got back in to playing pokemon go and it reminded me of some super simple foundational skills of building rapport and connection with our horses. Check out this episode for some basic exercises to build better relationships with your horse if it feels like there's a bit of a disconnect.
What are you doing with your horse to keep the quality of relationship strong and fresh? Keep the conversation going over in our stronger bond community. Click here to join
24 min
March 02, 2022 Are you anthropomorphising your horse?
How can we be empathic towards are horses without making behaviours worse? In this podcast I go a little in to how I trouble shoot whether I'm assigning an unrelatable human experience to the behaviour my horse is showing or is there foundation here for what they might be feeling that needs to be addressed and supported. Just saying we can't assign human experiences means we can't show empathy for how our horse might be processing their experience. So it's a balancing act. And this is how I balance.

If you want the work done for you so you don't have to figure it out, reach out to us. Our holistic horse handling program is going to be opening for enrolments April 14. You can check it out here.
Lets keep the conversation over in the stronger bond community. What behaviours may you be anthropomorphising?
28 min
February 23, 2022 Madie moments.
Join us in this episode as we chat to one of our stable hands Madie. Madie has had a crash course at the barn ready to take on the her competition career we thought it best she got thrown in the deep end and learnt how to swim. With only a year of riding weekly and working with horses under her belt we learnt that she had some very helpful transferable skills for dealing with challenges at the barn and improving her balance and riding quickly.

I love transferrable skills. Having a reference point from to learn something new brings so much more depth, scope and colour to our foundations and the skills we already have been working hard to master.

Jump over to the stronger bond community and keep the conversation going. What transferrable skills did you have that helped you learn how to ride or that you have from riding that has helped you with other things?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/5dayimprovehorserelationship
53 min
February 16, 2022 Barn life at Equestrian spirit and working with big horse personalities with Monique
Set aside some time to do some paddock chores and listen to this on because it is LONG! One of my stable hands Monique and I chat about her experience with her aggressive to the point of dangerous horse when she first got him and her experience working together with him as well as herd integration, working with a herd and how you know if your passion for horses is still alive and well.
You can follow Monique and her dog training on her instagram page: Sit pretty training
1 hr 55 min
February 09, 2022 What does pressure release mean?
Join us in this podcast as I share the experience of how I've seen pressure used in the industry evolve over the last 30 years. I am so happy to see the progress we are making in how we can more positively engage with and train our horses and look forward to keeping up with the research to see how it continues to evolve.

Want to join the conversation? Jump over to our stronger bond community and share your experience with how we continue to evolve in training horses here.
43 min
February 02, 2022 Does your horse respect you?
Join us for this loaded question!!! Does your horse respect you? We would love you to continue this conversation with us in the stronger bond community. Come join us in the stronger bond community
37 min
January 26, 2022 Connection series: Bonus episode
Over the last 8 weeks I have shared some tips and tricks I work on with my students to build a stronger bond and a deeper connection with their horses. In todays episode I'm sharing the 2 tricks that I use to "get in the zone" with the horses from a place of connection.
Join our stronger bond community and keep the conversation going here
Want to a more connection based way of working with your horse? Check out our membership here
16 min
January 19, 2022 Connection series: Hands your horse can trust
Connection in the saddle is through our body. We need to make sure we are balanced and secure in the saddle and allowing our horse to travel. Connection and control don't work well together. Do you feel safe to let go of your horses mouth? Can you drop the bit walk, trot and canter and still tell the horse what you want? This is where connection in the saddle is. We want to smoothly move from no contact to in to contact and back again without interfering with our horses posture or balance.
Check out our free stop drilling 20m circles training here
Apply for our ridden membership here
Check out some youtube trainings for a visual for these conversations:
- Posture stacking for balance in the saddle
- Hands our horse can trust
- Communication with a young arab mare in on backing
34 min

About First Do No Harm

From the publisher's feed

#FDNHPodcast is an in depth discussion with equestrian trainers and professionals dedicated to making horse training happen for the horse not to the horse. We discuss how to reduce harm in our horses training environment and how to support our horses mental, emotional and physical well being so that we have horses that enjoy learning and ask to be ridden.