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Nancy Ellison-Murray
Mar 17, 20231 min read
The bias of us, trainers.
The hardest thing in training any animal, to change, or encourage a behaviour is the human bias of what we feel about the behaviour. But...
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Nancy Ellison-Murray
Mar 16, 20233 min read
Questions over the years. Topic: DM Exercises.
“But I didn’t do that exercise? Why didn’t you tell me to do that??” Your horse, under the expectations you place on it, doesn’t need...
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Nancy Ellison-Murray
Sep 26, 20221 min read
Directional predominance - forelimbs.
Horses show strong indicators of being predominant in forelimb directional influence - therefore, the forelegs tend to define the...
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Nancy Ellison-Murray
Sep 23, 20221 min read
Stopping the flight response: or teaching the flight response.
Commonly misunderstood ’trained expressions of flight’ used in the corrective approach to overwhelming, or overshadowing fear responses...
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Nancy Ellison-Murray
Aug 3, 20221 min read
Stimulus will be followed by a response, we can define what that is.
The more a particular stimulus leads to a predictable outcome, the more likely cognitive relaxation (reduced mental & physical load) will...
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Nancy Ellison-Murray
Aug 1, 20223 min read
Rosie rules.
When Rosie came to me, & we began to unwrap what she had trained herself in over her first 4 1/2 years of life - there were 2 distinct...
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Nancy Ellison-Murray
Jun 8, 20222 min read
A sense of agency.
Agency is to have a physiological & cognitive sense of predictability & control over ones experience. This can be developed extrinsically...
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Nancy Ellison-Murray
Jun 1, 20221 min read
The meaning behind the whinny
Dr. Katrina Merkies, researcher and associate professor at the University of Guelph, and her master student Haley Belliveau haver...
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Nancy Ellison-Murray
May 26, 20222 min read
The Quad of foundation movement patterns.
The horse as a quadruped has a slightly different way of managing movement patterns to humans. This also pairs, with the horses very...
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Nancy Ellison-Murray
May 20, 20221 min read
Baso-lateral Amygdala.
#BiologyMatters Not only does the horse have a larger comparatively sized amygdala than most mammals, that predominates it to have a...
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Nancy Ellison-Murray
May 11, 20222 min read
Relaxation installation.
Relaxation installation. I think one of the easiest trends to fall into with horse training is falling into the philosophy of the...
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Nancy Ellison-Murray
Apr 22, 20221 min read
You cannot build houses with houses.
A horse cannot master, learn & develop complex movement patterns from only attempting & repeating the movement pattern. When we...
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Nancy Ellison-Murray
Apr 21, 20221 min read
'Releases'
Licking, chewing, mouthing, yawning..... what does it mean? Is it what we must aim for? is that what we reward? is that when we remove...
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Nancy Ellison-Murray
Apr 10, 20221 min read
There are no naughty horses.
We must be clear here. Horses don’t do anything to just simply be difficult. They do it because the stimulus they are experiencing, or...
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Nancy Ellison-Murray
Mar 18, 202210 min read
I have a confession to make.
I have to share something that feels like a confession. What feels like a fraudulent guise that I have just found peace with… after years...
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Nancy Ellison-Murray
Feb 18, 20222 min read
Im sick of silence.
I’m sick of silence on this. I am so so so sick of seeing horses broken both physically, and mentally by breakers/starters/trainers, then...
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Nancy Ellison-Murray
Feb 17, 20221 min read
Choose something fun.
Well, Yes I guess so …. #equestrian #horseriding
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Nancy Ellison-Murray
Oct 5, 20211 min read
A post message worth sharing.
All you are ‘required’ to do is provide for your horses needs. Page link: https://www.facebook.com/hiddencreekeq Post link:...
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Nancy Ellison-Murray
Jul 28, 20213 min read
Unclear is unkind.
“Clear is kind, unclear is unkind. Most of us avoid clarity, because we tell ourselves that we are being kind. When actually doing this...
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Nancy Ellison-Murray
Apr 12, 20212 min read
Conflict Behaviours - How can they begin?
Conflict behaviours are responses shown by animals that are experiencing an inability to cope with mental, or physical discomfort. These...
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