Christa Petrillo Horsemanship

Test Your Training IQ

27 February 2012
Posted in Articles

Let’s test your training IQ and see if you can identify a behavioral issue that needs correction:

You get a young horse in with a tying and trailering issue. He is a nice horse and gives to the bit and rides just fine. You would probably consider that perhaps he had an accident at the tie up rail once right? Or that he had never really learned to tie properly?
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Diagonals with Christa Petrillo

27 October 2011
Posted in Articles

Recently, while at a horse show, a client of mine was having difficulty getting the 4 year old horse she was showing to pick up the correct lead from a canter departure. There is a little trick to help with getting the correct lead. I told her to do a diagonal away from the lead she was wanting and then ask for the correct lead. The reason this works is when doing a diagonal you have the horse’s head cocked away from the direction you are going in. By doing so you are lengthening the outside part of the body since that’s the direction you are going in,

The "Aloof-Fearful" Horse

31 August 2011
Posted in Articles

Each horse is different and responds differently to training according to "who" they are and what their life experiences have been yet there are similarities in responses with horses to the point of there being patterns. I have identified five distinct, key personalities and often will see combinations of those personalities in one horse. Normally however, I won‘t see more than two but sometimes it happens there are three. With each personality comes a scale in intensity and how their personality is expressed or shown.

A Trainer’s Case Study

28 February 2011
Posted in Articles

A Trainer’s Case Study

A “case study” is examining the personality of an individual horse in for training, overall health, and conformation, known past experiences, their problem areas, and my approach to their training and management accordingly. In this article I’d like to present one of the most challenging cases I ever came across in my career.

Training with Christa Petrillo

Written by Christa Petrillo | 08 June 2010
Posted in Articles

Through the years I have had the opportunity to experience literally hundreds of horses and literally hundreds of circumstances. From being around, working with, and training horses almost every day of my life, and through thoughtful consideration and study, I have learned an important key to overcoming undesirable behavior and how to fine tune the highly trained horse. It is through “thinking like a horse” and considering what is going on in the horse’s mind. I have learned to take my time, and through careful observation, analyze the situation I am presented with and then approach it with the individual and situation in mind specifically.

Christa Petrillo Horsemanship

Test Your Training IQ

Diagonals with Christa Petrillo

The "Aloof-Fearful" Horse

A Trainer’s Case Study

Training with Christa Petrillo

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