Welcome to Best Horse Practices. My name is Maddy Butcher and I produce this podcast. Our show is a space for riders and horse owners of all disciplines to learn best practices and to discover skills, strategies, tools, ideas, and insights for better connecting with their horses, with all horses, and for getting work done. We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy here . We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a small contribution , we sure would appreciate it. ...
Mar 26, 2025•27 min•Season 5Ep. 9
We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy here . We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a small contribution , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 8 of Season 5 and in it, Jec interviews Cody Harrison , a horseman specializing in classical dressage and based near Denver. Jec and Cody talk specifics on spurs. It’s a really interesting conversation and one I think you will enjoy. Hey, before I get to sponsors, I want to remind you to register for the min...
Feb 12, 2025•27 min•Season 5Ep. 8
This is Episode 7 of Season 5 and in it, I talk with Daniel Dauphin about bits and the upcoming Best Horse Practices Summit. I met this Louisiana man several years ago when we were considering possible presenters for the Best Horse Practices Summit in Lexington, Kentucky. Since then, he’s come on the show several times to talk about a range of horse issues. Learn about his bit course. Visit his website and sign up for his newsletter. Most recently, he’s stepped up to the Board of Directors for t...
Jan 15, 2025•30 min•Season 5Ep. 7
Our show is a space for riders and horse owners of all disciplines to learn best practices and to discover skills, strategies, tools, ideas, and insights for better connecting with their horses, with all horses, and for getting work done. We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy here . We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a small contribution , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 6 of Season 5 and in it, Jec interviews Gillian Higgins, an expert in ...
Oct 10, 2024•38 min•Season 5Ep. 6
We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy here . We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a small contribution , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 5 of Season 5 and in it, we welcome back my colleague, Jec Ballou, for her first show of our fifth season. Yay! We’ve heard from several folks who have suggested discussions on gaited horses and people with expertise around gaited horses, so Jec has done a great interview with Carl Bledsoe, from Talking Rock...
Sep 14, 2024•28 min•Season 5Ep. 5
We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy here . We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a small contribution , we sure would appreciate it. We’re dedicating another show to horsey intellectualism. Intellectualism roughly means thinking, studying, and/or discussing complicated ideas without getting emotional. I guess what we do on this show is a sort of low-level intellectualism, redneck intellectualism, because we’re not consulting great philosophers or signifi...
Aug 24, 2024•35 min•Season 5Ep. 4
We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy here . We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a small contribution , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 3 of Season 5 and we’re dedicating the next few shows to some horsey intellectualism. I like to look up words, to make sure I’m saying what I mean. Intellectualism roughly means thinking, studying, and/or discussing complicated ideas without getting emotional. I guess what we do on this show is a sort of low...
Aug 19, 2024•29 min•Season 5Ep. 3
Our show is a space for riders and horse owners of all disciplines to learn best practices and to discover skills, strategies, tools, ideas, and insights for better connecting with their horses, with all horses, and for getting work done. We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy here . We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a small contribution , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 2 of Season 5 and in it, I interview J.B. Zeilke , a writer, music vid...
Jul 15, 2024•36 min•Season 5Ep. 2
We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy here . We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a small contribution , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 1 of Season 5. For this show, I’m speaking on behalf or maybe I should say as half. Half of the interview crew for this podcast. Jec and I have had a hiatus and Jec is still doing her thing and enjoying summer. She’ll be back later this season. I thought I’d make this a short episode to let you know what I’v...
Jul 03, 2024•11 min•Season 5Ep. 1
We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy here . We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a small contribution , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 27 of Season 4. In it, Jec and I have a fun On the Fence conversation in which we talk some about identity and, mmm, maybe a bit of barn politics and shenanigans that we sometimes see in horse communities. The topic came up when I was listening to an interview that Ezra Klein did with Agnes Callard , a profe...
Apr 04, 2024•22 min•Season 4Ep. 27
We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy here . We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a small contribution , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 26 of Season 4. In it, I interview Sara Lowe , a horsewoman and police detective from Wyoming. She’s a clinician and colt starter, and she participated in the Buck the Trend mental health forum held last month here in southwest Colorado. This is the fourth in a series of interviews around Buck the Trend. You...
Mar 08, 2024•33 min•Season 4Ep. 26
We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy here . We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a small contribution , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 25 of Season 4. In it, Daniel Dauphin is back, not to talk about bits and horse mouth anatomy but to talk about Buck the Trend , the mental health forum held last month. Daniel attended BTT and we have been visiting on the phone about mental health in our horse community since the Best Horse Practices Summit...
Mar 05, 2024•29 min•Season 4Ep. 25
We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy here . We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a small contribution , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 24 of Season 4. In it, I interview KD Bryant and Joseph Prekup , the two therapists who anchored the development and facilitation of Buck the Trend , the mental health forum held recently in southwestern Colorado. BTT got its start thanks to a generous grant from the LOR Foundation and with the support of Pa...
Mar 04, 2024•28 min•Season 4Ep. 24
We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy here . We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a small contribution , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 23 of Season 4. In it, I interview Dan Flitner in one of several new episodes about Buck the Trend , the mental health forum held recently in southwestern Colorado. Buck the Trend, operated under the auspices of the Best Horse Practices Summit, attempts to address the following issues: -- Our work can be iso...
Feb 28, 2024•31 min•Season 4Ep. 23
We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy here . We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a small contribution , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 22 of Season 4. In it, Jec interviews Katrin Silva for a Coaches’ Corner. It’s always fun when these two get together because they know so much. A bit humbling sometimes because their depth of knowledge is vast. Katrin is an accomplished teacher and trainer based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In this conversation...
Feb 27, 2024•26 min•Season 4Ep. 22
Our show is a space for riders and horse owners of all disciplines to learn best practices and to discover skills, strategies, tools, ideas, and insights for better connecting with their horses, with all horses and for getting work done. We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy here . We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a small contribution , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 21 of Season 4. In it, I interview Ben Longwell, who runs True West Hor...
Feb 12, 2024•35 min•Season 4Ep. 21
We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy here . We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a small contribution , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 20 of Season 4. In it, Jec interviews Julie Goodnight . I feel like this interview has been a long time coming. Jec has admired Julie for years and it took quite a bit of effort to finally coordinate the online meet up. I remember watching Julie at the Equine Affaire in Massachusetts, back in maybe 2008? Jul...
Feb 08, 2024•28 min•Season 4Ep. 20
We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy here . We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a small contribution , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 19 of Season 4. In it, Jec interviews Daniel Dauphin , an accomplished horseman from Louisiana and someone who is steadily gaining a reputation for being the expert on bits, how they function, as well as horse mouth anatomy. He gave two excellent presentations at the Best Horse Practices Summit. He’s develop...
Feb 01, 2024•32 min•Season 4Ep. 19
We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy here . We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a small contribution , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 18 of Season 4 and it’s an On the Fence episode in which Jec and I talk about some upcoming goals as well as potential podcast discussions, like horse rescues and social media concerns. We also enumerate some of our favorite past episodes including: Coaches’ Corners with Amy Skinner The Large Animal Vet Cris...
Jan 23, 2024•22 min•Season 4Ep. 18
We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy here. We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a small contribution , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 17 of Season 4 and in it, Jec interviews author, teacher, and horsewoman Jenn Currie . She offers clinics which she calls Brain-Centered Horsemanship and has a book for middle school teachers. She is blending what she knows about her teaching experiences with horse behavior in a pretty compelling program. Tha...
Jan 17, 2024•29 min•Season 4Ep. 17
Our show is a space for riders and horse owners of all disciplines to learn best practices and to discover skills, strategies, tools, ideas, and insights for better connecting with their horses, with all horses and for getting work done. We love to hear from listeners, we think this might be an episode that fosters a lot of conversation, and contacting us is easy through the contact button on best horse practices dot com. We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a small contrib...
Jan 13, 2024•39 min•Season 4Ep. 16
Our show is a space for riders and horse owners of all disciplines to learn best practices and to discover skills, strategies, tools, ideas, and insights for better connecting with their horses, with all horses and for getting work done. We love to hear from listeners and contacting us is easy here. We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a small contribution , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 15 of Season 4 and in it, Jec interviews Dana Schultz, a therapist at Me...
Dec 15, 2023•31 min•Season 4Ep. 15
We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a small contribution , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 14 of Season 4 and it’s a short one. Why? To be blunt and to speak in general terms, I’d say life and death are having their ways with us. I’m sorry to let you know that Jec lost her mother last month. As you might imagine, that’s been pretty trying for her. I lost my mom just over a year ago. While our mother-daughter relationships were very different, we both owe it pa...
Dec 05, 2023•7 min•Season 4Ep. 14
We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a small contribution , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 13 of Season 4 in which Jec and I have an On the Fence segment. We are returning to a little theme that has been running through our shows, in which we ask the question (and take stabs at answering it) how are we doing? How is the horse industry doing? How are the trainers and other horse professionals doing? Our hunch is that burnout is real and financial struggles are ...
Nov 07, 2023•24 min•Season 4Ep. 13
We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a small contribution , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 12 of Season 4 in which Jec interviews Wendy Murdoch, creator of the Murdoch Method and author of several books . Check out her online Whole Rider course here. Before this marvelous interview, I thought I’d share a few bits on my work with two young horses. It’s a departure of sorts, but I hope you enjoy it. We love to hear from listeners. Contact us here . Thanks to our...
Nov 02, 2023•37 min•Season 4Ep. 12
We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a small contribution , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 11 of Season 4 and in it, Jec interviews Dr. Doug Thal, owner of Thal Equine , a veterinary practice and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Doug was tapped to present a great topic at the Best Horse Practices Summit one year ago, but came down with Covid just prior to our event. He and I have had a lot of conversations around what vets need to know, especially around horsemanship, an...
Oct 16, 2023•37 min•Season 4Ep. 11
This is Episode 10 of Season 4 and in it, Jec holds a Coaches’ Corner with our frequent and friendly guest, Amy Skinner . The two horsewomen discuss body work and as well as other services that can be hired and provided to your horses. What do you think? We’ve had Jim Masterson, founder of the Masterson Method, present at the Best Horse Practices Summit twice. The evidence is certainly strong for this kind of body work helping horses. And Jim is a wonderful, generous presenter who has put hands ...
Oct 06, 2023•25 min•Season 4Ep. 10
We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a small contribution , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 9 of Season 4 and in it, Jec welcomes back Lee McLean to our show. It’s a great interview in which the two horsewomen discuss observations around domestic versus wild horse lives and the possible management practices around them. They get into their observations, which are insightful, as well as weighing in on the sometimes problematic online side-taking around this issu...
Sep 28, 2023•30 min•Season 4Ep. 9
We love to hear from listeners and this week would especially love to hear about your horse work journeys, your comfort zones and stretching of them. Contacting us is easy through the contact button on best horse practices dot com. We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a small contribution , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 8 of Season 4. It’s an On the Fence show and in it, Jec and I talk about what it means to be an expert, the need for a beginner’s mind and th...
Sep 15, 2023•25 min•Season 4Ep. 8
We offer these shows for free. If you think it’s worthy of a small contribution , we sure would appreciate it. This is Episode 7 of Season 4, and in it, Jec talks with Trish Lemke, a Colorado horsewoman who leads amazing horse-riding trips across the globe and is a certified Equine Interactional Professional in Education and certified Martha Beck Life Coach. Find her website here and her Facebook page here. This conversation is a great one to wedge into a series of episodes in which we’re talkin...
Aug 30, 2023•31 min•Season 4Ep. 7
