Horsemanship Academy

Horsemanship Academy Annemarie Meerkerk Parelli Professional

06/05/2026

Theory lesson🤓🎧 Een tijdje geleden (lees: meer dan een jaar geleden🤪) kreeg ik deze vraag en ik dacht dat het nu wel tijd was om die te beantwoorden..😂😇 Ik denk dat de video voor zichzelf spreekt maar eventjes een korte samenvatting:

💡Introverte paarden denken eerder terug (whoa) en extraverte paarden denken eerder vooruit (go)

💡Introverte paarden hebben tijd nodig om dingen mentaal te verwerken voordat ze in actie komen. Dit betekend niet dat ze minder slim zijn maar simpelweg dat ze informatie anders verwerken. Ze reageren meer nadenkend in plaats van reactief zoals de extroverte paarden😄

💡 Geef de introverte paarden de tijd om te reageren en maak je vraag niet te snel te groot. Begin langzaam zodat je daarna sneller kan gaan op het moment dat ze connectie hebben! Geef extraverte paarden de tijd om eerst even lekker te kunnen bewegen en spelen voordat je meer geconcentreerder werk gaat doen. Begin met snelheid zodat je daarna langzaam kan gaan.

💡Uiteindelijk wil je dat allebei de paarden beiden kunnen. Het is dus niet zo dat een introvert paard niet kan leren om snel en uitbundig te reageren en een extravert paard niet kan leren om rustig stil te staan of te bewegen.
Het is meer een richtlijn in hoe je paarden in eerste instantie kunt begrijpen en helpen🙏☺️❤️

07/03/2026

I’ve got some inspiration for you during the weekend for your warm-up on the ground or even in the saddle😁😁🤓

This is a pattern called The Weave and it’s super fun to play with!!👏🏻🤩 It really helps you to build more communication between you and your horse. You only need 4 cones and you let your horse weave through the cones while you walk in a more or less straight line. Really see if they respond to your energy and don’t slow down or speed up and for extra fun you can add a Figure 8 anywhere you would like.

Dutchies🇳🇱🦁: sound on for a explanation and everyone: have fun trying it!!💃🏻💃🏻🐴🐴

10/02/2026

”It’s nice to be nice but it’s nicer to be clear”. This quote really got my thinking about horse lately..

I believe clarity is so important for horses but it’s also a topic we als humans can really struggle with.
So I hope this helps, took me a week to make it because of all my talking🤪😅 but here it is😂
Sound on for this one and a warning ( ‼️🚨) it’s a long message but I hope it helps people who struggle with this topic🙏❤️

25/01/2026

Recap of the mini- clinic this week…😁🤓🥳🤩 Sound on for the Dutchies🇳🇱 First of all: big thank you to the rider and to all of you who came, I really enjoyed spending time with you☺️👏🏻

I gave a lesson to a combination that I never met before. The rider had tension problems in the transition to the canter with her young horse. Of course the problem is never the problem so instead of just working on the transition to the canter we started at the beginning and checked all our basics. Usually for horses who have the tendency to run away backwards and sideways are really good to do because it helps breaking the pattern of running away and encourages them to think more about what they do rather then act instinctively😄💭

I also noticed that her horse was a little bit quiet. There is a difference between a calm and a quiet horse! So we helped him to be more present and thinking, and he started to feel brave in what he was doing instead of shrinking to the inside and then exploding when things became to challenging!

We also worked quit a while on bringing the energy up (canter) and then back to the halt (becoming soft in his body through the hindquarter yield). This was really difficult for him because he didn’t quite know how to go faster without running away. But by helping him to think through the transition rather than reacting through the transition it all changed. It’s the small things that make a big difference❤️

I’m super proud of this boy and his rider who did a great job in front of everyone. She did send me a message that she worked with him these past days and she really can see and feel a difference and that she’s very happy and that made me very happy!! I have the best job ever🥰
See you at the next mini clinic?!!😁😁

07/01/2026

Cody the stallion😏😎🫶🏻💙 He is only with me for 4 weeks and then he’ll fly to his owners in South- Africa🇿🇦 who will compete in jumping with him. They bought him in Belgium so they haven’t met him yet but I can tell they already love him a lot and so they should because he is a lovely boy❤️🥰

I went a little ‘faster’ with him because I only have 4 weeks and I really wanted to give him a few first happy and free rides, but not faster than he could handle of course🤗
It’s actually the first time for me training a stallion but of course it’s also just another horse so it is the same as well☺️ Management wise I am not sure if I will do it again because it’s a lot to organize but I am happy I said yes to him!

We focus mostly on a soft neck and shoulder instead of a stallion-strong-and-stiff neck. When he arrived he was very fancy but also strong and now he is still fancy but also soft✨ , although I need to remind him of that when he sees girls😉💗💗 His owners want to castrate him if it’s to much for him so I’ll guess will see because obviously I’ll fly to South - Africa one time to see him again and teach his owners right??!🤣😁😇☀️☀️

PS: the snow we have here is craaazzyyyy😱☃️❄️☃️❄️⛄️ At least Cody saw it once in his life now..😂

14/11/2025

A rainy day like this is perfect for making some new videos☔️🌧️🧣💻 Make sure you read the comment underneath as well because it’s important for the story🤓☺️‼️

We want for our horses to be soft, supple and loose in their body right? This means that they can move their different bodyparts seperately and not only as a one strong, stiff piece which we often see with tense horses.
We want to be able to move the front without the hind and vice versa to give a quick example example🙂
We want to feel where our horse is strong, stiff, has tension or is out of balace and help them there and for some horses, like Rolex, this is his jaw.
When the jaw of the horse is not soft and they don’t know how to let go there, the rest of his body can also not be soft so for me it’s really important that my young horses know how to become soft there and not pull down on the reins for example.

It’s also crucial to understand that this has nothing to do with riding with a contact, that is not at all what I am working on here!! I hope we all know and believe that true contact comes from a body being in balance and not from our hands✋🏻❌
This is about understanding that he doesn’t need to be strong in this specific part, his jaw, and just exploring how he can feel differently in his body and what’s necessary for that. We need to have soft hands that close slowly and open quickly for this so our horses won’t feel ‘stuck’ and give the reins away immediately so they don’t see the reins as a closed door🚪👐🏼👐🏼👐🏼❣️

Remember that the process doesn’t look like the product so this is quite a delicate look into Rolex his starting-process but I wanted to share how I build this up for you and because all the little steps are worth celebrating to me🥰🎈🎉

SAVE THE DATE….🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻 De nieuwe data voor de mini - clinics zijn bekend❣️❣️❣️ Woensdag 7 januari 19:00Woensdag 21 janu...
26/10/2025

SAVE THE DATE….🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻 De nieuwe data voor de mini - clinics zijn bekend❣️❣️❣️

Woensdag 7 januari 19:00
Woensdag 21 januari 19:00
Woensdag 4 februari 19:00
Woensdag 18 februari 19:00

In de vorige serie mini-clinics hebben jullie mij zelf aan het werk gezien met mijn jonge paarden en voor deze serie heb ik besloten om te gaan werken met nieuwe mensen/ paarden in openbare lessen!!🤓👏🏻💥🎉

Ik ben daarvoor dus op zoek naar 4 combinaties die hulp nodig hebben met hun paard en beschikbaar zijn op deze avonden. Onderwerpen mogen heel verschillend zijn!🙂
Weet jij iemand of heb je zelf een probleem, wens, idee of casus stuur dan een mailtje met een korte beschrijving én video van het probleem of de vraag waar je tegenaan loopt of meer over wilt weten naar [email protected] en wellicht kan ik jullie (en een heleboel andere mensen) verder helpen🙏🙏🤗 ps: beelden die gedeeld worden mogen gebruikt worden op social media.

Ik heb er meegaaaa veel zin, 2026 bring it on🐴🐴♥️✨✨

Philina doing a great job with Rien van der Schaf now🥰🥰🥰
24/10/2025

Philina doing a great job with Rien van der Schaf now🥰🥰🥰

21/10/2025

A while ago one of you asked me a question about Showtime🤓❓The question was about horses maintaining their gait without constantly feeling you have to ‘push’ your horse to stay forward! In this video, I work with Showtime on different things to help him with this:

1️⃣ My first exercise is the Parelli Circling Game where you stand still completely and have your horse move around you without turning with him. You send your horse on a circle and the first thing that is really important is that you are clear in your send - the moment that you ask your horse to go on a circle. Send them away with the energy you want to see! A walk has a different energy than a trot for example..
Stand still completely and only remind him of his responsibility to maintain his gait when he is not committed to it and falls back one gait for example. Make sure you use your energy!

The first few times: STOP when you feel your horse is COMMITED to the gait❣️❣️It’s not about how many circles he does, it is about the commitment from your horse to the gait you ask. You will feel it when he is committed, it will feel easy🙂

2️⃣ In the saddle, before you do anything else with these type of horses make sure you have a forward walk- trot - canter (if you can) before you add anything else. I just ask Showtime to be more or less straight but nothing else because that will all block him again in the early stages. So even if he cuts a corner, I don’t care, as long as he stays forward🚀🚀

3️⃣Play with making a figure 8 in the walk and trot on the ground (and saddle) to help the shoulders to not be blocked and stiff anymore🤸🤸

4️⃣ Lot’s of praises and making your horse feel proud when he really tries and puts effort in. Always remember that horses don’t really care how much you know, until they know how much you care💕💕💕💕🥇🥇🥇

Still got a question? Let me know☺️

💗 Happy animal day 💗 We did it!!!!!!!!! Nielson and I went to our first competition today!!!! It was a practice competit...
04/10/2025

💗 Happy animal day 💗 We did it!!!!!!!!! Nielson and I went to our first competition today!!!! It was a practice competition which was perfect for us because we both have zero experience in the competition ring (😆) so it was really fun to experiment with how it goes and feels without having to think about preforming!

Nielson did so great, I could not be more proud♥️♥️♥️ He was so connected and soft the whole time and didn’t get scared once. There were a lot a new things for him, riding with other horses, white fences, me dressing nicely…😜 but he stayed very calm and thinking and that was all I wished for beforehand.
Technique- wise there is still a looooooot to improve but we know that and we will but not loosing his confidence and connection and happiness was the goal for me today.
And we even got ‘winstpunten’ (even though they don’t count) so we are on top of the world🤣

PS: we got the nicest compliment from someone I don’t know but she follows me on Instagram and she watched our test. She came to me afterwards and said that her goal was to ride with as much happiness as we did since her horse is not easy and she was inspired by how it could go!
If you read this, please let me know how your ride went and thank you for giving me the best compliment of the day🙏🥹
On to the next one now I guess!!😁🍾🥂

28/09/2025

Sound on for the Dutchies (🦁🤩) but read the text for a more in-depth explanation🎙️📣🇳🇱🇳🇱🤓

A while ago I got the question how you build up the exercise of letting your horse move around with the tarp. I really love to do this excercise with my young horses because it helps them to get really confident with sound and movement around them! I don’t think it helps so much with getting confident with something on them so I mostly use it for those other reasons 😁

It is so important to introduce things with fun and playfulness so using objects like the tarp to help them get a concept is something that I really like to do👏🏻😍

Step 1️⃣ is to introduce the tarp and see if they can touch it with their nose. If they are really sceptical: walk backwards and have them follow it for a while until you can see them becoming curious and wanting to touch it😎
Step 2️⃣ is to touch them all over with it, left and right, and also swinging it over their back so they can see and feel it on both sides 👀
Step 3️⃣ is to walk and trot around with the tarp moving with them. You can start off with a hindquarter yield and/ or shoulderyield (soft inside shoulder) or back- up first, if your horse is a little unsure to begin and needs more time to think and process.

And as always: when things become a little challenging, just take a step back and rebuild it again. It’s never wrong to start over again🙂♥️

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