Highland Bluff Equine - Priscilla Tooley

08/26/2026

Motivation comes and goes, but forming a system that works for you and your horse (even on the bad days), will keep you showing up day after day.

1. Instead of setting goals that are dependent on your horse’s behavior, prioritize things that are in your control: I.e, I’ll spend 5 minutes focusing on groundwork every day I’m out with my horse.
2. Set a “minimum viable session.” Decide the smallest thing that still counts before you even get to the barn (e.g., 10 min ride), so bad-mood days don’t turn into no-show days.
3. Attach training to an existing habit. Right after you feed/turn out, you groom. Right after groom, you tack up. Chaining tasks together removes the “what now?” decision fatigue.
4. Separate “training days” from “relationship days.” Not every session needs a goal. Build in unstructured time (grazing, grooming, hand walks) as part of the system, not a break from it.
5. Plan for your worst day, not your best. Ask: what does my system look like when I’m exhausted/rushed/unmotivated? If it still works on that day, it’s a real system.

What are the system building hacks you use?

08/25/2026

08/24/2026

It’s such a good movie. Having just visited the red desert, this hit close to home. These horses need us now more than ever.

08/12/2026

Creating opportunities for choice doesn’t need to complicated. Sometimes it’s a simple as asking them where they’d like to be scratched, hosed, or brushed.

08/07/2026

Genuine question: are memberships and courses dead? Or are we doing it wrong…?

I’ve had this idea for a while to create a community run video library, where members build the videos. The idea is pretty simple…I would create a library where each exercise has a title and a few how-to descriptions. As members try the exercises with their horses, they record videos and submit them.

Videos that show clear examples and are helpful would be displayed in the video library. If it isn’t chosen to be displayed, members would still get feedback on ways to improve or next steps with their horse.

The library would be a safe and organized place (not public or a continuous feed like a Facebook group) that’s also curated to avoid sifting through videos or searching for keywords. There would be a small membership fee (think cost of a coffee per month) just to cover my cost to host the platform and review the videos.

The focus would be on finding positive training solutions without being stuck on one idea or guru. Examples with real people, real horses, and real everyday problems would be shown. No AI, no scripts.

If this idea resonates with at least 10 people, that’s enough to get me started. 👍🏻 Give me a thumbs up in the comments or tell me what specific behaviors or problem solving categories you’d like to have in the library. ⭐️

08/05/2026

If your horse loves to pick up objects like mine, here’s your sign to start teaching some cone games! Dusty just learned to pick up the cone (versus just touching it) and soon I’ll start asking him to bring it to me. Because…well…it’s fun.

08/01/2026

Writing a book isn’t a smart endeavor these days. People don’t seem to love reading as much as they used to, and the market (for everything really) feels saturated.

So why bother?

Truthfully, I felt compelled to write. I’d repeated and repeated theory, practical application, scientific reasoning, and ethics to students over and over. I wanted one resource to point to and the practice of putting my thoughts to paper.

A few weeks ago, a twelve year old girls mom made it all worth it to me:

“She hasn’t put that book down. She’s dog eared and highlighted all of the pages.”

So many kids are introduced to horses in a harsh way. They see horses being kicked, whipped, chased, smacked, and being talked about as if they don’t have feelings. Knowing that one horse crazy twelve year old picked up my book, and is encouraged to think of horses as the whole autonomous beings that they are, is plenty for me.

08/01/2026

I’ve seen this shift in myself the more I work with classical postures on the ground. I can connect a feeling in the saddle to a visual of the horse’s actions from the ground.

07/29/2026

Horses don’t always want what we expect they want.

07/24/2026

A few stills of the family band and challenging stallion from Pilot Butte Horse Loop in Rock Springs Wyoming 💜

PC Brett Tooley