Riding without spurs isn’t just about putting them away for a month—it’s about rethinking the entire foundation of your communication with your horse. Spurs are often used as tools of avoidance, where the horse moves to escape discomfort, but removing them without addressing this dynamic can leave you relying on more pressure and frustration. To ride effectively without spurs, you must retrain your horse to see your aids as opportunities for reward rather than signals to avoid discomfort. This requires patience, breaking down movements into smaller steps, and creating a positive motivation for every response. It’s a challenging shift, but the harmony and trust you build with your horse are worth every moment.

What motivates a competitor? A great performance. Improving. Winning.

Often that comes at a real cost to the horse’s well-being, not because the rider or trainer doesn’t care, but because they don’t know any other way to get that kind of performance. So why would we be getting excited about plans for a Young Horse Development program at Via Nova aimed at high-level sporthorse competition in the future?

What motivates a competitor? A great performance. Improving. Winning.

Often that comes at a real cost to the horse’s well-being, not because the rider or trainer doesn’t care, but because they don’t know any other way to get that kind of performance. So why would we be getting excited about plans for a Young Horse Development program at Via Nova aimed at high-level sporthorse competition in the future?

Connection Training is an online resource for anyone starting Positive Reinforcement with their horse. Hannah Weston, Rachel Bedingfield and Claire Waldron of Connection Training have been some of our important mentors at Via Nova.

In this video, you can follow Vinnie, Via Nova’s school pony, for a practical guide to Positive Reinforcement training for horses. We will cover the two basic flavors of reinforcement so that you can understand motivation, how to look for your “yes”, create an opportunity for the horse to do the right thing, and the magic created when using markers in training.

Santa Fe, NM – May 24, 2022 – Via Nova was thrilled to sponsor the American Horse Publications (AHP) Annual Equine Media Conference in Lexington. We wholeheartedly agree with AHP Executive Director Chris Brune’s conference theme: Inspiration.