Equine Performance Solutions

Happy 4th y’all!🎇🥳

Some people may see this and think… that’s unfortunate, it’s raining where Vicke it’s at… but anyone that works outside in Florida during the summer knows my feeling when I say that I’m barely functional at this point😅… like is it October yet???

So, sitting out back, listening to the rain and thunder, and enjoying a cool breeze feels like medicine for the soul… until fireworks start up that is… 😂

Enjoy this independence celebration my friends and stay safe🥰

When Max arrived, he was severely underweight and completely shut down😔

He had no interest in interacting with people, and when people saw him for the first time, the most common comment was, *“Well… he’s got a cute face.”*

I like spicy, cheeky horses, and I remember making the comment that I didn’t know if he had enough fire in him...😆

Turns out… he had plenty😳

One medical disaster after another got in the way of us bonding, but once he got some groceries in him, he started coming back to life.

But the horse that came out wasn’t easy.

He wasn’t cheeky—he was defensive, easily triggered, and angry.

Frustration or even the slightest aggression toward him only fueled him, and he made it very clear that if I was going to fight him into submission, he was going to fight back—no matter the cost.

Other horses being ridden around him would send him into a frenzy.

And I don’t mean what you see in these videos.

I mean completely checked out.

No awareness of his surroundings.
Rearing.
Striking at me.
Leaping around me—and sometimes it felt like over me.
Hooves flying way too close for comfort.
Slipping. Falling. Over and over.

With absolutely no concern for my safety or his own.

And in those moments, there was no reaching him. No training through it. He was gone.

There were days I wore my helmet and crash vest just trying to wrestle him to the round pen or arena in hopes of accomplishing something.

He was on a different level—like nothing I had ever experienced before, and I have always been drawn to complicated and difficult horses...

And for the first time in my life, I thought - I don’t know if I can do this.

My plans to reshape his body, posture, and movement came to a screeching halt because every attempt I made to help him was perceived as an attack he needed to defend himself against.

That’s what sent me down a completely different path—one I never had any interest in before.

I started learning from people like Tik Maynard, Warwick Schiller, Josh Nichol, Buck Brannaman, Ray Hunt, Tom Dorrance, and Jonathan Field. Listening to any podcast or interview I could find to better undersand their philosophy.

Their approaches gave me a new way to understand Max—and new tools to meet him where he was.

Through all of that, along with the wisdom from more classical riders and my background in functional anatomy, I began to discover a new way to create better posture, spinal alignment, and movement.

The results of that journey are what became this class.

This course wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the challenges Max brought me.

And while our journey is far from over, it has been one of the most rewarding ones yet.

https://vicke-s-site.thinkific.com