Katie Boniface

Hey Friends! My name is Katie and I'm the head coach at Equestrian Movement, school of holistic horse handling. We help horse riders who want a deeper bond and a stronger connection to create training plans with a focus on being in relationship to the horse. After coming along in my training under the traditional method of push them through it and let the know who was boss and was ready to quit, my heart broken for who was being pushed to be to seemingly be successful in this industry. "There has to be a better way!!"

And so started the journey into developing the holistic horse handling training style where we unravel the distinguishing features that differentiate a "boss" vs a compassionate leader and "submission" vs true willingness and consent. Along the path I had plenty of people tell me it couldn't be done and I was creating dangerous horses. But because of my childhood horse King, I knew there was a way and the way was not force and pressure but connection, trust and communication.

So with my relationship with King as my guiding light I have worked with beginners through to experienced english riders and with unbroken through to experienced horses on how we can create a powerfully connected equestrian team with our horses. I am excited to share with you some of our training philosophies that have helped us build relationship, trust and confidence in horses even if they have experienced severe trauma and helped our students time and again create breakthrough moments with their own horses difficult and sometimes dangerous behaviors and training blocks.

Katie Boniface

Katie's 2023 Presentations

Do I Choose a Training Method -

Choosing a training method that suits you and your horse

With so many different amazing trainers and techniques at your disposal it can be hard to narrow down to the "one, right, best way" to work with your horse. In this video we are going to talk about how I help our students both face to face and online choose what works best for their and their horses unique personality. 

Rearing Horse Assessment - 

In this video I'm sharing an initial assessment lesson from a new student who came to me with issues regarding her horse rearing and becoming scared of him. I'm going to go over what kinds of things I would be looking for in a rearing horse

The biggest mistake I have made as a trainer - A lot of what we are trying to do as a rider, trainer, instructor is improve ourselves to be better for our horses. So we take on advice and experiment with different methods.