JP Giacomini is a master horseman who specializes in classical dressage.

JP Giacomini at Wellborn Quarter Horses

JP Giacomini is a master horseman who specializes in classical dressage. He owns Baroque Farms USA located in Kentucky, but he took time out of his schedule to visit us down in sunny Florida at Wellborn Quarter Horses! JP has a lengthy resume, which you can find on his website, he has ridden and trained internationally, but he has also created helpful tools for other horseman. To start our clinic, JP went over the basics of horse-to-horse interaction. After we evaluated how horses treat one another in a herd environment, JP translated that into how we should be interacting with horses as humans. It was interesting to see the points that he made, but more interesting to see how the horses opened up to him after working with him for a few minutes. One of the most interesting points to me was leading a horse from his nose, in turn his front legs and hind legs would follow. Since the horse has the majority of their weight on the forehand, it makes sense that it should be the leading factor versus pushing only from the hind end. JP spent a few minutes teaching the horses his techniques, it was amazing to see the horses go from slightly inverted and unbalanced to tracking well under themselves and rounding at the neck/pole.

In addition to his training techniques, JP created a device to assist him in his methods. He has designed a halter which applies pressure to various parts of the horses head/neck and allows JP to control where the head is placed. He also helped design the Zeno (seen in the photos of the chestnut). The Zeno is a device used to help acclimate and calm the nervous system. The device creates small, continuous vibrations on various intensities. Using this device helps the horses to not only relax, but to retain the information that they learned during the training session. You can find more information on the Zeno here.