The NOËLLE FLOYD Podcast

The same patience it takes to earn a horse's trust is the patience Evan Grooms brings to teaching the rest of us. He came to horses the way most people never do — from the outside, with no background, terrified of the biggest one in the barn — and turned that beginner's-eye view into an education. Today he does the horse grooming and horse care in his wife's dressage business, and the horse world knows him as the viral comedian who makes the barn make sense to people who have never touched a horse.
This is a No Stupid Questions episode, and it is one of my favorites we have done. Evan explains horses the way he once needed them explained to him — no jargon, no ego, just plain answers to the things beginners are too embarrassed to ask out loud.
He was an engineer turning algae into protein. Then marketing. Then the pandemic took his job, his wife Ashley needed help at the barn, and he picked up a camera. The videos were meant to make his own family laugh — people who knew nothing about horses. Instead they built a following, and somewhere in there Evan became something he never trained to be: an educator.
We get into the skill he rates above all others and hears discussed least — observation, watching for the thing that is off today — and how six years of it on the ground is only now showing up in the saddle. His advice for every "horse husband" and non-horse partner out there: just support that. Why he would rather make a video so ridiculous you remember it than one only horse people understand, and how a loogie teaches you the word "hock." The groom's real job when no one is watching: being the horse's constant. And the mare who taught him the most — a year to earn her trust, and then, he says, she gives you everything.
There is also a talking pony named Piper, a children's book about a lost little bird, and — as of last week — his first ride off the lunge line.
If someone in your life doesn't understand the horse thing — or if you're the one at the rail — send them this.
Evan is a groom, content creator, and horse-care specialist in Southern California, where he works alongside his wife, dressage trainer Ashley Donant. He built his following making horses funny and reachable for people who have never touched one.
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Interested in more from Noëlle?
Noëlle's writing again — head to her Substack for essays, observations, and the kind of thinking that doesn't fit in an episode. https://noellefloyd.substack.com
Every episode is also on YouTube, where the conversation continues in the comments. 
https://www.youtube.com/@noellefloyd_plus
And if you're ready to go deeper, NF+ is where the real work happens — masterclasses, curated content, and a community that takes horses seriously. https://noellefloydplus.com
You can also download the app - NF+ App
Thank you for your listening!

A horse has two choices. Learn to accept the bit, or fight it for the rest of its life.
That's Steffen Peters, and this is the half where his hands are on the reins. If you heard Part 1, you met the man — six Olympics, the dark place, the way back. This one is the horse training — the groundwork up through Grand Prix. Forty years of it, distilled into the way he starts a five-year-old and the way he brought a brand-new stallion into the ring after two weeks together.
Here's the thing that runs through all of it: he doesn't push a horse into the bridle. Ever. He thinks ninety-five percent of horses are ridden with too much contact, and he'll tell you why "more hind legs, more into the hand" was never the answer for him. What he wants is suppleness, self-carriage, lightness — a soft rein you can see, and a horse that carries itself instead of leaning on your hand.
We get into where that starts, and it is earlier than you would think. The groundwork — on a lead rope, in a halter — the horse that stops when you stop without a pull on the rope. He calls it cooperation, not submission, and he means the difference exactly. From there it's the walk work most riders rush past, the half halt that becomes a reflex, the spur as a reminder and never a crutch, and the three aids he says are the only tools you really have.
There's the new stallion — fourteen, extremely smart, the horse that trained his rider to say "don't quit." There's Totilas, and what it takes to watch someone beat you and mean it when you call it good. And there's the compliment two vets paid him without knowing he could hear: at Steffen's barn, they can't make any money — because of the walk breaks, and what they save.
If Part 1 was how he learned to manage himself, this is how he manages the conversation with the horse. Same man. Now the method.
Steffen Peters is a German-born American dressage rider, a six-time Olympian and multiple Olympic medalist, and one of the most decorated dressage athletes in United States history. He returned to competition this year, opening his season aboard a new stallion with wins across the Prix St. Georges, the Intermediaire I, and the Grand Prix.
 
Chapters:
0:00 Riding Becomes Training
01:39 Flow State With New Stallion
02:19 Suppleness Over Hind Legs
04:37 Stop the Nagging Leg
05:52 Feel Over Looks
08:16 How Much Contact
11:57 Western Lightness Lessons
13:45 Warmup Is Training
17:30 Mindful Aids and Tools
20:38 Reliable Tests and Nerves
22:32 Refining Pressure Release
25:05 Walk Work and Discipline
27:12 Quiet Coaching Shift
27:54 Trainer Judge Clinics
29:06 From Thinking To Reflex
31:02 Flow State In Competition
34:09 Building Presence On Ground
37:46 Mindfulness In Daily Life
41:04 Rapid Fire Questions
47:59 New Stallion Partnership
50:26 Walk Breaks And Longevity
Want to go deeper into the training behind a clean, confident flying change?
In his new NOËLLE FLOYD Masterclass, six-time Olympian Steffen Peters breaks down the entire process—from developing the right canter, balance and response to the aids to introducing the change and troubleshooting tension, anticipation, crookedness and changes that are late behind.
Learn more and watch Training the Flying Change with Steffen Peters:
https://noellefloyd.com/pages/flying-changes-with-steffen-peters
Interested in more from Noëlle?
Noëlle's writing again — head to her Substack for essays, observations, and the kind of thinking that doesn't fit in an episode. https://noellefloyd.substack.com
Every episode is also on YouTube, where the conversation continues in the comments. 
https://www.youtube.com/@noellefloyd_plus
And if you're ready to go deeper, NF+ is where the real work happens — masterclasses, curated content, and a community that takes horses seriously. https://noellefloydplus.com
You can also download the app - NF+ App
Thank you for your listening!

There's one horse you would cross the country for.
You know the one. The horse who found you when you had the least to give and somehow handed you back to yourself.
Now hold that horse in your mind, and sit with this: roughly 20,000 of them a year get loaded onto trailers bound for Canada and Mexico, and it reaches every kind of horse — the show jumper, the Thoroughbred who ran too slow, the lesson pony grown old, the wild horses rounded up off land that was meant to protect them.
Ashley Avis has looked straight at it. She sewed a button cam into her shirt and walked into the Texas auctions where kill buyers wait. She founded the Wild Beauty Foundation, directed the mustang documentary Wild Beauty: Mustang Spirit of the West, and remade Black Beauty for Disney+. And she has turned all of it toward one aim: passing the SAFE Act in the year of the horse.
This conversation goes to the place most people flinch from. Ashley and I talk about why horse people, of all people, find horse slaughter the hardest thing to watch — and how she makes you look anyway, through ninety-second films voiced by Mackenzie Foy, Jessica Springsteen, and Diane Lane, and scored by Billie Eilish's "What Was I Made For?"
We talk about my mare Lady, one of those wild horses herself, who ran feral for fifteen years before she came to me, and who could have ridden that same truck to Mexico.
We talk about the black colt with pneumonia that Ashley coaxed out of a kill buyer's pasture, and the economics that let a man triple his price on a horse's life.
And we talk about Black Beauty — what Anna Sewell did in 1877 by writing from a horse's point of view, and why it still rearranges the people who meet it.
Then Ashley tells you exactly what two minutes of your day can do. A microsite. Your zip code. A pre-written letter your member of Congress will read.
If you have ever been remade by a single horse, this is the reason to pull the car over.
Ashley Avis is a filmmaker and the founder of the Wild Beauty Foundation. She directed Disney+'s Black Beauty and the mustang documentary Wild Beauty: Mustang Spirit of the West, and her Lost Horses campaign is carrying the SAFE Act toward a vote.
Make the call to Congress to pass the SAFE Act: Call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard to directed to your Senators and Representative: 202-224-3121. Once connected, all you have to say is, "Hi, my name is [NAME] and I am calling from [City/State] to ask that the [Senator/Representative] pass the SAFE Act (H.R. 1661, S. 775) to protect American horses, both domestic and wild, from being exported out of the United States to slaughter. Thank you."

Share the Lost Horses PSA: The Lost Horses campaign and legislation to stop horse slaughter is gaining momentum and we must keep up the awareness. Please share the PSA on social media and with your friends and family. Vimeo, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook.
Donate to the Lost Horses campaign: Help continue to reach the masses so that no horse is lost again. losthorses.org/support
 
Episode Sponsor:  YETI
Made for early mornings in the barn and long days in the saddle. Whether you're hauling feed, chasing daylight on the trail, or loading up for a weekend on the road, YETI coolers and drinkware are built to handle it.
No shortcuts. No compromise.
Just gear that works as hard as you do.
Explore more at YETI.com | @YETI | facebook.com/YETI
 
And for even more expert-led workshops, in-depth courses, and exclusive lectures designed to elevate your riding and horsemanship, visit NoelleFloydPlus.com and use code 'DHW' for 15% off annual memberships!

NF+ brings you direct access to top equestrian professionals, training insights, and a passionate community of riders dedicated to learning and improving.

You get the thing you chased for five years.
And the ride is the worst one you've ever put down.
Kasey Perry-Glass reached the Olympic Games on the horse she bought to take her there — Doublé — and came home into a depression that blindsided her. This is the conversation under the medal photo. What it costs to want something that badly, and what she found on the far side of it.
She married a cowboy. Dana Glass starts colts and takes in the horses other people gave up on — the rearers, the buckers, the bolters, carrying baggage nobody unpacked. Two worlds under one roof: her classical dressage, his groundwork. What one taught the other is most of this hour.
We get into the perfectionism that dressage rewards and then punishes — a score out of 100 that stays out of reach, a sport where the best mark is a C or a D on a good day. Why she stopped posting to social media. The line Martin Black uses, let them cook, and why ending a ride a little early beats grinding it into the ground. Pain versus behavior, and the checklist she taught Dana: clear the ulcers, the hindgut, the teeth, before anyone calls it attitude.
Then the mental game she learned the hard way. Finding her number with Annette Paterakis — the exact pitch of nerves and calm that lets her ride her best. The work with Dr. Jenny Susser. Blacking out in the saddle, ten minutes gone, grinding the same movement. Boundaries. Getting told she was "too nice" for this sport, and what she kept anyway.
Behind the vertical, point of balance, throughness without a single draw rein — she explains the dressage the way she explained it to Dana, the sport he first met through her.
This one is for anyone who has wanted something so badly it made them small, and found their way back to the size they actually are.
Kasey Perry-Glass is a US Olympic dressage rider — team bronze at Rio 2016 (America's first Olympic dressage medal since 2004) and team silver at the 2018 World Equestrian Games — who competes as Kasey Perry. Her longtime partner was the Grand Prix gelding Doublé (Goerklintgaards Dublet), now retired; she currently campaigns Heartbeat W.P. She and her husband, cowboy and colt-starter Dana Glass, run Two Worlds Equestrian, joining Western horsemanship and Grand Prix dressage under one program.
To Learn more about Kasey Perry-Glass: website | instagram | facebook
In This Episode You'll Learn
What it costs to reach an Olympic Games and ride your worst test there, and the depression Kasey came home to
The perfectionism dressage rewards and then punishes,  chasing a score out of 100 in a sport where a great mark is a C
Let them cook: why ending a ride a little early beats grinding a movement into the ground
The pain-versus-behavior checklist Kasey taught Dana — ulcers, hindgut, teeth, before anyone calls it attitude
Finding your number with sports psychologist Annette Paterakis — the exact pitch of nerves and calm that lets you ride your best
Blacking out in the saddle, ten minutes gone on the same movement, and the mental work that pulled her out
Behind the vertical made plain: the poll as the highest point, and why a horse's own point of balance can't be copied and pasted
Throughness without a single draw rein, and how groundwork gave an Olympic rider tools her dressage babies never had
Chapters:
 

0:00    How Kasey met a cowboy
4:51    What Dana does: colt starting & unpacking a horse's trauma
8:41    Groundwork, the rope halter & being a beginner again
14:34   [ad: Total Feeds]
15:14   The perfectionism dressage rewards and punishes
19:51   Let them cook: ending on a good note
23:17   Pain vs. behavior: what we blame on the horse
29:05   Bringing two worlds together
30:36   Welfare, eliminations & the "blood" rule
33:44   [ad: Noëlle's Substack]
36:07   Judging transparency & educating the viewer
39:21   Behind the vertical, explained
41:44   Point of balance & throughness without draw reins
44:47   Training aids as tools; groundwork informs the saddle
49:34   The Olympics — and the depression after
53:44   Patience in a same-day world
57:22   The mental game: finding your number
1:02:29 Boundaries, thick skin & remaking herself
1:07:19 Tough vs. strong; raising horses and kids
1:12:50 Rapid-fire questions


Episode Sponsor: Connaway & Associates Equine Insurance Services, Inc.

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Visit www.connaway.net | @connawayassociates | facebook.com/connawayassociatesequine 
 
Episode Sponsor: YETI
Made for early mornings in the barn and long days in the saddle. Whether you're hauling feed, chasing daylight on the trail, or loading up for a weekend on the road, YETI coolers and drinkware are built to handle it.
No shortcuts. No compromise.
Just gear that works as hard as you do.
Explore more at YETI.com | @YETI | facebook.com/YETI
 
Interested in more from Noëlle?
Noëlle's writing again — head to her Substack for essays, observations, and the kind of thinking that doesn't fit in an episode. https://noellefloyd.substack.com
Every episode is also on YouTube, where the conversation continues in the comments. 
https://www.youtube.com/@noellefloyd_plus
And if you're ready to go deeper, NF+ is where the real work happens — masterclasses, curated content, and a community that takes horses seriously. https://noellefloydplus.com
You can also download the app - NF+ App
Thank you for your listening!

You think the cow is the hard part.
She isn't. You are.
You get ahead of her to turn her, and she beats you to the herd every time. You spur, you pull, the horse's head comes up, and now nobody is watching the cow at all.
Martin Black has read millions of head of cattle, and the horse training lesson underneath all of it is the one almost everybody gets backwards. To cut one cow out, you leave her alone and stir the herd around her. To turn her, you turn away — not toward. The horse rates the cow the way a foal learns to rate its mother in the first thirty minutes of life. It's already in there. Our job is to stay out of the road so the horse can use it.
This is Part 2 of my week with Martin on his ranch in the Great Basin. Part 1 is the ranch, the horses, and reading the moment — start there.
We work the balance point and the flight zone, and why a cow reads your horse's head like a horn and your horse's hip like something softer. Why getting in front of a cow to block her only sends her faster. What Tom Dorrance told Martin decades ago about turning tail, and how that one idea makes a green horse handier by the day. Gene Lewis, his mother's cousin, and jumpers that rate a fence with nobody telling them where to put their feet.
Then the part that reshaped how I keep my own horses. Turnout over stalls. Bare feet when the ground allows. A crick to cross and rocks to pick through, because a horse who has to sort out the terrain grows savvy, and a horse who never has to stays a passenger.
Martin runs horses as a business, not a companion animal, and says his vet bills will stand against anyone's. Colic almost unheard of. Feet the ground keeps honest. It made me ask what I was really protecting when I bubble-wrapped mine.
The horse training here is subtraction, not addition. Cows think more like horses than you'd guess, and empathy runs under all of it.
Martin Black is a lifelong Great Basin horseman and stockman from a multi-generation ranching family, working in the vaquero tradition and the lineage of Tom Dorrance. He spent ten years starting young horses at Calumet Farm in Lexington and now teaches horsemanship and stockmanship through clinics and a ranch school. 
If you want to go further with your own horse, NF+ has 70+ masterclasses at noellefloydplus.com or through the app link in the show notes.
 
In This Episode You'll Learn
The move almost everyone gets backwards: to hold a single cow, you leave her alone and stir the herd around her
Why getting in front of a cow to block her only sends her faster back to the herd — and what to do the instant she turns
How a cow reads your horse's head like a horn and your horse's hip like something softer, so a leg-yield moves her where a headbutt would spook her
What Tom Dorrance told Martin about turning tail to a cow, and how it makes a green horse rounder and handier by the day
Gene Lewis and colts that rate a fence themselves, with nobody telling them where to put their feet
Why a collected walk finally had a purpose the day Noelle worked cattle on Lady
What ten years starting babies at Calumet and a lifetime in the Great Basin say about turnout, bare feet, and letting a horse sort out rough ground
The barbed-wire story, and what a horse who navigates real terrain has that a bubble-wrapped one lacks
Chapters
0:00    Part 2: cutting a cow by leaving her alone
1:40    Holding cattle without a fence — what it takes
3:40    Sorting without stalking: keeping a cow parasympathetic
5:40    Cows think like horses — Dr. Peters & Temple Grandin
8:30    The old way wasn't the cruel way
10:40   After WWII: how the mechanized age lost the horsemanship
11:20   What a chuck wagon really was (Great Basin history)
14:34   [ad: Total Feeds]
17:49   The balance point & flight zone, explained
21:00   Rating: the foal, the herd, and the safe place
26:40   Headbutt vs. tail-butt: why a leg-yield moves a cow softer
30:40   The move most people get backwards: never turn into the cow
33:43   [ad: Noelle's Substack]
34:47   Predator habits that get in the way
37:30   Tom Dorrance on turning tail
40:50   Gene Lewis: horses that rate the jump themselves
47:00   Managing horses naturally: turnout over stalls
49:00   Barefoot when the ground allows
52:00   Rough terrain makes a savvy horse — the barbed-wire story
55:00   Horses as a business, not a companion animal
59:40   Advice for urban riders: get out of the arena


Episode Sponsor: Total Feeds
Our mission to provide quality nutrition to people and animals puts us in contact with all manner of interesting folks. Whether you're interested in our animal feed, or the people involved in the animal industry: you'll find it at Total Feeds!
Check out our line of Quality Animal Feeds here: https://totalfeeds.com
 
Interested in more from Noëlle?
Noëlle's writing again — head to her Substack for essays, observations, and the kind of thinking that doesn't fit in an episode. https://noellefloyd.substack.com
Every episode is also on YouTube, where the conversation continues in the comments. 
https://www.youtube.com/@noellefloyd_plus
And if you're ready to go deeper, NF+ is where the real work happens — masterclasses, curated content, and a community that takes horses seriously. https://noellefloydplus.com
You can also download the app - NF+ App
Thank you for your listening!