Meet Karen Jones
I’m Karen Jones. As a horsemanship mentor, I help horse owners build their foundational skills and learn to communicate with their equine partners, creating safe and strong horse-human relationships.
My toolbox is filled with over 50 years of teaching and horsemanship experience. I’ll teach you the science of horse behavior so you can read their body language and understand what your horse is trying to tell you.
As your horsemanship skills improve, you'll learn to meet your horse where they are, giving them what they need to succeed in each moment.
Through positive reinforcement, I will help you:
1. Bring awareness and observation skills to understand your horse’s body language, communication, and behavior.
2. Develop core foundational horsemanship skills, techniques, and strategies.
3. Create and develop a strong relationship and connection, leading to the perfect partnership.
4. Give your horse a voice and the freedom of choice builds a trusting relationship that will last a lifetime.
My desire is to enable people and horses to learn together in a way that preserves the beauty and the spirit of the horse and allows horse and human to discover a shared joy that enriches the lives of both.
The work I do and teach provides straightforward, evidence-based facts and information on helping people understand their horses and their behaviors. I encourage a 'whole horse' holistic approach to care and training to ensure the emotional, physical, mental and spiritual well-being, for both horse and human.
I have dedicated my life to helping make the world a better place for horses and their humans, one partnership at a time.
With my husband of 44 years, Jack, we live on our 18-acre farm in west central Georgia with 3 horses, 2 dogs and numerous neighbor’s barn cats. We both graduated from Auburn University with Fine Art BFA degrees and were prevalent on the fine art and craft show circuit for over 20 years.
Jack still enjoys drawing and painting, while Karen creates her style of art through her horse-human training and personal development program, Motivational Horsemanship.
Because Of The Horse...
I clearly see how horses change lives and provide essential life lessons. They create self-confidence and self-esteem. They challenge our attitudes, beliefs and behaviors in the blink of an eye, without judgment or criticism. Because of the life lessons shared by the horses, we can gently guide each other to success, while creating a fun and positive experience.
Karen Jones’ 2025 Presentations
DAY 1
★ Reward-Based Training – Using Combined Reinforcement To Safely Move Your Horse Away
In this video, you’ll learn why we need to be able to move our horses over and away. Using different science behavior concepts and theories, such as operant conditioning and classical conditioning, you’ll learn why your choice of theory matters when teaching your horse to move away from and out of your space.
Watching Rhett and me, you’ll learn why and how I use combined reinforcements to safely move him out of my space. Rhett has been wholly educated using reward-based training - combining positive reinforcement, clicker and target training… with minimum negative reinforcement using pressure/release. LIMA principle - Least Invasive, Minimally Aversive. The dance created when horse and human move together through space, as willing partners, is mesmerizing to watch and magical to share.
DAY 2
★ 'How-To' First Lesson Steps Using Combined Reinforcement Of Touch And Verbal Cues
Meet Molly and Nirvana, her new 22-month-old filly. Molly has been a friend and student for over 15+ years and fellow combined reinforcement trainer. Her gift is starting foals and young horses with foundational cooperative care task manners and groundwork, using positive and negative reinforcement as reward-based training. This combination creates healthy moving riding horses with sound minds. This is their first ‘real-time’ lesson combining positive and negative reinforcements to teach Nirvana the basic yields of away through backup, moving hindquarters and shoulders, as well as picking up her feet.
You’ll learn how Molly determines what to release on, when to release, and what to use to reward the slightest try from Nirvana to yield and move away and out of Molly’s space.
COMING SOON
Where You Can Find Karen Jones
