You can care deeply about your horse and still feel unsure about what they are trying to tell you.

You can be doing everything you have been taught to do and still feel the moment your horse becomes tense, hesitant, disconnected, or less available.

You can want more for both of you without wanting to push past what your horse is experiencing.

And you can believe in performance, progress, and clear communication while also knowing that the relationship has to matter.

This weekend gives us a place to explore those questions with your horse, within yourself, and alongside people who care about the relationship as much as you do.

You should not have to choose between progress and protecting your relationship with your horse.

Going deeper does not mean asking less of your horse.

It means learning how to ask with more clarity, awareness, and accuracy.

It means understanding how the nervous system, learning history, physical capacity, timing, pressure, relief, and your own internal state shape the interaction between you.

It means creating progress that does not depend on overriding the horse’s experience.

Beyond Horsemanship was created for the people asking deeper questions.

→ What is my horse actually experiencing during our training?

→ Are they understanding me, or are they simply trying to avoid getting it wrong?

→ Is this confusion, anticipation, physical imbalance, nervous-system overload, or something else entirely?

→ How do I help my horse become more capable without teaching them to disconnect from themselves?

→ How do I ask for more while staying in integrity with who I want to be?

We are looking at the whole relationship.

Not only what the horse is doing, but what is shaping the interaction for both of you.

The Horse

What their body and nervous system are communicating. What they have learned to predict. How balance, pain, physical capacity, pressure, relief, and previous experiences may be shaping their response.

The Human

What is happening inside you while you are asking. How your expectations, urgency, uncertainty, timing, and fear of getting it wrong may be changing the information your horse receives.

The Relationship

The patterns created between you. The places where you understand each other, the places where communication gets lost, and what becomes possible when both experiences are allowed into the conversation.

This is not about making every horse behavior mean something about you. And it is not about treating the horse as too fragile to learn, work, or be asked for more.

It is about becoming more accurate, so you have more choices than adding pressure, backing away completely, or repeating the same thing and hoping it eventually changes.

You may see something during another Horse + Human session that changes how you understand your own horse.

You may recognize a pattern in yourself that reaches far beyond the arena.

You may discover that the thing you have been trying to fix needs something completely different than you thought.

This is not about fixing you or your horse in four days.

It is about experiencing a deeper way of seeing, listening, and responding that you can carry into the relationship long after the weekend ends.

 Four Days Beyond the Usual Clinic Experience

Each part of the weekend builds on the next while leaving room to respond to what the horses, people, and relationships bring into the space.

Thursday 15th | Arrive + Connect

Horses arrive in the morning with time to settle.

We begin that afternoon with introductions, an opening ceremony, and a powwow-style circle that includes what Shayleigh has received from the participating horses.

Friday 16th | See + Understand

We begin with a mirror session alongside Amber’s herd before moving into individual Horse + Human sessions.

Amber will work with each partnership as she would during her regular sessions, while Shayleigh weaves in the horse’s perspective and shares what they are communicating as it becomes relevant.

That evening, we gather for a catered dinner and time together outside the arena.

Saturday 17th | Explore + Experience

We begin with a group session in the arena with the herd, followed by another full day of individual Horse + Human sessions, learning, personal exploration, and conversation.

Throughout the sessions, Amber will work directly with each horse-and-human partnership while Shayleigh continues bringing forward what the horse wants their person to understand about the experience unfolding between them.

That evening, we gather for a beach bonfire & Sound Bath.

Sunday 18th | Integrate + Carry It Forward

We come together for a catered breakfast, open Q&A, and closing ceremony to bring the pieces together and explore how you will carry the work home.

The exact timing and flow may shift based on the needs of the horses, the participants, and the work unfolding throughout the weekend.

Facilitated by Amber Lydic + Shayleigh Evans

Two perspectives woven together to include the horse, the human, and the relationship between them.

Amber Lydic

Amber is a nervous-system-before-technique horse trainer and Horse + Human relationship specialist with more than 25 years of experience. Her background spans cutting and reined cow horses, Dressage, Three Day Eventing and training for the San Jose Police Mounted Unit, personal coaching, somatic work, and helping horses who have been misunderstood or labeled difficult. 

Her work begins where traditional horsemanship often stops.

Rather than treating behavior as something to correct, Amber looks at what is creating it. She helps people understand how pain, balance, past experiences, nervous system state, and learned patterns can shape the way a horse responds. From there, she helps the horse and human find a different way forward without relying on more pressure, repetition, or forcing either one beyond their capacity.

Amber has a particular ability to see what is happening underneath an interaction in real time. She notices the subtle shifts in timing, tension, movement, attention, and energy that are easy to miss, then helps the person change what they are communicating so the horse has the opportunity to respond differently.

Her work is not only about improving what happens with the horse. Horses often reveal the places where people rush, brace, disconnect, over-function, avoid boundaries, or stop trusting what they feel. Amber creates a space where those patterns can be explored without judgment and where both the horse and human are allowed to have an experience.

Throughout the weekend, Amber will work directly with each Horse + Human partnership, helping them understand what is happening beneath the behavior, change the patterns keeping them stuck, and create more clarity, safety, and connection in the relationship.

~Learn More About Amber~

Shayleigh Evans

Shayleigh is an animal communicator, teacher, and guide who has spent more than a decade exploring the profound relationship between horses and the humans who love them. She has taught more than 100 students to develop their own capacity for deeper communication, connection, and understanding with animals.

Her work goes beyond simply asking a horse what they have to say. Shayleigh has a particular affinity for uncovering the stories beneath patterns in the body and behavior—recognizing how the nervous system, emotional patterns, and lived experiences can shape the way both horses and humans move through the world.

Through horses, she psychically senses where a human or horse is in relation to where they ultimately want to go, revealing the places where old patterns, protective responses, or unspoken stories may be influencing the relationship.

Throughout the weekend, she will connect with the participating horses and share what they communicate about their experiences, relationships, and the work unfolding around them. 

 ~ Learn More About Shayleigh ~

This weekend is a co-creation

Amber will work directly with each Horse + Human partnership while Shayleigh weaves in what the horse wants their person to understand.

Together, they create space for what can be seen, what can be felt, and what the horse has to say.

What could become possible if you understood more of what was happening between you?

Beyond Horsemanship is an invitation to see your horse, yourself, and the relationship between you with more clarity.

To pursue progress without leaving connection behind.

To include your horse’s experience without losing your own.

And to leave with more than another collection of techniques.

To leave with a deeper ability to notice, understand, and respond.

October 15–18, 2026

Aptos, California

Horse + Human Experience: $950 

Immersive Participant Experience: $350