Karin Gracey Equine Success

30/11/2025

It’s important to remember that unless your Ottb has been correctly retrained to be suitable for equestrian disciplines, they only know one thing, and that is being a racehorse…

So more than often in the beginning, you may not get a relaxing ride, lol

26/11/2025

Most horse owners know they should make feed changes slowly, but not everyone understands why.

A horse’s digestive system relies on billions of specialised bacteria in the hindgut to break down fibre and turn it into energy. When a new feed is introduced too quickly, those bacteria don’t have time to adapt. This can lead to acidity, toxins and serious issues like colic, acidosis or laminitis.

Even small changes, such as a different type of hay, pellet or new pasture, can upset the balance if introduced too fast. Allowing ten to fourteen days for the transition helps the gut microbes adjust and keeps your horse’s digestion healthy.

Read more about what happens inside your horse’s gut and how to make safe feed changes in our latest education article.

👉 Link in the comments.

23/11/2025

This is what we should be listening to to keep our horses in the best of health

🐎 They were made to move 🐎

Horses have evolved to move across sparse landscapes. Their long, athletic legs speak of endurance and speed, but the interior is no less finely tuned.

A gut system designed for gentle, constant motion.
A metabolism that conserves energy for flight and distance.
A respiratory system that bellows at full speed.
A circulation system that depends on movement to cleanse and nourish.
A nervous system wired for safety in numbers, primed to flee at the hint of danger.

Every stride conditions muscle, bone, and spirit.
Every mouthful of rough forage shapes teeth and nurtures the delicate balance of hindgut bacteria.
Every bond formed is as vital as breath.

Bodies sculpted through endurance and play.
Feet hardened by terrain.
A musculoskeletal system strengthened with every footfall.

A finely tuned machine, perfected by Mother Nature. If one system falters, the rest follow.

For over 55 million years, horses have survived ice ages, meteors, droughts, floods, wars, and climate shifts. Yet the average lifespan of the domestic horse is declining.

Domestication often ignores these truths, with consequences we can no longer overlook. The leading causes of death in domestic horses are lameness and colic — conditions rooted in restricted movement and disrupted digestion. It is not the act of movement alone that sustains health, but what that movement represents on a cellular level.

Horses don’t need us to survive. They need us to listen.

19/11/2025

I love this photo of my Tommy and Pippa. I lost my Tommy on 29th August due to a catastrophic paddock injury. Tommy was an Ottb who I rode trackwork on back 15 years ago. I took him on after racing, he was with me from that day until I lost him on the 29th. Still feel truly heartbroken and miss him so much.

16/11/2025

Wonderful to see My ‘Blue Jeans’ Bluey find his forever perfect home💓🐎
All Ottbs deserve a well cared for and happy life after their racing career.

16/11/2025

This is such a good post discussing a topic that needs a lot more attention and awareness put on it…

Using human psychology and mental health language in horse training?

I have seen this myself with horse trainers, and find it very concerning, as well as surprised that very little is said about it, in regards to welfare issues for both horse and human. The fact that some high profile trainers base their horse training method on this may have something to do with it.

16/11/2025

Fascinating to watch - Slow motion footage of thoroughbred racehorse jumping from the gates.

12/11/2025

Horses differ in their sensitivity, as well as their motivation.

This means that when you use any pressure, you’ll need to identify each and every horse’s innate or acquired sensitivity.

If the pressure used is consistently below a motivating level the horse may habituate and require more pressure in the future, inducing negative affect.

Conversely, using pressures that exceed the motivating level is also a recipe for poor welfare.

Good horsemanship has always been about tuning in to the precise motivating level of pressure for each individual. An experienced horse person can often determine a horse’s sensitivity simply through touch and grooming.

Andrew McLean - Modern Horse Training: Equitation Science Principles & Practice, Volume 2

📖 Available for purchase on our website!

05/11/2025

Cues are discreet, previously unrelated signals—such as voice, posture, or gestures—that are learned by the horse through classical conditioning.

Unique, standardised cues may develop for particular equestrian activities or sports. The most important criteria for selecting cues are that they should be easy for the horse to discriminate, unique to each desired response, and avoid overlapping or overshadowing other cues or signals.

Whether you choose visual cues, such as your posture, or aural cues such as your voice, the most important thing is to be consistent and avoid creating higher arousal.

Research has shown that negative, emotionally charged vocal sounds—for example, screeching or growling—can lead to negative affective states in horses, and there is anecdotal evidence that fast, erratic human body movements may also lead to negative affective states in horses.

Andrew McLean - Modern Horse Training: Equitation Science Principles & Practice, Volume 2

📖 Available for purchase on our website!

04/11/2025

Incredible sunrise at Goulburn racecourse this morning!

02/11/2025