The Horse Listener

16/04/2025

Training Bonnie over the past two years has been nothing but a pleasure. Taking time to let her grow into the horse she wants to be… a brave horse for sure, also funny as a circus, loving, inquisitive, curious. Loving the journey. 💗

It’s Candy here - an overdue update, but I’ve been busy moving from the Northern Rivers to the New England countryside, not far from Armidale. Bonnie has come with me to continue her training. She’s doing so well, but she needs some miles under saddle now and our new place has access to some perfect tracks. She’s rising five now, and is growing up to be a beautiful, steady, calm horse, a typical example of the Standardbred horse. She’s also showing signs of becoming a herd leader, and is a very good 2IC to my mare Eva. I love Bonnie’s inquisitive nature and her ‘thinking’ brain. She really enjoys working out problems. She’s transformed from a a very bolshy baby who would use her rather large head somewhat freely to knock you out of the way, and would space invade ALL the time, to a polite and attentive high school student. Our chiro, Matt Butler, who saw her after she slipped over in the mud post-cyclone, remarked on her beautiful manners. “It’s hard to believe she’s the same horse,” he told me. And not for the first time I thought, ‘yes, manners maketh the horse, for sure’. Here she is looking magnificent in our new home. Once our settling in period is over she’ll be into some serious work. Thank you all for your support of Bonnie over the past two years. It’s allowed her to blossom and I believe she has great potential to be a wonderful, and safe, riding horse. 💗

02/04/2025

Zebra printed coats for baby zebras, so they can visually understand their keepers. The very best of human kindness. 🥰

05/03/2025

I'm taking my mind off the wind and rain we're experiencing right now by spending a bit of time looking back at a few of the horses I've been working with over the past three weeks for clients, The theme that's emerged, for different reasons, has been the importance of emotional connection (and also showing the owners where their horses are holding tension and pain). I thought that I might write their stories in three different pieces, starting with Girl...

Girl - from dangerous to puppy dog

The first troubled equine was a mighty big OTT mare, known as Girl, who had been abused by her trainer and has residual trauma. When Girl was taken in by Tara, she hoped she might rehabilitate Girl into being a riding horse, but Girl had other ideas, and with a personality as big as her chunky body, she began to get randomly aggressive towards Tara and also towards the companion gelding she lives with. When Tara contacted me, she was actually wondering whether she could even go on with Girl - she was worried, after a couple of incidents, that she might get really badly hurt, and she'd been advised by a vet to put her to sleep.
So I turned up with my carrot stick, (or natural horsemanship stick) to keep me safe, just in case, and my essential oils to offer Girl as the gentlest form of therapy, and found that really, all that had happened was that this mare had become convinced that she was the leader of the human and small horse herd, and therefore it was pretty much her way or the highway.
I didn't put too much pressure on her, because Tara said she could explode pretty easily, but I did 'ask' her to move away from me, and pushed her with the carrot stick gently when she didn't. A combination of boundaries, time out for sniffing oils (for both of us), and asking her gently to move with me, stop when I asked, and turn, and she showed how much happier she was, at the end standing by me quietly while we chatted.
Next it was Tara's turn to work with her horse - and it was wonderful to watch both of them learn to understand one another better.
A few weeks later I got an update from Tara, who wrote to let me know how well Girl had responded to her session, telling me that Girl seemed much happier now that Tara was setting firm boundaries. "I've been taking both horses for nightly walks in the big paddock and they love it," she said. "There's zoomies, gentle meanderinngs and exploring...they're bonding better too and she's less aggressive towards my gelding...she's my big puppy dog."
Even better, Girl is going to get her very own special name – Raven. Because, said Tara: "She is so intelligent, dark, and the name represents transformation and wisdom. New beginnings for this girl."
I'm privileged to have been part of both of their journey towards transformation.

Tomorrow - the beautiful Cruise's journey towards true bonding...

12/02/2025

😂😂

06/02/2025

This is truly hilarious and also read all the replies, and yes, guilty of quite a few human purchases for horses, including numit cream for a horse with injection phobia 🤣 works a treat. Not so much horse purchases for humans, although Tuff Rock makes a mighty fine miniature poultice.

03/02/2025

Safe travels Lucy!

I can't believe that Lucy was with us for five whole months. The time just seemed to fly by. As my horse helper, she arrived a shy 19-year-old from Germany, and left a confident young woman, ready to take on the world. With a love of horses and writing - and Willow - she fitted right into the family, so much so she spent quite a lot of time with my son Sam and his partner Brendon as well, and it really did feel as if she was always going to be here. We had a last street market dinner at Newrybar on Wednesday, then a last curry night at home before she left. When it came time to say goodbye Sam said, "I don't like this game," and I have to say neither do I. I've now been hosting helpers for 19 years, the time Lucy's been on the planet, and it truly is one of the most rewarding parts of my life, getting to know all these wonderful young people from all corners of the globe, and teaching them natural horsemanship skills - which are really, in fact, life skills. The goodbyes are always sad, but at the same time I've been so lucky to have all these beautiful friendships. So thank you Lucy for all your hard work. We've ridden together, played horses together endlessly, laughed and talked and spent many hours in companionable silence. We will all miss you, especially Willow, who has pointed out to me several times that you are the ONLY person, ever, to have bought her THREE toys, and that I need to lift my game.

18/01/2025

This is a great step forward.

Bitless dressage allowed and nosebands and double bridles optional in new Danish rules

Read more via link below

16/01/2025

Quite a few friends have asked me which organisations they should donate money to in order to help aid horse rescue in Los Angeles due to the disastrous fires. Our Equus Alliance angel, Amanda, did some research for us, and Fleet of Angels is a top rated not for profit, with a gold seal for transparency. It's been nominated for numerous awards and has been called the most responsive national go-to organization in the US for helping horse owners and smaller rescues when they need urgent assistance after a natural disaster or other major emergency.
We hope this helps. ❤
(Link in comments)

01/01/2025

Happy New Year to all you horse lovers out there.
So I've been fostering Nova for Amanda Vella's - Bella Vita Equine Welfare and Horse Sanctuary for over two years now. Nova arrived at my place emaciated and pregnant, having been purchased by a dogger at Laidley sales and saved by the fine people at Equine Voice Australia (E.V.A.) She is, without a doubt, the most traumatised horse I've dealt with in almost 50 years of horse rescue. I firmly believe she's had an electric cattle prod used on her flanks and rear end, and to catch her I still need to use a tiny yard and a LOT of patience. But this girl has really tried - particularly when I surrendered and gave in to her timeframe - to trust me, in the tiniest of increments. She took her first carrot from me while the Olympics were on, and I awarded her a special Gold Medal, in the form of an extra carrot! She's gradually relaxed and allowed me to slightly cup my hand around her mouth to take the carrot, and now she's allowing me to touch her head very lightly. This morning she managed to sneak some carrots away from her paddock mates, Taz and Tyra, and I honestly think she's beginning to enjoy interacting with me. All four of us, three horses and one human, brought up her lovely foal Comet, now with my friend Cass at CSF Horsemanship. All of us were sad but also relieved when he left us as a bouncy two-year-old, and now we will see what further progress this sweet little mare can make in 2025, in her own time, and at her own pace. 🩷

18/12/2024

How often do you get to play with not one, not two but THREE Brumbies? Not often is the answer, but recently on the way back from Sydney I got to stop at one of my favourite places, with one of my favourite people - Kathy Holtrust's Southern Cross Horse Treks (Kerewong) Australia at Kerewong, inland from Port Macquarie. I couldn't wait to see the Blonde Brumby again, and his Brumby brother Dodge, but I was a little sad that it seemed although Dodge was fully embracing his life as a boutique trail-riding horse, Blondie was finding the change of riders a bit worrisome. Kathy explained that he seemed to find it hard to relax, so before I started to lead him around Kathy's brilliant obstacle course, I took some time to just breathe, walk, breathe, stop, breathe, walk, breathe, stop, breathe, and pretty soon that beautiful golden boy was as relaxed as anything.

Kathy wrote a beautiful post about my visit, and was kind enough to post these lovely words on her page:

"Today the focus for Candy and I was the Obstacle Course, and I was so pleased to see Blondie calm, relaxed and content. The Blonde Brumby has worked tremendously hard for me over recent years, and while he's a fantastic trail horse, he's a softie who struggles mentally with the inconsistency of different handlers and riders (it stresses him out tbh), and physically with the fact that I still haven't found a well-fitting saddle for him. Since he's being given a rest from riding, Candy led him around the obstacle course and he was the most relaxed I've seen him in a long time. Instead of the usual rushing he actually stood still and relaxed on top of the obstacles.
It shows that a gentle, kind and reassuring handler without a time frame or goals mindset, can make a big difference to the mental wellbeing of a horse.
The Gold Nugget Brumby Dodge was happy to carry Candy along the obstacles and Kalypso made the Brumby experience complete."

It really is the most wonderful feeling when you know that the horses with you - particularly when they are not your own - are completely at ease.
It's been a big year working with many different horses - and I can't wait for 2025.