AJ Equine- Ethical Horsemanship

01/09/2025

Timmy.
Happy and well into his retirement at age 25.

This boy has had a very full life, at a young age he was trained up as a cutting horse, and was purchased by my husband Andrew at the age of 9.
Since then, he took Andrew’s eldest daughter Sav through Pony Club to state level, was a very competitive and talented campdrafter and teampenner and also a very valuable school horse for us. We taught riders from the age of 5 to 85 on Timmy, he was the safest horse in the school and we trusted him with our lives!

He has given his all, and is enjoying a quieter life utilising what teeth he has left as best he can!

His very last ride was around two years ago, and he enjoyed a leisurely trail ride with Andrew’s youngest daughter Finny. His body is still amazing, and he could definitely still carry a rider, but we feel he has done enough and deserves some peace and quiet.

This winter has been a bit tough on him, but he is picking back up with extra feeding and the spring grass starting to show.

We can never give back to Timmy what he has given of himself over all these years…. But all we can do is make sure he’s comfortable and happy for now💜🦄💜

31/08/2025

Welcome Spring😍

The ground has dried up, the weeks temps are forecast for over 20 degrees each day and slowly but surely the days are getting longer!

Time to get going!

Brush the dust and mud of your horses and get riding… plant your veggies…. Give your tack a good clean and oil and leave out in the sun to soak!
Lastly, move aside jeans, hello shorts, and let’s get these pasty legs some colour😆👌🏼

29/08/2025

Hi there.

I’m just enquiring about the horse you have advertised for sale….
What’s he like with kids?
Is he good to float?
My husband is a beginner, would he be ok with occasionally carting him around on trails?
My farrier hates horses that won’t stand still- I need to know he will be good for a farrier!
I’m looking for a horse I can compete in endurance with, and also lead my kid at pony club now and then.

FACT- A horse will morph and change depending on its handler. So if I tell you he’s amazing with my kids, it doesn’t mean he will be amazing with you and yours…..

FACT- Every horse has its pros and cons. Things they are great at, and things they are not. No- most of the time you cannot have your cake and eat it too.

FACT- Currently, the horse self loads… but there’s no guarantee he will do that for you if you don’t know how to ask.

FACT- The best thing you can do is educate yourself on how to work with and educate horses. That way, it doesn’t matter what the seller says, you will know how to make a good and level headed equine partner yourself.

Buying or selling a horse?
Allow me to translate between buyer and seller! I also take horses on to bring back into work to sell, and have a quiet reputation on finding THE most amazing homes😍👏🏼

28/08/2025

Mares are horses too 🐴

If we put 2 horses side by side showing the same stress behaviours, but one was a gelding and one was a mare, I guarantee being “hormonal” would be very high on the list of people’s explanation of the mare’s behaviour. While the gelding may have ulcers, kissing spine and other sources of pain thrown onto the table, its almost like mares are seen as a different species.

I find the way we speak about mares can have a particularly nasty under-tone, no doubt stemming from the misogyny ingrained into all of us from a young age. It leaves a really sour taste in my mouth watching people laugh at distressed horses “haha she’s so sassy, little witch!” who are just desperately trying to communicate their discomfort.

It is so normalised that mares are "grumpy" that we actually highlight the ones that aren't by saying they're "not mareish". We literally think its normal for mares to be stressed and upset and that's just how they are. I hate the term "mareish".

I have a client who’s horse started napping and rearing, after a basic trot-up and palpation of her back, for some reason I still cannot fathom, she was prescribed a course of Regumate “to see if it helped”. Regumate is not something we should be giving to horses lightly and with absolutely no solid evidence of hormonal issues, but I hear of this happening commonly when we have a mare who is showing behavioural issues.

Upon assessing this mare I could see she was on a very restricted amount of forage and also didn’t have adequate muscling to carry the rider comfortably. She was scoped and diagnosed with stomach ulcers, we of course implemented management changes then worked on building her body up again. The napping behaviour never returned as now she was comfortable. This was such a simple, basic deduction from assessing this horse, and yet we jumped straight to a hormonal issue and disregarded anything else simply because she was a mare.

I am of course not saying mares cannot have hormonal issues. This idea of “oh she’s just hormonal”, okay, if that is the case she is likely uncomfortable, perhaps she is in pain and she is not up to training today, it is not a justification for ignoring the horse and carrying on. Grumpiness and irritability usually come from pain and stress, it is not stand-alone. I know if I’m feeling grumpy and irritable I want to be left the hell alone.

Another thing to note is that often horses who are having hormonal issues improve hugely when we improve their management to be more species-appropriate and reduce their chronic stress-load, just like us.

This is absolutely not a generalisation of all mares, but I have anecdotally found that mares tend to be quicker to express how they’re feeling, which I’m sure plays a huge part in their unwarranted “difficult” reputation. They’re just harder to bully.

Have any of you had your concerns dismissed because your horse happens to be a mare? 🐴

Picture is of a much younger me with a beautiful mare I had on loan called Zerlina, she was sweet, kind and gentle with both people and other horses, just like all mares can be if given the opportunity.

28/08/2025

Wise advice.

25/08/2025

According to Facebook, I am an emerging talent and deserving of a badge😂

I would rather be judged on my work with horses and people, because that’s the heart and soul of what I do.

However…. I shall accept this badge with honour😜 and hope that by spreading the awareness of my page it may aid to spread awareness of what I believe to be true, fair and kind when it comes to working with horses 💜🦄

25/08/2025

There are a couple of spots available at my workshops this week, this Wednesday morning (27th) at Salt Ash Pony Club Grounds, and this Sunday morning (31st) at a private property near Dungog.
If you’ve never attended a clinic or similar environment before, this is your perfect first time!
Low key small group setting, starting with a cuppa and a chat to decide what we might like to work on as a group. Groundwork, ridden work, maybe a first outing for a baby horse.
We focus on building confidence through connection and understanding.
Time is 9am to 12noon
Pricing varies between locations, $70-$90 for the morning.
Message for more info, or call Apryl on 0437040055

23/08/2025

I’ve noticed a bit of a decline in motivation among our horse community.

I will add, that the horse community I am predominantly surrounded by is a non- competitive group. A group who aren’t out to win, but rather take things slowly, learn a lot about their horse, themselves, and revel in the small breakthroughs in any given session with their horse.

The constant wet weather has a lot to do with this. All of us here on the east coast of NSW are at our wits end with the multitude of setbacks induced by constant rain and mud.
Add to that peoples dwindling budgets due to ever increasing taxes and price hikes, busier lives or changes in circumstances.

Hang in there, people.
Remember why we choose to have horses in our lives!
But also remember, to interact with our horses in a training and growth mindset does not always mean we have to have ‘things’ like dry arenas and round yards.
We can still build trust and growth without slipping and sliding in the mud.

Maybe it’s a handwalk around the property, or along the road if it’s quiet enough, practicing lightness on the lead and matching speeds.
Maybe it’s a detailed body session where we brush every ounce of mud from their coat, plait their mane and dress their hooves with oil or other ointments, practicing cues to make lifting their legs easy and light….
Maybe we can play around with float loading, one step at a time, teaching them to load on their own and hang out in there for a haynet party.

Wet ground doesn’t have to mean zero time or training.

Wet ground is a serious de-motivator, but how about setting yourself a weekly challenge to accomplish the ‘other things’ that often get left behind in pursuit of the bigger things when our motivation (and the weather) is on a high?!

22/08/2025

True love is…….
Riding out the effects of sedation together after dental appointments😍

21/08/2025

This💯👏🏼

Riding is a privilege 🐴

One of the biggest contributing factors to poor welfare within the industry is this idea that horses are there to ride and that is their sole purpose and use. That if a horse possesses a back and isn’t dog lame then its fine to sit on them and that is our right, that’s what they’re for after all. I do not see horses in this way and I do not think we can be ethical if we continue to view horses through this lens.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love riding, but not at the expense of the horse.

Horses are not designed to be ridden and need careful, considerate training to prepare them to carry weight. Add to that the normalised ways of riding coerce horses into damaging postures and compensatory movement patterns that are causing wear and tear on their already compromised body. Much of the riding that we see today is taking from the horse.

Physical concerns aside, we have completely normalised chronically stressed horses, many horses live without their basic needs being met of socialisation, access to appropriate forage and freedom to move. Many horses are frequently moved on to new homes, being pulled away from everything they know repeatedly and having no control over what happens to them. This can be traumatic.

And then we’re back to the training methods of applying pressure until the horse does what we want, when the horse may not be in a space to be able to cope with training at all, so then we have to use more pressure. We now have a horse who has a very negative association with being ridden.

We’re riding horses who don’t want us to catch them in from the field when they see us.
We’re riding horses who move to the back of the box when they see their tack.
We’re riding horses we have to pin against a wall to mount.
We’re riding horses who are still nervous of us on the ground.
We’re riding horses who have “a bit of soreness” in their back every time the bodyworker sees them.

It is so normalised that the horse is there to ride, that we don’t see how illogical it is to get on their back when they’re clearly communicating they aren’t okay with this. Most of my clients who aren’t currently riding their horses, but happen to be on livery yards with others, are being constantly pressured to get back on their horses despite being perfectly happy with what they’re doing and minding their own business.

Riding is for us, not for the horse, and I think it is a privilege to be earned by building that relationship up with our horse and being considerate of their bodies.

I’d love to hear about what your favourite things are to do with your horses that don’t involve riding?

I’ll give you a few of mine.

🐴 I love sitting under the tree out on our track and just hanging out with the horses while they graze around me.

🐴 I love setting up enrichment playgrounds for my horses and watching them work out the puzzles and enjoy themselves.

🐴 I love taking my horses for hand walks and letting them forage through the hedgerows.

What are yours? 🐴