Madi Holmes Animal Training

17/11/2025

But horses are the ONE animal who cannot learn with R+ 👀🙃 giraffe's are par for the course but HORSES ! Perish the thought 😲

08/11/2025

I get louder about racing at Melbourne cup time. No its not the only time of year I care about it. Yes it's the time I talk about it the most because its the time of year the most eyes are on it and there's already so much public discussion. People are on the fence and it's a good time to circulate accurate info on the effects of horse racing. But I can hold many forms of horse abuse in my mind at one time, I'm that talented 💁‍♀️ I care about them all, try me!

Bringing up one form of harm does not cancel out another.

When someone raises a welfare concern, it’s common to hear:

“But what about this other bad thing?”

That response might sound reasonable, but it’s a form of deflection called whataboutism, a rhetorical tactic that shifts focus away from the issue at hand instead of addressing it.

Whataboutism doesn’t ADD perspective, it dilutes accountability. It implies that if something worse exists, the current problem doesn’t matter.

But caring about welfare isn’t a competition.

We can, and must, care about more than one issue at a time.

A lot of discussion about welfare overlaps.
Stress, pain, fear, and management issues often exist together, progress in one area can (and should) inform another.

I originally struggled with how to handle this.
Of course I care about those other things, my whole life revolves around equine welfare. I cover a wide variety of educational topics across all areas of welfare, and I’ve likely already spoken about most of the “what about” topics. And if I haven’t, it’s probably because I don’t have enough education in that area to speak on it responsibly.

Now when I see it now, I often say something like:

“Bringing up one form of harm doesn’t cancel out another. The conversation about equine welfare is still deeply important, and addressing it doesn’t require ignoring other injustices.”

Deflection is often a sign of discomfort, not malice. But if we care about welfare, we have to let that discomfort move us, not silence us.

If this advocacy makes you uncomfortable, GOOD!

Discomfort means you’re feeling something, and feeling is where awareness begins. Indifference is far more dangerous than discomfort.

The reality is that addressing one form of harm does not mean we are ignoring others. Progress happens issue by issue, conversation by conversation.

07/11/2025

Tempers flare when we (anyone with a conscience) picks on racing.
Just had a trainer call me scum of the earth because I asserted that you can 'bully' a horse and I know because I've done it.

This person also showed me a fully bitted, tacked up horse jumping a decent show jump to 'prove' how well cared for, happy, and willing her horses were.

Bits are aversive by nature. They are designed to be aversive. I'm comfortable generalising because the idea of a bit being used in a way that doesn't include an aversive is so unlikely it borders on impossible.

Special mention to the trainer who said they dont use pressure and release while holding a 'wand' (whip) with a nerf ball on the end, and using it to get the horse to move away from said whip, by holding it up, towards the horses rear end.
The horse looked 0% happy with what was happening but through some solid negative reinforcement, often called pressure and release in horse circles, the behaviour was accomplished.

Just call a spade a spade, I'm tired.
And while I'm here, yes I also have issues with dressage and show horses and brumby culling and the big lick and small dirt yards and whatever else you want to say is worse than whatever you're doing.

* Pink highlight to highlight that this person was jumping a horse over a fence, trained racehorses and thought 4-5 hours of access to a paddock alone per day was adequate. But doesn't believe she used any force.

06/11/2025

I don't care that the Melbourne cup winner had blood in his mouth. I really don't. It's not worth kicking off about as much as people have.

The horse bit it's cheek or tongue, its a minor injury that probably couldn't really be treated and will resolve on its own fairly quickly. No massive food or lifestyle changes would need to occur to facilitate that healing.

The horse shouldn't bite itself and it was caused by the overarching issues. Improper management and the forced racing, of course.

But injuries happen. I stepped on my ankle weirdly the other day and it hurt for a few hours. It happened in my comfy home and I got to decide how to manage that pain with no outside influences.

Racehorses are injured much worse on tracks every single race day. It's caused by them being bred, raised, and kept in opposition to what they biologically need to be healthy.

Because of that, as well as the whole 'forced to gallop' thing, injuries happen.

A bitten tongue isn't an issue. The entire industry that led up to that horse biting it's tongue, IS an issue.

05/11/2025

I would pull some quotes from this post but too much of it is just completely accurate that it's futile to try and pull out the most important lines. They're all important. And some of it might resonate differently for different people. So be sure to read it all. I don't need to tour a racetrack to know that most of the staff truly love the horses and believe with their whole being that the horses are well cared for. Because there's a gap in almost every child's education on equine body language and what it means. I was that child, I worked with those racehorses and I loved the f**k out of them. There's still old posts of me defending racing with my whole chest and I'm not deleting them. It happened, that's how I felt a decade ago. Now I know better. I respect everyone who can learn new information and change their opinion on something, because it's not easy to realise a belief you held so strongly wasn't correct. Let horse racing be one of those somethings.

I was recently invited to the racetrack and offered a tour. I went because I didn’t want to just be angry from a distance. I wanted to understand. I didn’t want to dismiss something without seeing it for myself.

What I saw was complicated.

Many of the people there truly believe they’re doing what’s best for their horses. But good intentions don’t erase harm. You can love a horse and still be part of something that hurts them. That’s what makes this so difficult to confront, and so important to name.

I also saw stress, fatigue, fear and behaviours that told a very different story from the one people handling them believed.

Many genuinely saw tension or restlessness as excitement.

They didn’t recognize the signs of discomfort, not because they didn’t care, but because no one ever taught them to see it differently.

You walk through the racing spaces and see walls covered in photos, horses mid-stride, nostrils flared, eyes wide. And once you know what to look for, you can’t unsee it. You can match almost every image to a pain ethogram, and they would score.

When pain expressions are framed and celebrated as proof of achievement, it shows how deeply this culture has learned to see discomfort as success.

A system that hangs discomfort on the wall as a trophy is a system that cannot recognize harm even when it’s right in front of it. And we’re asking the people inside that system to open their eyes to something they’ve been taught to look away from for generations.

That’s why asking for change feels almost impossible.

There’s nothing ethical about breeding thousands of horses each year when so many already stand in kill pens and auction lines. There’s nothing ethical about glamorizing an industry where catastrophic injuries are treated as inevitable.

Because this isn’t just about the horses. It’s about people, people who have built their lives, livelihood, their identities, their sense of worth around this world. Admitting harm means questioning everything they’ve ever known.

The sport itself, the way it exists today, is built on the suffering of horses.

And it cannot be saved when the people inside it can’t see the damage being done. When suggestions for change are dismissed as outsider opinions, nothing moves forward. It’s impossible to heal a system when everyone within it believes it’s fine.

Cognitive dissonance keeps it alive.

It’s easier to defend cruelty than to admit you’ve been complicit in it.

And that’s why change is so hard. Because it asks people to unlearn everything they’ve been rewarded for believing. But this is exactly why naming harm matters and why recognizing stress behaviours and pain expressions matters.

Why we have to keep showing and discussig what others refuse to see.

Because every time someone learns to spot a pain face, or notices tension for what it really is,
a crack forms in the wall of denial that keeps this system standing. And cracks spread.

SO WE KEEP NAMING IT.

We keep pointing to it, even when it seems to fall on deaf ears, because it only takes one person willing to look in the mirror to start change from within.

We keep having these conversations with hope that people begin to see what we see. Because once you do, you can’t unsee it.

05/11/2025

Can we all agree horse racing sucks? No? Oh well, it was worth a shot.

Horse Racing;
I won't say too much, it will become depressing.
Just a couple of points -
"treated like kings" first off.
Well if your Kings like being jailed 24/7 with inappropriate feed, inappropriate exercise and no company?
Horses have evolved to range open plains, eating forage 16hrs per day in the company/ safety of their herd.
NOT to spend their days locked in a 4m x 4m stable without natural horse contact, without roughage that lasts 16hrs, without space to move. Who'd want to be that sort of king?
2yo races - horses are not skeletally mature until 4- 6yrs old.
Breaking in, riding and training at 18mths so they can race as 2yo predisposes them to breakdowns and serious injuries, and shortened lifespans.
Attrition rate.
So many thoroughbreds are born who never make it to the racetrack. Who get to the track but don't last as they are not fast enough. That get there and breakdown. That are discarded due to behavioural reasons caused by the un-natural living conditions they are subjected to. What happens to these discarded horses?

That is just 3 points.
Do research from any reputable source and the facts are scary (and depressing)

The link is to a document tabling equine deaths at the racetrack. Does not take into consideration deaths anywhere else but on the racetrack. Those stats are bad enough without adding more truthful numbers.
Horses are lovely creatures - they deserve better,

https://horseracingkills.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/DeathWatch_2025_28_Oct_2025.pdf?fbclid=IwY2xjawN3xjhleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFZMEJ 0ZVBCZmQybndQdTh6c3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHjyz7LGkfMo-yh2fjO61STw2bPGYG7BSOhP0tvwh4lDKeYm2QUArkJfLcyPw_aem_Ak7airDiXScZ8fXYDXveKA

02/11/2025

28/10/2025

It's like they're SOOOO close to getting it 🤏

It’s important for all horse trainers and riders to learn how to identify the flight response.

For centuries, the world’s best trainers have emphasised the importance of rhythm and straightness — what we now call self-carriage. A horse that maintains his own rhythm and line shows confidence and relaxation. By contrast, a horse that accelerates suddenly or without being asked — whether under saddle or in hand — is likely showing a fear response.

A common example is the jumping horse that rushes towards a fence. This behaviour is often mistaken for enthusiasm or a “love of jumping”, but in reality, it’s a sign of anxiety. When early training is rushed or unclear, the horse learns to associate fences with fear. The obstacle becomes a trigger to run — both toward and away from it.

Physiologically, a horse showing a strong flight response on a cross-country course has a blood profile similar to one fleeing from predators. That’s why training for rhythm and self-maintenance of speed is essential for both welfare and rider safety. The jump should never cause acceleration; the horse must be trained to maintain a steady rhythm and tempo on his own.

In dressage — and across all disciplines — we should recognise tension as a sign of fear, not excitement or energy. The great classical masters understood this deeply:

▪️ Quickening legs signal the flight response.

▪️ A hollow back reflects tension and fear.

▪️ True impulsion comes only from calm, progressive training.

Understanding the difference between rhythm and rush protects both horse and rider — and ensures training remains fair, ethical, and safe.

24/10/2025

Horses bleeding from the mouth or nose during competitions isn't normal or healthy, and should put an immediate stop to that horses competition until a source is found, health is assessed and an ethical vet has determined it's safe for the horse to continue.
Wiping the blood away is not a reasonable course of action by a governing body.

And if it is clear that the blood is as a direct result of the rider or handlers actions, they're getting a WARNING?
*Warning* to stop beating their horse so much that it's openly BLEEDING.

I think all horse sports should cease full stop. The horse is not benefitting in any way from competitive equestrian sports.

But since that's not going to happen, surely we can all agree that a BLEEDING horse shouldn't continue competing?? Right??
Apparently not.

Equestrian Sports are a dystopian hellscape.

18/10/2025

I've said it before. Using aversives is lazy training. It's not clever, it requires very little forethought. It's nothing to brag about.

There are an awful lot of methods that people call “training” when really they’re spectating.

Tying a knot to hard tie a horse who does not tie or respond to pressure and then stepping back to watch them pull back and panic while you spectate and/or film isn’t training.

The person isn’t being an active participant whatsoever.

They aren’t controlling the pressure applied.

They aren’t giving any clear cues or understanding.

They are tying a knot, in most cases knowing it’ll incite panic, then standing back to watch said panic ensue.

Anyone who knows how to tie a knot can do this, even with no prior horse experience.

It requires no skill or ability, just a lack of empathy and perhaps a lack of grasp for the danger and trauma a situation like this can cause a horse to experience.

Training involves active involvement.

A lot of what people like to refer to as training is really just them overwhelming a horse with the full stimulus of something new and then watching them panic.

That isn’t training.

Training is the systematic introduction of new principles to create understanding.

It involves the process of shaping new behaviour.

And it SHOULD involve a focus on ethics and maintaining relative calm throughout training.

Because these panic stricken horses aren’t learning much other than trauma.

When the body is in active fight or flight mode, it isn’t a time to learn and take in new information, they are just focused on survival.

Let’s stop applying the word “training” to people who are spectating.

All this really highlights is how many horse people have lost their sensitivity and empathy and it’s devastating.

If you stop caring about the emotional state of a horse who is clearly panicking, you really shouldn’t be training.

Compassion is necessary in training.

As soon as compassion stops, bullying and cruelty begins.

As soon as we stop empathizing, we start blaming and projecting frustration.

This substantially limits the capacity to be a good trainer.

Stop spectating. Start training.

If a pole and a knot can do your job for you, you aren’t being a trainer.

Inanimate objects shouldn’t be able to replace your expertise.

If they can, you need more expertise.