Horse Ownership Blueprint

22/10/2021

PSA - If you are ever lost while hiking, get stranded with a broken down car, etc and you notice your cell phone is either low on juice or has no signal, here is a tip that very well may save your life.
Change the voicemail on your phone to a message that gives your approximate location, the time, the date, your situation (lost, out of gas, car broken down, injured, etc) and any special instructions such as you are staying with the car, you are walking toward a town, etc.... The best part of this is that even if your cell phone dies or stops working, voicemail still works, so anyone calling your phone looking for you will hear the message and know where to find you or where to send help.

06/07/2021

Worth having a read and consider how/where this applies around you and your horse.

To “OVERFACE” a horse

Here’s the Oxford definition---

VERB
• To abash, overcome, or overwhelm, especially by effrontery or a display of confidence. In later use also: to intimidate, especially by presenting too great a task or obstacle.

I think that we evolve as horse people, or at least I hope that we do, to the point that we begin to question what we ask horses to do in order to prove how great we are as riders, drivers and trainers.

Here’s my thinking---and it is different than it used to be---
You arrive at a competition, of any sort, and you unload a horse that is not physically stressed out, not fried emotionally, not injured, just a horse being a horse. A day or two or three later, when the competition is over, what kind of condition is that horse in?

Has the horse been able physically and emotionally to handle the man-made requirements, to the point that while he may be tired, as might a human athlete, he isn’t injured, he hasn’t been taken to his far limits?

Has the competition shaken his confidence? Has he been “overwhelmed” or “intimidated” to use two words from the definition?

All the sports that we call “horse sports” are not actually horse sports, are they? Rather, they are human tests created to prove various points, using horses as markers of success or failure.

When I read about some competition like upper level eventing, or some other hard test, and I see that a third or a half of the horses failed to finish, then I question if what was asked was fair to the horses, ESPECIALLY if there have been several horse falls.

It’s a little different in sports like endurance, because the vets can usually catch the weaker horses before the damage is done, but in the sports that are “fast and furious” with lots of galloping, you sometimes only discover after the fact that the horse couldn’t handle it. And in some sports, especially judged sports, failure can simply mean a lower score, so the horse doesn’t know or care that it did not do well. Those are not the problem I am talking about.

And what I notice is that when horses are hurt or demoralized, or, rarely but sometimes killed, there is a sort of wall of denial and silence, rather than a call to examine the root causes of why it went so wrong. It’s as if they don’t care, or, if they do care, do not care enough to change the manner of the tests enough to protect the horses.

Can sports that somewhat routinely over-face horses to the point that they get hurt or lose confidence be called horsemanship based? I used to justify that, but I find that I no longer can. I figure that humans make the rules, and humans can damn well change the rules when too many horses go home after some competition ground up and spit out by the stresses created by humans who have something to prove.

What those humans have proved, as I see it, is that the horse has become a vehicle for human gratification, not a partner,

01/07/2021

It's so worthwhile to get progress pics when doing rehab with a horse.🤔
Thunder has a weak/damaged SI and his illium tops are crooked. For a long time the muscle on each side didn't reach to the top of the illium, so he looked underweight and poorly from behind.😢
Pretty excited to see this view today where the muscle is almost reaching to fully support the illium.🥳🥳
Now to get the last of his itch sorted and he will be magnificent. 💝💝

26/06/2021

For anyone struggling with laminitic horses, this will be invaluable, both for yourself and your farrier.
https://www.nolaminitis.org/

18/06/2021

Groundwork is a tool to help your horse.
This horse is with me for rehab. His feet were 1.5 shoe sizes different, shoulders completely different shapes, SI problems and sternum crooked. As well as ribs and neck not sitting right.
We've done a lot of bodywork, poles and in-hand work before starting to ride and he is coming along nicely.
All the ridden work has been walk and trot so far, but we are almost ready to add canter now.
He had a tendency to get going and forget about the person in the middle, so pretty happy with his responses here.
Any lunging I do is always to add mental control first, then physical capabilities.
Here we are working on trot, canter, trot transitions on his weaker side. Building strength and coordination, while making sure he is thinking and listening.
The poles on one side only of the round yard add to the suggestion to slow down as he is approaching. Again a bit of a challenge for him, as his go to was speeding up.

07/04/2021

ITS NOT THE FARRIERS JOB:

Farrier - Inspects, trims and shapes horses’ hooves, fits and nails horseshoes.

Each person’s idea of WHAT the farriers job includes is different to the next person, and often a question I get asked is if I know of a good farrier...

One that is patient, replies to calls/messages and arrives on time. We all want that but do we understand what is (and is not) in the farriers job description?
What is the farriers job and what is ours, and how can we make ourselves good clients that have and keep good farriers.

I see so often the farrier get the blame for unprepared horses, that is purely a lack of the owner’s preparation and responsibility.

If things don’t go well, we don’t get to blame our farrier for what is OUR own lack of preparation.

That means: preparing our horses to be comfortable physically and mentally, having them stand up and prepared for their feet to be handled, picked up, rasped, held between legs, bring feet back and forth with the same duration that will be expected by our farriers, and all of this done BEFORE the farrier shows up.

Not just his feet picked up and put down, with little asked of the horse.

If our horse can’t confidently and patiently stand for the same duration that it takes to get feet worked on, adding someone who’s asking them to do it on three legs isn’t going to improve in one farrier visit.

Separation anxiety and poor handling practices should be addressed on our time, not the farrier’s. This means working and improving on ourselves to have this in our horses, this may mean further education for HANDLER and horse.

The farrier has the right to stop a session at any time and reschedule if the horse is not prepared, it is not the farrier’s job to educate the horse to be handled - but our farrier should be considerate to our young or troubled horses’ needs. This means allowing time for the horse so it takes less time for further sessions.

We don’t just have a responsibility to our horses, but to our farriers as well.

Good farriers come to well prepared clients, and a person will always do more than what is expected when they feel considered and appreciated.

Be good to your farrier - No Hoof No Horse!
- Tiffanie Edwards

31/03/2021

Interesting news. Sounds like a great idea in a step towards less pressure on the horses.
https://www.ipostechnology.com/post/olympic-riders-assessed-with-rein-sensors

17/01/2021

Doing some work today on relaxation and canter balance. Much improved on where we were. Still some work to do.

05/01/2021

Why is the perfectly safe horse I bought suddenly displaying dangerous behaviors?

It’s a common frustration...someone purchased or came to own a horse who seemed quiet and was getting along well. Then, little behaviors here and there creep in, and soon you have a full blown problem.

Were you mislead? The horse drugged?
Maybe, but maybe not.

There are a lot of factors that go into horse behavior. Horses are not static beings, who, once trained, remain displaying those behaviors forever. A lot can affect behavior, but a horse changing homes goes through some major changes:
-environment
-turnout situation and herd structure
-feed
-style of handling
-workload

Some horses do very well in their previous home, especially if they were in training, because their feed is being matched to their energy output, they are being ridden frequently by a professional or someone who knows the horse well, and the horse is in a consistent program.

When a horse goes to a new home, their entire world changes. Some concern or frustration on the horse’s part is entirely normal and to be expected - and I think it’s only fair to give them an adjustment period. However, with inconsistent (meaning the rules are inconsistent) handling or poor handling, their frustration and confusion can grow into a full blown problem.

Another situation that can arise is the horse was not in fact calm before purchase, but was sort of “shell shocked.” If the training was dominating, involving flooding methods or excess pressure, horses can go easily into learned helplessness or withdraw entirely. This gives the illusion of a quiet, well trained horse.

This horse, once brought into a safe environment where those methods are not used, does not go through the Disney princess spin and - p**f - becomes happy and gentle. The process is messy, with many layers of the garbage onion exposed over time, or all at once. They may go from withdrawal to explosion and back, they may become very aggressive or extremely fearful. They can often go through health issues with no explanation or lameness issues that travel through the horse’s body. What you’re seeing is the horse “waking up.”

If you’re in this situation, you’re in for the long haul. There’s no quick fix here- you just need to hang on with compassion for what your poor horse is going through. It can take months but more likely years.

You might need to give them time off. You might need to give them a healthy herd dynamic. You might need to get some professional help. One thing is for sure, this horse is not going back to the “calm, bombproof” horse you thought you had. They are waking up, and the world is a dark and unpredictable place for them.

What can you do? If this isn’t the horse for you, consider pasture retirement, unless you’re lucky enough to find someone skilled enough and compassionate enough to help this horse through their struggles. If this is the horse for you, give it time, be consistent, don’t take any of it personally, be willing to experiment and keep an open mind, and if you’re in over your head, get some good help - from someone experienced with traumatized horses, not the barn busybody who watched a YouTube video once 😉

09/12/2020

Worth a read. Could be that your horses hoof shape has more to do with their overall well-being than just the hoof comfort.

28/11/2020

At last, Dressage tests starting with the foundations of dressage, the Walk.
https://youtu.be/TaL3se4afCg

William Faerber scoring commentary for Erin O'Reilly and Pheobe WDF Foundation Level One Test One. http://www.art2ride.com - Click here to see more from Art2...

14/10/2020

Such an important thing to keep in mind when with our horses. Take notice of what's going on.

29/08/2020

Important to read the full story as what's appropriate at one level of training may not be appropriate at another.
Always important to listen to the feedback.

When I was first starting to learn about horses and horsemanship, my teachers all had rules that I was meant to follow. I was to mount from the left of the horse. I was to lead a horse from my right. I was to ask a horse to pick up its feet by pinching the chestnut. When there was a disagreement with a horse I was to always make sure I won. If a horse turned its tail towards me I had to always correct it. A horse should not be allowed to stop when it had a bathroom moment.

You know what I mean. I’m sure most of you had similar instructions on how things must be done and other things that one must never do or allow a horse to do.

A couple of weeks ago I grabbed Six from the paddock and led her to where I was going to trim her hooves. It’s a ritual we do every couple of weeks. She has terribly shelly feet with thin soles. Since trimming her every 2 weeks and keeping her on biotin supplements, her feet have been the best for the past 5 years than they have ever been. But they are never brilliant and never will be. I long ago gave up trying to improve on genetics and now simply manage her for soundness.

Anyway, the trimming gear was a little way down the driveway. As I led her along the gravel drive, she slipped in behind me and crossed to walk on my left side. I said, “No, you can’t eat grass just yet,” thinking she had her eye on some green pick. I put her back to my right side without drama. We walked a few steps and she again drifted behind me and to my left.

Mmmm. It then occurred to me that to my right was the hard gravel driveway and to my left was the softer dirt and grass. The light bulb switched on! She swapped sides because her thin, shallow soles were hurting when she was on the right and got some relief when walking on the grass to my left.

“That’s okay,” I thought. “You know best.”

I am certain the instructors from my youth would have disapproved when I allowed Six to decide what works best for her. I can hear Karl de Jurenak’s voice in my head yelling (as he often did at me) in that thick accent, “Jacobs, are you leading da horse or the horse leading you?”

I started to think about how often I allow my horses to make the decision. To tell me how it should be. When I added it up it turned out that they had a big say in a lot of our decisions. I stopped counting after a few moments. It turned out that “our decisions” is a fairly accurate term.

I think it started when I was a kid and I was riding a school horse at the riding school I worked. Trotting across the diagonal of the arena, Blackie stopped in his tracks, lifted his tail and dropped the previous night’s dinner. The boss screamed at me not to let him stop and make him keep trotting. I thought the boss was going to burst a blood vessel. That seemed wrong to me. I know I would prefer to stand still for a p**p. It just seemed to let Blackie stop until he was finished the considerate thing to do. I couldn’t see why it was wrong to let Blackie stop if that’s what he wanted. He wasn’t being difficult or disrespectful or trying to takeover. He was just seeking a more comfortable way to have a p**p.

It’s been an evolving awareness for me. In later years, I’ve come to realize that what is important is not being the boss, but being the best partner I can be. I know I could quietly ask Six to walk on the gravel part of the driveway without having an argument. But why would I, knowing her preference to walk on the grass and how little that decision cost me?

I know that I am talking about an evolving relationship with a horse. At the beginning of training, we need to be consistent and clear to give a horse comfort and certainty. We can’t equivocate over decisions while a horse is working out their role in the relationship. But as the training progresses, trust, and confidence in each other also progresses. We don’t have to do things the same way every time because our intent is clear. I don’t always have to lead Six by standing near her head. I can stand by her side or tail or 4 metres away or from the left or the right and still get the answers I need. When you can do this, you know you can say NO to a horse and life will still be smooth and calm. This is when it is okay for a horse to be more involved in decision making. You can agree or disagree with your horse’s decisions and you are still best mates.

I am highlighting something as small as which side to lead or should my horse be allowed to stop for a bathroom break, but the underlying principle of awareness, listening, and showing consideration for our horse’s thoughts and decisions are part of all aspects of good horsemanship. It might be which bay they stand in a trailer to whether to be a cow horse or a showjumper. It could be about whether to ask the dentist to not use a gag or being picky which horse shares a paddock with yours. It might something as big as whether your horse feels better with positive reinforcement or negative reinforcement training. Maybe you should listen to your horse’s opinion about being barefoot or shod. Your horse has opinions on all these things and more. If we care about our horses, it should matter enough for us to listen and consider their ideas.

If we don’t listen, what does that say about the sort of person we are?

Photo: Six decided to walk on the softer grass rather than the hard dirt.

10/08/2020

Because it's something that we all experience from time to time. 🦄🐎💝

Sh*tty Things You Do Without a Clue Part 1

Technically, the world should be great for horses – especially in this day and age where expertise, information and learning materials are at our finger-tips. But horses are still out there enduring a life full of discomfort and stress caused by people that “love” them.

Why is this?

You have a tremendous ability to analyse things, evaluate situations, learn, solve problems and adjust your behaviour in very complex ways. But…you also have some other traits that make you struggle to learn how to be better at doing something for the sake of someone other than yourself.

The quickest way to not let these traits sabotage you and your relationship with your horse is to become aware of them. So, I thought I would write a series of blogs detailing the potentially s**tty things you do without having a clue.

Ego….yep, you have one…we all do….so, I thought this was a good place to start.

Your ego is your sense of self-esteem and we like protecting our self-esteem. Basically, we don’t like feeling crap about ourselves, so we tend to handle positive and negative outcomes or feedback differently. When something we do is received positively or we have a good outcome we tend to perceive it over favorably and attribute that success to our own abilities and efforts. However, if we get negative feedback or we fail….well…..we go and blame someone or something else! We do this to protect our fragile egos and how we want to be perceived by others.

As a coach or trainer, you get to deal with horses that have been labelled by their owners as having various “problems”. Typically, in the owner’s description the horse IS the problem. It may be because the horse is just “difficult”, an ar****le, a bitch, an “arab”, “thoroughbred”, “chestnut” etc. Then other times it was because of someone or something else - the last trainer, owner, coach etc., that caused the problem. Hardly ever does the owner say….”I do not have the knowledge or skills to help this horse”….and it is a rare unicorn moment when you hear – “I think I have really upset this horse and caused a lot of problems”!

Don’t take offence, I have spent most of my life with horses trying to fix their “problems” by buying different bits, feeding calming herbs, blaming horse breakers and pondering what terrible thing must have happened to this horse in the past to make it like this! It took my horse’s mouth to bleed from the bit to humble my ego ☹

Coaches and trainers will all tell you that horses are easy to help, it is the people, their egos and their attitude that comes with it that are difficult. This is because before someone can learn something, they first must acknowledge that they NEED to CHANGE their ways and therefore, NEED to LEARN something.

So, if you are having trouble with a horse, be courageous and allow the prospect that there is a chance you might have caused the trouble, contributed to the trouble or at least not been able to solve the trouble. Allow yourself to feel like s**t because sometimes going into that dark place is the first step in your journey out of your troubles. You must do this consciously because you are not programmed to connect your own abilities or skills to the problem. You will be driven to find blame in others or external events.

For those that are interested the self-serving bias is the technical name for this human trait.

Next blog I will delve into the s**tty things that we tend to do when we are learning stuff. So, once you manage to get past your ego you have then have to navigate a whole lot of other s**tty things about us that can be crappy for horses!

If you enjoyed this article, you are welcome to like my page and join my online group where I share training insights and my events 🙂
I am available for private coaching or clinics, please contact [email protected] for bookings.
Here is a link to my page: https://www.facebook.com/ShelleyAppletonPerformanceHorses/

And my group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/190240814737552/

02/08/2020

Finally got our paddock drag operational today.
Using tyres with a wire rope cable to hold them together so I don't have to be so careful around the trees (the tyres will pull round) or watch so much for small ground level stumps or roots (they should bounce over).
Didn't want it too heavy for the quad so it's 16" small truck tyres and just the 3 of them.
First run I'm pretty happy with.

27/07/2020

Brilliant advice.
If you are feeling anxious, stop and back up to doing something that will bring your anxiety down. Repeat as many times as you need to until both you and your horse are relaxed.

04/07/2020

Have you ever wondered about why your horse licks and chews.
From this research it's basically a way to moisten the mouth after something that caused tension which would stop the saliva glands from producing.

LICKING & CHEWING – SUBMISSION OR STRESS?

For

There is a popular belief amongst some natural horsemanship trainers that if a horse is ‘licking and chewing’ during training they are submitting to the trainer.

Some even believe the horse then sees them as their 'leader'. One example is the practice of driving a horse forward in a round pen until they stop fleeing and start licking their lips and chewing repetitively. This chewing is then interpreted as submissive behaviour.

Many trainers are using this behaviour as a way to measure how well their training is working, but this is only an assumption as there is little scientific research available on this topic. Making assumptions about horse behaviour in this way is very dangerous ground and can often compromise horse welfare.

Last week at the International Society for Equitation Science (ISES) conference a fascinating study was presented that finally addresses this topic. I want to say a huge well done to Margrete Lie and her team for being prepared to tackle this touchy subject. I have written a press release for ISES on the study:

"Horses sometimes lick and chew during training and this has often been interpreted as a sign that the horse is learning or showing ‘submission’ to the trainer. However, a new study suggests that this non-nutritive licking and chewing behaviour is a natural behaviour that is shown after a stressful situation.

To gain insight into the function of licking and non-nutritive chewing behaviour in horses, a team of equine scientists from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences observed the social behaviour of feral horses under natural conditions.

M.Sc. Margrete Lie and Prof. Ruth Newberry spent 80 hours observing feral horse herds in Ecuador and collected data on 202 sequences of behaviour when licking and chewing behaviour occurred. Margrete Lie presented her findings at the 14th International Society of Equitation Science (ISES) conference in Rome last week.

The team wanted to investigate whether non-nutritive chewing was performed to signal submission to another horse and also to study whether horses performed the behaviour between stressed and calm situations.

To find out whether non-nutritive chewing was performed to signal submission the researchers tested the idea that when one horse (the aggressor) approached another horse (the recipient) in a threatening manner, the recipient but not the aggressor would perform the behaviour. The team observed and recorded different behavioural sequences that involved aggressive interactions (for example if one horse herded or threatened another) and recorded whether the chewing behaviour was performed by either horse.

The results were fascinating: the team found that the chewing behaviour was performed by both the approaching and the recipient horses. Non-nutritive chewing was actually performed more often by the aggressor than the recipient, refuting the assumption this behaviour is a submissive signal.

The researchers also investigated whether non-nutritive chewing occurred between tense and relaxed situations. When observing the horses’ behavioural sequences, they found that the majority of the behaviours before chewing were tense and the majority of behaviours after chewing were relaxed. The chewing behaviour occurred when the horses transitioned from a tense to a relaxed state.

The researchers concluded that chewing could be associated with a switch from a dry mouth caused by stress (sympathetic arousal) to salivation associated with relaxation (parasympathetic activity).

The results of this study suggest that non-nutritive chewing was not used as a submissive signal by horses in the contexts observed, but it occurred after a tense situation, likely as a response to a dry mouth.

The research team acknowledge that further research is required to measure the stress responses associated with non-nutritive chewing. However, this study does highlight that licking and chewing likely occurs after a stressful situation and may be used as a behavioural indicator that the previous situation was perceived as stressful by the horse."

To view the ISES position statement on the use/misuse of leadership and dominance concepts in horse training please visit:
https://equitationscience.com/…/position-statement-on-the-u…).

From researcher Margrete Lie:

“We looked at feral horses living with as little human interference as possible to see how they behaved in their natural habitat. It was important to look at completely natural behaviour and therefore we wanted to see horses living without restriction. These horses were living in a 334 km2 national park, and in the area we observed there were a little under 200 horses. No stallions had been removed from the population as is so common in domestic horses.”

“It was interesting to see how often the horses performed the chewing behaviour and also how clear it was that all individuals did chew – not only ‘submissive’ individuals.”

“The study showed that the horses were chewing between calm and relaxed situations, but it does not say if chewing comes as a response to relaxing or if chewing helps them relax. To able to look at this more closely I believe a more controlled study with stress measurements is needed.”

Researchers: M. Lie 1,2* and R.C. Newberry 1

1. Department of Animal and Aquacultural Sciences, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 5003, NO-1432 Ås, Norway

2. Hesteglede, Ås, Norway
Email Margret Lie: *[email protected]

29/06/2020

If your horses worm eggs get eaten and spread before they get chance to hatch, is that a good thing?

17/06/2020

Such an important principle to start your horse with.

11/06/2020

Definitely making progress with Darcy and float loading. We are almost ready for our next step of moving the float with him in it.
My phone stopped just before his last loading, which saw him come on, move forward to allow the bar to close. Then stay forward while the other bar was closed and the door fully lifted.
Then repeat in reverse and he still held his balance until asked to come off.
We finished there.
Looking like we may yet make it home on Saturday (next session). 🥰🦄😍

10/06/2020

Body care for horses.
Jethro has long standing stomach issues that cause him discomfort and haven't allowed us to progress with his ridden work, so have pulled out the equissage to see if that will help.

10/06/2020

Moved our horses back to the big paddock today. Was so busy concentrating on getting them there that I forgot to do any video of the actual move.
They have been off this paddock for around 2 months now to allow all the worms to hatch and die from their manure.

08/06/2020

Video from the end of our training session with Darcy today.
We had the added training benefit of a tree being cut down next door. 🤣🤣

He earlier had his first real attempt to go off with the bar closed.
He scared himself pretty well so we took the time we needed to with a lot of waiting till he got himself under control mentally.
I needed to make sure he was able to stand without moving back onto the bar when I went to open it.

All this concentration was quite exhausting for him so we didn't attempt to add closing the back door today.

07/06/2020

Do your horses prefer running water to drink?

06/06/2020

Today was the day we planned to move Darcy.
Remember that this is the horse who has many years of confirmation that being in a float is scary and causes pain and injury.
He has worked out more ways of avoiding being on a float than most people can imagine. He has a huge emotional pendulum swing from flight/fight to shut down.

As you can see by his hind feet location in the photo on the left he was still having some reservations about being completely on the float while under his own control.
So we worked for some more time with him practising coming off when asked, on when asked and waiting until he was asked to move in either direction.

He finally reached the point where he committed himself to be in completely on the float. Check his hind feet position on the floor in the second picture.
At that point we could close the back tail bar and he would stand and keep his feet under control and his mind in the float for us. Just.

At this point we discussed whether to close the door and make the trip to his new destination, but in the end decided to treat this as another training exercise.
Because he had made such a big leap in his level of self-control we didn't want to undo that by then skipping those final steps.

There are still a couple of steps that we haven't done in this exercise; he hasn't been completely shut in with the back door up and we haven't moved him in a small trip just for a little distance, then allow him to come off the float without doing a whole sensory overload of being somewhere new at the same time.
Each of these will require some processing time for him to be ok with them.