Ry's Gentle Horsemanship

10/23/2024

🙌CAN YOU RECOGNISE A HEALTHY HOOF? AND SHOULD YOU?🙌

And therefore can you recognise the signs your horse is at risk of developing pathology, pain and lameness?

Join me in a live webinar on 28th October at 7pm for a deep dive into signs your horse may be at risk of developing hind limb lameness. Tickets and full description here: https://www.holisticequine.co.uk/event-details/recognising-signs-your-horse-may-be-at-risk-of-hind-limb-lameness-how-to-prevent-it

Lets play "spot the difference" between these two drawings representing two radiographs highlighting the phalangeal alignment, hoof-pastern axis and base proportions around the centre of rotation of the coffin joint. Also highlighted is the capsule outline and deep digital flexor tendon.

By modern podiatry and farriery standards, studying hoof morphology (form and function), as well as the relationship this holds to the rest of the limb and body, the hoof on the left is considered ‘ideal’ or healthy. In a nutshell, there is bony column alignment, with space for healthy development of the caudal hoof, sole and the tendons and ligaments in and above the digit too.

Long toes and low heels = lack of ideal phalangeal (bony column) alignment. The science, and my own studies (and gut instincts) tell me this is directly related to pathological posture and development as well as pathology in the hoof, limb and body. So why do so many horses have hooves like the one on the right?

My post (BSc Equine Technology) graduate career with horses started with teaching riding, then training horses, then rehabilitation of horses. After realising this was not working, I studied the healing arts including body work and shortly after this, advanced podiatry, while observing our own herd of 8 on a track and equicentral system we created (before these were popular).

I documented both body and hooves before and after hoof care, biody work and changes in stimulus, and noticing how different trimming approaches or interventions would lend itself with different resting posture, and development, as well as the incidence of other diseases. I tested many trimming techniques, and realised helping horse find neutral posture through bony column alignment was key to helping horses find healthy posture and symmetry.

In January 2023, I met a compassionate equine healer and educator Yasmin Stuart Equine Physio, and this resulted in me studying with Celeste-Leilani Lazaris to become a Lazaris nerve release practitioner, and alongside the human well-being coherence techniques I learned and practice, this evolved my work greatly and my integrative approach is successful in helping horses find safety and comfort in a world where bracing, tension, and pathology has become the norm.

I want you to know what I know so you dont have to study and sacrifice for decades to help horses find safety in their own bodies.

Harm is being done to horses through practices which create the very diseases we all fight so hard to treat. So let’s prevent them, and start working towards healing in horses already compromised, usually by mans intervention.

Join me in a live webinar on 28th October at 7pm for a deep dive into signs your horse may be at risk of developing hind limb lameness. Info on how to purchase the 2 hour recording here: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1077914097645418&id=100062805141815

www.holisticequine.co.uk - promoting and supporting compassionate equestrianism for the benefit of all 🙏💚🐴

10/23/2024

08/21/2024

I ride bitless all the time, on a horse that's handled and trained very well and has a good connection.

08/21/2024

08/08/2024

"The horse is a great equalizer, he doesn't care how good looking you are, or how rich you are or how powerful you are-- he takes you for how you make him feel." - Buck Brannaman

07/03/2024

To force our horses into any kind of discomfort in order to train them just can never work properly. In fact, when teaching them new things, their eventual nervousness and anxiety just cannot be fixed by horrible practices like Flooding, forcing them to accept something they are afraid of, maybe making them wear it or fill their stall with it or even tie it to them without the chance for them to get away from it, no matter how. This kind of training does not teach them to not be afraid, while it only teaches them that their actions are completely useless, so it finally teaches them to simply shut down, no matter what may ever happen. In this way they sadly learn that what they do does not matter at all and consequently they can only endure anything they have to face. Again this is called Learned Helplessness, that unfortunately is just what commonly makes horses be so obedient to anything that is asked them to do. And this mental process is always associated with depression and anxiety, so it's absolutely detrimental. Instead to train our horses correctly without ever depriving them of their own individuality, we need to always provide them with safe spaces, while always giving them the option to walk away, as they may be ready to move forward or not and they do tell us about it if we just listen. So it's important to move in small steps, doing just what our horses are comfortable with bit by bit and using motivation through positive reinforcement with something they enjoy, reinforcing their simple curiosity and will to participate too. The truth is that we aren't only our horses' owners, but first of all we are their advocates too and so we do owe it to them to always do what is best for them and our relationship together ❣️

07/03/2024

“Horses are consistent and logical. The horse will do what is easiest for him. If you make it easy for him to buck you off, kick you and run away, that’s just what he’s going to do. And more power to him. But if you make it easy for the horse to be relaxed and calm and accurate — and also have it be a beautiful dance between you and the horse — it won’t be too long before he’ll be hunting for that just as hard as you are. Whatever you make easy for the horse, that’s what he’s going to get good at.” - Buck Brannaman

07/02/2024

"On a green horse, one that's kind of troubled, I might let them cuddle up to me because it's not a disrespect, they're looking for some support and comfort. But then gradually I know part of the process is that I put him back on the end of the led rope and say, see if you can stay out there and still feel my comfort from out there. But I won't ask him to stay for long. I work my way toward everything I get in small increments, a little bit at a time." - Buck Brannaman on Building Confidence

07/01/2024

""When a lot of folks can't get a horse to operate on a feel, in a snaffle, what most are going to tell you "hell, get a little more bridle, get a little more shank on it, get a chain on it" and then when he's really wanting to flip over then "tie his head down". If he really runs into the tie down then "get a bicycle chain over his nose".............I mean it DOESN'T STOP, IT BECOMES MEDIEVAL WHAT THEY DO.
But when you get a horse to where he's operating on a feel; it doesn't make much difference what you have.
Whereas a lot of people leave the snaffle bit because they flunked out, they failed...............and then they go and get another bit.
Of course these tack salesmen love that. They go and get another bit and then they flunk out in it, ruin their horse. Then they ruin them in that, then get another bit and then pretty soon they've got a whole wall full of bits and they still can't operate the damn thing.
All that money they've wasted on bits; they could've probably bought a decent saddle for the horse so he didn't have to put up with the junk they were riding in. Now that would have been something that would have been worthwhile.
So if you don't get it done in the snaffle (the basics that a horse needs, the fundamental movements that all horses need to do for whatever you have in mind for them) before moving on to something else, well............you're not going to get it."" - Buck Brannaman.

Image of Buck is by Heather Kessler - https://www.facebook.com/kesslerphoto

https://www.facebook.com/kesslerphoto

06/27/2024

06/26/2024

Yes, this way is better, than the old ways of rough and tough harsh methods with only CONTROL that doesn't cure the root issue but only suspends/treats the issue of why a horse 'cant' be stand untied with ground tying.

I call THAT BALONEY, here's evidence that it CAN be done and over more.
Horse people should be learning from horses but not ironically hypocritical about it and not learn from them when they put so much harsh control on the horse.
Let me ask this question, so do horses control each other like we do to them with harsher methods in a herd before we ever came into the picture in their lives?

06/24/2024

Yes, empathetic and soft methods are the best way for ALL of the horses will being.

06/18/2024

06/12/2024

"When they balk, react, or try to outwardly show their fear, stress, or discomfort; they risk punishment"
Yup.
Do horses owe us anything? No because we used them for work and the debt is just far too outreaching to pay for a thankless job till today.
Gentler methods and thanksgiving to the horse is needed.
Do all equestrians have a common theme of actually fully considering the emotional and mental issues they need help with to fix in the best way possible? No.
A lot just pretend the horse loves them and likes them and respects them but really never be open to check if they are the ones that need actually love and respect the horse.

We could learn a thing or two from the most forgiving animal.

The horse has helped to build humanity from the ground up.

Before machinery, horses functioned and were treated much like machines.

Doing all of the grunt work with little in return.

They laboured day after day, decade after decade, for the human race.

A thankless job.

They worked through pain and discomfort, out of necessity, for without them, work could not be done.

Nowadays the world is much different in some ways but much the same in others.

The horse is no longer needed out of necessity, they serve as a luxury for those who choose to keep them.

But, still, they often work a thankless job.

They have expectation after expectation, their duty to fill the desires of humans, no matter unreasonable.

When they balk, react or try to outwardly show their fear, stress or discomfort; they risk punishment.

They often work without payment, the closest thing to it being having basic needs fulfilled by humans.

Something that should be a given to anyone who chooses to take on the role of a caretaker for an animal.

Not something that leaves the horse in a perpetual debt, owing their soul to the human simply because their basic needs are met rather than neglected.

The horse encounters mistreatment and cruelty, but seems always willing to forgive when they are showed kindness.

Consistently trying to deescalate conflict, the horse harms humans substantially less than they could, if they chose to rebound the same aggressive energy humans direct at them.

The horse is a peacekeeper.

They seek harmony and understanding.

They strive to live in community, developing strong social bonds with other horses… when humans allow it to happen.

There is an awful lot that humans could learn from the horse.

We owe the horse a debt that will likely never be repaid, due to the astronomical weight of it, accumulated over centuries.

The least we could do is offer them more compassion and understanding.

For, without them, life would look an awful lot different for humans.

06/12/2024

A to the men,
Wow.
It just shows.

06/12/2024

Yes, even owning a horse brànd new that can be a good potential to be a good dressage or competitive horse, it doesn't need to be that way in order to own a horse. You don't need to train them in that way to fulfill these elitist goals that is common in equestrians eyes. What if I wanna own a horse that is produced and is a prospect needs to be trained but it doesn't have to be that one is disqualified to own a horse that they won't ride at all or in the meanwhile. Why such stigma to own a horse to always HAVE to train them to ride them into such competitive ways? Not all horses and people want that nor need it. Especially, what if the horse doesn't want to do that and just be a horse his or her own life?
Why frustrate it that way for the horse by projecting one's own competitive lens onto a horse that is not natural to the horse.
Horses don't need or have to be ridden, it's a choice, nor a in**ed thing nor forcible onto horses or humans.