Coal Lake Stables

08/14/2024

Howdy trying to teach Rowdy how to manoeuvre their new treat ball

08/01/2024

Riding schools for children -

I used to teach children riding lessons a lot. It was really fun and rewarding to instill in young people care and respect for the horse, and good riding skills. I found chikdren far more receptive and empathetic than many adults, because they hadn’t been taught to ignore horses expressions to get something done.

The pressure from parents to accelerate the kids skills to more fun stuff, or to prevent the child’s boredom, was a steady presence in teaching- along with maintaining the school horses soundness and mental well-being from being ridden by beginners. Keeping lessons good for both horse and rider was a job of creativity and constant adjustment. I believe it can be done, but the culture at large doesn’t typically make it profitable, as many parents struggle to want to pay for lessons on sound husbandry and good riding basics. The kids want to canter, by God!

I have some firm beliefs about good riding stables, and I realize the expense and strain and adjustment is an ever pressing reality, I stand by these beliefs:

-children should learn good riding fundamentals first, and not progress to trotting, cantering, jumping until they have a good understanding of a balanced seat and can demonstrate it

-children should learn care of and respect for the horse comes before their entertainment. Grooming, tacking, warming up and cooling down, quitting an activity or adjusting if the horse is stressed, learning groundwork, etc, should be a non negotiable

-children should learn to feel a balanced horse to the extent possible. A beginner horse should not simply be a lame horse that tolerates them, but one to teach th em how to ride- children should not be set up for a future of kicking and pulling to get a horse to do something, but learn to feel how to direct a horse with their body, and to feel movement that is balanced, setting them up for a lifetime of being able to balance future horses.

- children should learn to read accurately equine expression and well-being. Children should not be taught to describe horses as lazy, stubborn, etc- these are taught by adults and children learn to adapt these views. The adults are responsible for setting the culture and views of horses and their handling.

Many riders struggle with normalizing tight, crooked, and unhappy horses because this is what they learn to ride on. The instructor is responsible for setting the culture of what their program entails, and I believe this means setting firm boundaries on what the purchasing client can expect, instead of catering to unreasonable demands to keep business. That is a whole can of worms in itself, but one worth opening.

07/28/2024

Just what equestrians do by going on adding more and more coercive tools in order to force horses into submission...While at the exact same time saying horses to be willing athletes that just would never do something they don't want to...🤦🏻‍♀️

07/18/2024

Boots and bandages - are we harming our horses as we try to protect them?

Bandaging and booting our horses is becoming more and more popular, especially with the popularity of matchy matchy sets. But are we doing more harm than good? Most people will have come across the articles in magazines and comments from vets saying they are, and yet still they become more and more popular. Why is that? Why do riders still cover their horses in thick fleece bandages or fluffy boots despite the dangers? Tradition I suppose. Wanting to fit in. Or just habit, some will feel like they haven’t finished tacking up if they haven’t put the boots on.

I know this isn’t about dentistry (for which I apologise) but I am a vet first and foremost, and as a dressage rider I am asked why I don’t use bandages all the time. I’ve written about this several times now and no one pays attention, so rather than stating facts and quoting research, I’d like to take you through my journey of discovery, please bear with me. Facts and papers are at the end.

Rewind 12 years and I was in my final year at vet school. Prior to and during vet school I had a horse and we did dressage. I had planned to ODE but this horse pulled every tendon and ligament known to vet kind. He spent more time out of work than in. Each time I would up my game with the latest boots/bandages on the market. From fluffy boots to wraps to sports fetlock boots, fleece bandages to gamgee and cotton to the half fleece/half elastic bandages. I learnt new techniques for better support, figure of 8 bandaging to cradle the fetlock etc etc. I’d been there and done it. My collection was extensive.

Right at the end of vet school I had my rotations. I chose Equine lameness as one of my options. During in this I very vividly remember a wet lab with Dr Renate Weller where she had a skinned horses leg (showing all of the tendons and ligaments) in a machine that mimicked the pressures a horse applies to their limbs. She took us through walk, trot, canter and gallop, loading this leg so we could see the inside workings of the horses leg without the skin. It was fascinating I can tell you, and I very clearly remember thinking about my horse and wondering how on earth we are suppose to support this limb when it undergoes these incredible forces! Half a ton of animal pushing down a tiny spindle of a leg held by tendons barely thicker than my thumb. Craziness!

Fast forward just a few short months and I was a fully qualified vet in the big wide world. I attended my first BEVA Congress and during the break I wandered around the stalls looking at the latest inventions and technologies companies bring to these gatherings. Here I came across a company with the Equestride Boot which caught my eye. Now if you haven’t seen this boot, it’s wonderful and I’ve since used it a few times in rehabbing very severe tendon and ligament injuries with great success. The boot is a carbon fibre boot that stops the fetlock dropping, which stops the tendons and ligaments being fully loaded while they heal. This boot is super strong. You couldn’t ride a horse in it as it is limiting the range of motion so much, but they can move about easily enough at the lower settings to rehab etc. The guy on the stand (I’m afraid I can’t remember his name) showed me their research and in the straight talking Irish way explained the stupidity of expecting a thin piece of material to support a horse. And of course it can’t! Literally no bandage or boot (short of this very expensive carbon fibre rehab boot) is capable of reducing the amount the fetlock drops. Thinking back to Dr Weller’s demonstration, I could very clearly see how ridiculous I had been to ever believe a scrap of material could do anything to reduce or support that pressure.

But the boots/bandages don’t actually cause any harm do they? Surely it’s ok to use them on the off chance they might help and if we look good in the meantime, great! Well, not long after this, research started appearing that got me very worried about my bandage collection. Heat. Anyone that uses bandages and boots will not be surprised to see sweat marks under their bandages/boots after they’ve been removed. They trap a lot of heat. The horses body and legs generate a lot of heat when working. The tendons/ligaments in the leg, along with an increased blood flow generate ALOT of heat. Fleece bandages/boots in particular, hold this heat in the horses leg. Very few boots and virtually no bandages (especially if you use a pad under) allow the legs to breath adequately. This heat is easily enough to kill tendon/ligament cells. Each tendon/ligament is made of thousands and thousands of cells all lined up end on end and side by side in long thin spindles. They stretch and return to their original shape and size like an elastic band, absorbing and redistributing the pressures applied from further up the leg and from the ground impact below. All of these cells must work together as one to do this effectively.

Just a little side step here to explain how tendons/ligaments heal. A tendon/ligament cell can not be replaced like for like. They always heal with scar tissue. This is why reinjury is so much more likely if a tendon/ligament is blown. The fibrous scar tissue doesn’t stretch, it isn’t capable of stretching or absorbing the impact of a horses movement. It will always be a weak spot. In a full blown sprain/strain the whole (or most) of the tendon has been damaged. But this heat injury might just kill a few cells at a time. Those few cells are replaced by fibrous scar tissue, then next time a few more etc etc. Like a rubber band degrading over time the tendon/ligament loses its elasticity and eventually goes snap. Then you’ve fully blown a tendon/ligament. The injury didn’t start to happen at that moment, but that was the final straw. The damage adds up over time, each time thermal necrosis (vet word for cell death) occurs.

So if using boots/bandages can not offer any sort of support, and using them generates heat that slowly damages the tendons/ligaments until they give way. Why use them? Protection. This is the only reason to use boots. To stop the horse brushing, injuring themselves catching a pole or over cross country. But for goodness sake make sure your boots are breathable! If the horse is sweaty under the boot but not above or below, the boot is not breathable enough. And don’t use fleece bandages just because you like the colour. These fleece bandages are the worst at holding heat in the leg, way above the threshold for thermal necrosis to the cells of the tendons and ligaments. If your horse doesn’t need protection, don’t use boots. I haven’t for the last 12 years and *touch wood* I haven’t had a single tendon/ligament injury in any of my horses. I will never go back to boots or especially bandages now. I don’t use them for schooling, lunging, jumping, travelling, turnout, stable, in fact I don’t use them at all. Ever. But I don’t hunt or XC.

I hope you have found my story useful and can make informed decisions on boots and bandaging going forward.

For more information on the Equestride boot and their research into support offered by boots and bandages, visit http://www.equestride.com/ and https://www.equinetendon.com/services/equestride/

The horses leg under the compression machine at the Irish Equine rehabilitation and fitness centre https://fb.watch/cmVMt6-iOJ/ (I highly recommend you watch this incredible video. It clearly shows the amount of force the leg goes through and demonstrates the real purpose of boots)

Other relevant papers-
https://equimanagement.com/.amp/articles/horse-skin-temperature-under-boots-after-exercise
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8f15/0ea480edca142260d01f419f80d2e7e7fb29.pdf
http://www.asbweb.org/conferences/1990s/1998/59/index.html

Edit 1 - I am getting asked about stable wraps very frequently. This post is about riding, the tendons and blood flow create heat which is trapped by bandages/boots during exercise. This doesn’t occur in the stable stood still. If the horse has a strain/sprain resulting in inflammation, then there is an increase in blood flow and there is heat being created. In this situation you should not be bandaging. But if it’s cold and an old horse needs stable wraps to keep the joints warm and improve sluggish blood flow (filled legs) you can use the heat trapping to your advantage. But you need to be careful in summer.

Edit 2 - the other thing I’m being asked about is compression. Compression DOES NOT control inflammation. The inflammation still occurs, but the swelling can not escape the bandages and the increase in internal pressure reduces blood flow, causing ischemic damage. Like laminitis within the hoof. The hoof capsule prevents swelling so the inflammation expands inwards and cuts off the blood supply. This is why laminitis is so painful and difficult to treat. Compression is only useful in the case of leaky vessels, for example reduced blood pressure, reduced movement so the blood isn’t being pumped backup the legs, or osmotic imbalances eg low protein with diarrhoea. In these situations, compression of the legs can encourage blood to return to the vessels and continue circulating.

07/11/2024

Maybe just maybe we need to redefine what being an animal lover looks like-cause it sure as hell doesn’t look like this

Three animals euthanized after sustaining injuries during Calgary Stampede

1. A horse that ran in Friday’s chuckwagon races was euthanized following injuries sustained during a race.

2. According to Stampede officials, an outrider horse sustained a medical injury during the second heat of the chuckwagon races on Saturday.

3. A steer was injured and subsequently euthanized Monday, making it the third animal to die during the 2024 Calgary Stampede.

07/10/2024

The Mythical Self Carriage.
Many years ago I was taught to push the horse into the bit with legs on into a fixed or "non-allowing hand" until I felt a light loop in the rein - and this was thought to be good. And I see many riders still doing this, and probably thinking they are doing the right thing or that this is self carriage.

In reality, Nothing is further from the truth. When the horse tucks its head in, down, under, behind the vertical, behind the contact, it may feel light but it's not accepting or relaxing into the hand. It is instead avoiding and fearing the hands, by hiding behind them.

"An over bent horse appears to be light. It no longer has contact with the bit. But contrary to what its rider may think, it is neither relaxed or in balance, and has instead shifted its weight to its shoulders and dropped behind the bit. "
Philippe Karl

04/28/2024

04/25/2024

Hind end? Front end? What’s more important?

The horse is not just some grouping of pieces and parts - There’s an entire body. The entire body must coordinate and participate in good carriage. The goal is to get the body parts in synchrony, and let the horse carry himself. For this, the horse must have stability behind, looseness in the front, connection through the middle, and good awareness of the whole.

04/15/2024

Horses: The Role of Asymmetry in Becoming a Good Rider

Understanding the various aspects of asymmetry and how they affect outcomes can be difficult to understand.

In the task of learning to ride in balance, a fundamental component of successful, long term development of horse performance in a welfare-centric manner, asymmetries are an inevitable component.

Where are the asymmetrical occurrences in your horse and rider profile?

How are they affecting you and your horse's performance and health?

Is riding your horse enjoyable for you and comfortable for your horse?

How do you assess the presence of asymmetrical issues that need addressing?

In our online course, presented by some of the world's leading experts, we have assembled a comprehensive, 4 hour educational event that can help guide you on this topic.

From asymmetry indicating lameness, saddle fit issues, rider balance issues, asymmetry in your horse's body and evaluating the thoracic sling, this course could be the answer you are looking for to further your riding success.

On sale for less than the price of a lesson, this information could be priceless for your future equestrian experience.

Learn more here: https://www.equitopiacenter.com/shop/equitopia-perspectives-horse-and-rider-asymmetry/

04/03/2024

Basic handling for seasoned horse people-

It’s really easy to get complacent as a seasoned horse person. Lifetime horse people can be seen doing extremely dangerous things habitually, and when corrected often brush it off as no big deal.

“My horse would never …” is a frequently uttered statement

And yet, life is lifey. You throw in a couple unexpected variables and soon you have a wreck

A big one for me is lead rope handling -

Not wrapping it in loops and not putting it over your shoulder are really big ones for me - if you like keeping your head and you like your hands, this one is important - the safest horses can still hurt you. It’s important to stay sharp, be aware, and think ahead - that’s the best way I know how to stay safe- assume nothing, prepare, and stay aware.

04/01/2024

Why do we value “friendliness” over life skills?

It happens almost every there is a horse needing to be gentled - the first thing on many a mind is how quick can I make him pettable?

A big sign of progress for many is the horses interest in being up in our space, coming up to the fence, getting scratches etc -

But in this process of making the horse lovable in our eyes and to our standards, what are we teaching them? What have we created that will be inevitably punished later, or something that will block progress and create confusion? And why is the value of an animal to us wrapped up in their ability to “get love” the way WE see fit for them?

When I have a horse to be gentled, I’m interested in giving life skills - how to be caught, trimmed, medicated etc- the things that will benefit their life. How can I make this horse feel calm, and understand that I’m here to help? Petting for an unhandled horse is really scary, and for many, just not pleasurable. It can be later, and of course we’d like to be able to touch them - but in a way that helps them relax and understand.

The more I can improve their life quality by giving life skills, the calmer they can be around us. And shoving my hand in their face til they get used to it, or worse, get pushy and act like an exuberant Labrador like many people expect their horses to be, is not the way to show respectful touch to a horse.

But if you think about it, we don’t have much tolerance for people who aren’t perceived as “friendly” either - it’s an extroverts world, where just making noise without meaning is considered engagement, and the quiet ones are thought to have a problem - we don’t tolerate folks who don’t want to be touched much either, we make judgements about them being cold - or, if they reject a hug will hear “but I’m a hugger!” The world forgets to see the value, or doesn’t know it - in more subtle forms of communication, in quiet or distance, and how two bodies can connect in many ways -

We like our dogs exuberant and neurotically hyperactive too- dogs aversive to being touched by strangers are perceived as unfriendly, and heaven forbid a dog ask for space from touch.

It’s a loud and chaotic world out there. It’s easy for the quiet ones to get bowled over - but there is a lot of value in the quiet, in the sensitivity of quiet things, and in the space they ask for

03/20/2024

Every one involved with horses should read the excellent book referenced here -Horse Brain Human Brain-Sometimes I just think how dare we-unfortunately we far too often take our cues from our own selfish nature than from the living being we are loudly proclaiming to be in awe of💕

"Many trainers - unaware of neural fatigue - advocate constant aids. Examples crop up in all riding disciplines.

Dressage trainers often teach riders to hold steady on the outside rein at all times, as a support to the horse. Hunter/jumper trainers frequently ask that riders maintain strong lower leg pressure, to keep the horse forward and rider secure, etc.

All of these are static cues; they are applied, maintained, and unchanged. They defy the reality of neural fatigue, causing us to ride against a horse's brain rather than with it. Very quickly, receptor cells in the horse's mouth or sides tire.

They can't continue to send ‘pressure’ signals to the horse's brain.

That's why constant aids become meaningless - its not the horse refusing to respond, it's that he'd have to override his own brain cells to do so."

- Horse Brain Human Brain, Dr. Janet Jones

03/18/2024

The WALK - mother of all gaits

Most riders spend little time at the walk outside of "cooling out" or "warming up".

Not realizing it is the gait that BIRTHS everything you do, and REVEALS everything you may need.

"The FEI rule book once stated that it was at the pace of the walk that imperfections of dressage are most evident"

Every issue can be felt and seen through the magnifying lens of the walk.

"François de Lubersac, a master from the legendary School of Versailles in the 18th century, recognized that in dressage training, the first gait in which to train is always the walk.

Remarkably, de Lubersac, trained his horses only at the walk, and when he decided that they were ready, his horses were able to do everything at all gaits."

The walk is an anchoring gate. To teach and refine the horses balance, collectabilty, lightness, refinement, propreoception, suppleness, relaxation, lateral gymnastics, and understanding of aids... just to name a few.

There is no better gait to school these concepts then the walk. Testing things up the ladder of movement; trot and canter, and then anchoring back to the walk to fix, progress, or prepare.

The walk is the gait you "polish the stone" of all these qualities, more than any other gait.

It is the gait you come back to again and again, where the root of it all lives.

And remember, as with any gait, there is more than "just ONE walk".

Tempo, balance, stride, and frame can change in so many ways within any single gait that it lends itself to many "changes of gait within a gait", based on what that horse needs at any given moment.

In my opinion, a classical rider can easily spend an entire ride at the walk, and the higher up they ride, the more time they may spend at the walk...polishing the stone.

Mindful footfalls live in the walk.

What is your walk telling you?

03/18/2024

Patting, shoeing, grooming, feeding, and even putting them in a stable - the list of seemingly benign human interactions that can confuse or upset horses is surprisingly long. On the eve of the official Horse’s Birthday, we explain why.

03/17/2024

Buck Brannaman has a lot of funny things to say about people and horses, these were two of my favourites at the recent Dallas clinic.

To someone with their horse in a tie down, (kind of like a standing martingale). 'Maybe by the time you come in here tomorrow you'll be so handy, you can take that thing off and give it to someone you don't like.'

Regarding the idea that good training will hold on a horse regardless of who buys it, 'When someone tells me they want a push button horse, I say you might as well buy yourself some fairy dust. You'll bring that horse down to your level in no time'.

You can't help but like the man.