Awakened Equestrian

09/10/2025

Why girth tightness is not “just a detail” 🔑🐎

A research team, who carried out a study that we examined through the previous post, discovered that while tightening the girth doesn’t immediately change stride length or joint angles, it does alter how pressure is distributed beneath the saddle.

📌 What exactly did they find?
➡️When tightened from 8 kg to 16 kg, average overall pressure didn’t increase, but the pressure shifted significantly forward.
➡️This shift may put greater strain on the thoracic region of the back.
➡️Over time, this could lead to discomfort, reduced freedom of movement, or even pain in the thoracic spine.

👉 Practically speaking:
➡️Looser ≠ bad. A slightly looser girth doesn’t always mean poor saddle stability.
➡️Tighter ≠ better. A very tight girth won’t give you more control but can increase pressure where the horse least needs it.

💚 Welfare starts with details. The girth may look like a small player, but the right design and tightness can have a huge impact on a horse’s health and performance.

Source: Marlin, D., et al. (2025). The Effect of Girth Design and Girth Tension on Saddle-Horse Pressures and Forelimb Stride Kinematics in Rising Trot. Animals.
📸 Photo: Horse and Hound

08/10/2025

Girths under the microscope – what science says 🐴📊

A girth may look like a simple piece of tack, but researchers have confirmed it plays a key role in horse comfort. 💡

🔬 A newly published study in Animals investigated how girth type and girth tightness affect saddle pressure and horse movement.
What did they test?
➡️ 6 regularly ridden horses at rising trot
➡️ 2 girth types: straight vs. anatomical
➡️ 2 levels of tightness: looser (8 kg) vs. tighter (16 kg)

To ensure accuracy, they used:
✨ pressure mats under the saddle (100 measurements per second)
✨ slow-motion cameras and limb markers for movement analysis
✨ device for precise adjustment of tightening force

👉 Results?
• Girth type had only a minor effect on movement.
• Tightening, however, had a big impact on saddle pressure – the tighter the girth, the more the pressure shifted forward.

And this forward shift can have long-term effects on the horse’s comfort and back health. 🌿

For more about this study, see the following post.

Source: Marlin, D., et al. (2025). The Effect of Girth Design and Girth Tension on Saddle-Horse Pressures and Forelimb Stride Kinematics in Rising Trot. Animals.
📸 Photo: Equus Magazine

07/10/2025

❗️

06/10/2025

🐴 MENTAL DEFICIT AND NEURODIVERGENCE IN HORSES II 🐴

This topic caught a lot of your attention, so let’s take it a bit further and clarify a few things. Unfortunately, I can’t rely on scientific studies here, as I haven’t come across any research specifically addressing this subject yet. What I share comes from my own experience and observation.

Last time, I used the term mental deficit in a simplified way, but today I’d like to distinguish between mental deficit and neurodivergence.

👉 Mental Deficit
(also called intellectual disability or developmental delay) refers to reduced cognitive abilities compared to the general population – in other words, an actual limitation of brain functions (e.g. in learning, memory, orientation, problem-solving, adaptive behaviour).

In horses:
🟢 it can result from real neurological or developmental damage (e.g. trauma, oxygen deprivation at birth, CNS infection, etc.),
🟢 the horse struggles to learn even simple patterns and repeatedly forgets previously learned responses,
🟢 its behaviour may appear “slow,” uncoordinated, confused, or illogical,
🟢 it often has trouble adapting even in familiar environments (as if “for the thousandth time and still the first”),
🟢 it sometimes reacts inappropriately (e.g. with no clear link between stimulus and response).

With such a horse, this isn’t about “stubbornness” or “defiance” — it’s a limitation of the nervous system, much like in a person with an intellectual disability.

👉 Neurodivergence
refers to a different way the nervous system functions, which isn’t necessarily a deficit. It’s a variation in how information is processed (for example: autism, ADHD, hypersensitivity, PTSD, or trauma-related nervous system reorganization).

In horses, this doesn’t mean reduced intelligence — rather, a differently tuned nervous system:
🟢 they tend to be highly sensitive to stimuli (light, sounds, touch, environmental change),
🟢 they may show atypical reactions — for instance, freezing instead of fleeing, or overly strong responses,
🟢 they learn differently: they respond best to gentleness, consistency, and safety, but may “shut down” under pressure or stress,
🟢 they often display what could be called functional dysregulation — their nervous system shifts between activation and shutdown more quickly and sensitively,
🟢 they react more to emotional tone and the sense of safety than to traditional training cues,
🟢 they can have difficulties with social interaction — for example, forming bonds with other horses or humans can be challenging.

Such a horse can be highly perceptive, intuitive, and intelligent, but it requires a different approach — one that respects its neurophysiology.

💬 What does this look like in practice?
🐴 A horse with a mental deficit can learn the basics but may never be reliable in complex tasks, can appear slow or “absent,” and needs a consistently simple and stable environment.
🐴 A neurodivergent horse perceives emotional nuances very well but gets overwhelmed easily; it reacts to micro-movements of the human body and needs to feel certainty and safety.

Do you have a horse like this at home?
In the next post, we’ll talk about how to work with them.
K.

25/09/2025

🐴 MENTAL DEFICITS IN HORSES
A topic I have not yet encountered in the equestrian world, yet I believe it is extremely important to talk about.

In human society, we have defined a wide spectrum of cognitive and intellectual disorders—reduced intelligence, attention disorders, or learning difficulties. We understand that individuals with such diagnoses face certain limitations and (ideally) we adapt to their abilities and provide support.

For some mysterious reason, however, we tend to assume that every horse is born fully functional and ready to perform for humans. In my therapeutic practice, I have worked with horses who showed signs of various mental or cognitive deficits. I have met horses I would certainly place somewhere on the autistic spectrum, as well as horses that displayed clear signs of intellectual disability.

These horses are not to blame for their condition. They are not capable of performing at the same level as their healthy peers. They may struggle with focus, attention, and learning, have difficulties forming social bonds with horses or humans, or be emotionally unstable and unpredictable. This does not mean they are “bad.” They are simply different.

Owners of such horses are often under extreme pressure from their surroundings. They are criticized for not training or disciplining their horse properly, they move from trainer to trainer, trying every possible approach and level of pressure to make the horse behave “normally.” But such a horse will never be “normal.” The only way forward is to accept this reality and offer support.

💡 Not every horse with unusual behavior necessarily suffers from a congenital mental deficit. Cognitive function can also be influenced by:

👉 Aging – degenerative changes in the brain or nervous system
👉 Chronic pain / physical discomfort – pain can take up attention and reduce focus
👉 Neurological disorders – infections or degenerative diseases of the central nervous system
👉 Metabolic disorders – diabetes, Cushing’s syndrome, or hormonal changes affecting the brain
👉 Lack of stimulation – horses kept long-term without proper enrichment
👉 Stress / anxiety / depression – psychological factors that slow reactions and reduce concentration

❓What can we do? Let’s talk about it! Let’s explore and study it. Let’s support such horses and their owners instead of blaming or shaming them. Every horse has its place in this world—though it might not be the one we imagined for ourselves.

K.

19/09/2025

What a New Study Revealed About Horse Behaviour 📊🐴🔍

An international team of researchers collected data from more than 2,700 horses using the online E-BARQ questionnaire, filled in by owners. The study focused on situations connected to ridden work – from saddling and preparation, through actual riding, to hosing down after exercise. 🚿🐎

Here’s what they found:
✅ Agonistic responses group into distinct contexts – such as behaviour during saddling, locomotion under saddle, interactions with other horses, or reactions towards humans.
✅ These behaviours are not random – they always reflect a specific motivation: pain, fear, or frustration.
✅ It is therefore wrong to label horses that respond this way as “nasty” or “aggressive” – they are showing defensive mechanisms, not deliberate attacks.

The main takeaway of the study is clear:
💡 “A good life for a horse begins with a better understanding of its behaviour.”
Instead of jumping to judgement or punishment, we should look for the underlying cause – whether it’s poor-fitting tack, inappropriate training, or a health issue.

Because when a horse kicks or bites, it’s not saying “I want to hurt you” – it’s saying “something isn’t right.” And if we listen, we can move towards a horse–human relationship built on cooperation, not conflict. 🐴🤝💚

Source: Fenner, K., et al (2024). Reported agonistic behaviours in domestic horses clusters according to context. International Society for Equine Science.
Photo: The Horse

15/09/2025

When “Aggression” Isn’t Really Aggression 🐴❌😡➡️🛡️

A horse, like any other animal, reacts to pressure or threat in two basic ways – by fleeing, or by defending itself. If escape is not an option, horses often resort to so-called agonistic behaviours. These include biting or bite threats, kicking, tail swishing, or warning movements – all with one simple goal: to create space and drive away the source of discomfort. 🪶

The problem is that in the equestrian world, these behaviours are often labelled simply as “aggression.” But the reality is more complex. Horses show such responses because of pain, fear, frustration, or confusion – in other words, causes that are frequently linked to our training or management practices, not to the horse’s inherent nature.

This misunderstanding often leads to unfair punishment, which can actually make the horse’s behaviour worse. ❌👊➡️😖 Instead of suppressing signals, the key is to understand them.

👉 If we started to see these so-called “undesirable” behaviours not as defiance or malice, but as a call for help, we would move much closer to what is known as a good life for the horse.

Source: Fenner, K., et al (2024). Reported agonistic behaviours in domestic horses clusters according to context. International Society for Equine Science.
Photo: Equine Behaviourist

09/09/2025

What Science Revealed About Tight Nosebands 🔬📊👀

To find out how much tightness really impacts horses, researchers tested 12 horses with three different noseband settings:
👉 loose (2 fingers),
👉 medium (1 finger),
👉 very tight (0.5 finger).

Using a special camera, they measured eye temperature, a well-known stress indicator. The results?

📈 As the noseband tightened from loose to the tighter settings, eye temperature rose significantly – showing a clear stress response.
📏 Pressure ranged from almost zero with the loose fit up to 63 N with the tightest fit – a huge difference in force on the tissues.
🔗 These findings confirm that tight nosebands are not just an aesthetic matter – they directly compromise horse welfare.

The key takeaway is simple:
💡 The tighter the noseband, the more stress for the horse. If we want horses to have “a good life,” then regulations and practices around nosebands must be reconsidered – putting the animal’s comfort before sporting demands. 🐎💚

Source: Doherty, O., et al. (2024) The Effect of Noseband Tightening on Eye Temperature as a Marker of Stress. The International Society for Equine Science.
Photo: Horse and Hound

06/09/2025

🙏🙏🙏

I mean this from the bottom of my heart:

If you want something that you can jump on and ride whenever you want without having to factor in emotional or physical well-being, there are a number of great machines on the market that you can do this with.

Horses are not one of them.

If you choose to get a horse and pursue riding as a passion, that should come with the responsibility of caring about their well-being instead of feeling so entitled to riding that your desires come above their physical, emotional and mental well-being.

If your horse’s physical and mental comfort does not matter to you in your pursuit of riding, you are better suited to a hobby that involves machinery because then you can disregard emotion without there being a negative impact to your mount.

02/09/2025

When the Noseband Hurts More Than It Helps 🐴❌😬

For many riders, the noseband is just a normal part of the bridle. In some disciplines, it’s even an unwritten standard to fasten it as tightly as possible – so the horse can’t open its mouth, and the rider doesn’t lose points. 🏅➡️😶

But overly tight nosebands are a serious welfare issue. What happens when the noseband is pulled to the limit?

• it puts immense pressure on the soft tissues and bones of the nose,
• it restricts the horse’s natural responses, such as opening the mouth to relieve bit pressure,
• it increases discomfort and pain when the bit is used.

From the horse’s perspective, it’s not about “better control” – it’s about higher stress levels. And all of this, just so the rider can gain an advantage or avoid penalties. 😔

So, the debate around noseband tightness isn’t just about rules – it’s about whether we’re willing to prioritize the horse’s comfort and health over the aesthetics of sport. 💚

Source: Doherty, O., et al. (2024) The Effect of Noseband Tightening on Eye Temperature as a Marker of Stress. The International Society for Equine Science.
Photo: Equus Magazine