http://www.lshorsemanship.co.uk/

LS Horsemanship, Stokesley (2025)

04/12/2025

A very exhausting day trying to fix the clay soup that is the bottom of my corral. 😴

I already had 2 pallets of Jelka mats down and around 50 mud control mats but it felt like such a small space.

We’re on such small acreage here I’m desperately trying to save the land so the horses are spending most of their time in the corral, and most of that up on the small area of mats in front of the shelter.

I managed to sell my saddle last week in order to fund another pallet of mud control mats, priorities. Big thanks to my dad, Jason and Dave for helping me yet again, it was not a fun job and we still have more to do but we’ve made a really good start. Thankfully the rain held off all day.

I need to get more sand on top of them but we were so knackered we’ve just put enough on to fill the holes and stop the horses slipping for now.

It doesn’t seem like much but being able to spread the hay stations out more is really helping them get more movement and will allow their hooves to dry out.

There is so much I want to do to improve things for them but we just have to take it one step at a time.

It is 5pm and I’m ready to sleep 😅

04/12/2025

Behavioural changes in winter 🐴

It is widely accepted that winter and the cold just makes horses “fresh” but I want to give you some deeper ideas to think about before you set about working your horse harder to offset this.

Behaviour doesn’t deteriorate because horses feel good, behaviour deteriorates because they feel worse. Explosive behaviour, “freshness”, rearing, bucking, biting, grumpy faces, tail swishing, barging, being mean to other horses, being difficult around hoof handling, to rug and to tack up are all signs your horse is struggling.

If your horse’s behaviour changes during winter it is because things in his environment and/or his body have changed.

We’re generally looking at their basic needs not being met and/or they’re experiencing more pain or discomfort than they do in the warmer months.

If a horse’s behaviour deteriorates with the cold weather despite nothing else changing we are highly likely looking at a pain issue. I see horses with cribbing or wind sucking behaviours that hugely increase in the winter months despite them still living out 24/7, they are using it as a stress-relief because their bodies are struggling more.

Here are a few points to think about when assessing your own horse’s situation:

🐴 Cold - if your horse has orthopaedic issues they are probably going to feel worse in the cold. This is why I think behaviour deteriorating in winter can be so indicative of pain/discomfort. I used to be such a “never rug an unclipped horse” person, but I now have 2 older unclipped horses with orthopaedic issues who I keep well rugged as I notice a difference in their comfort levels when I don’t.

Coping is not the same as thriving and if you have a question mark about your horse it is worth trying to keep them warmer to see if their behaviour improves. Overweight horses can get a really harsh deal here, leaving horses to deliberately get too cold to get weight off them may be counterproductive, especially if they’re already struggling with orthopaedic issues, try to assess the horse in front of you.

If you have a clipped horse and it is very cold it is worth keeping a rug over them until they are warmed up when you ride them.

Horses who are moving less and eating less fibre will have a harder time staying warm.

🐴 Mud - It is unfortunately something most of us have to deal with in UK winters, hello fellow clay-land dwellers. Moving through thick, sticky mud or across wet, slippy mud is hard on their bodies. Just think how hard it is for your to trudge through in your wellies. Again any horse who is already struggling with physical issues is going to feel the strain and fatigue from moving around through mud and this could exacerbate their issues and cause a deterioration in their behaviour.

Extra fun is when your deep mud turns to rock solid ruts in the ice for your horse to navigate.

We could think about creating mud-free areas, moving onto rested fields or turning out in the yard or arena etc.

🐴 Less movement - Perhaps like many people you are having to keep your horse stabled more than you’d like, your horse is in a smaller turnout space or he is just not inclined to move as much because he is parked at a hay bale and all of the grass has gone. Every system in the horses body thrives on movement to stay healthy so you can see how we can quickly run into issues when we are forced to restrict it.

If you need to add extra movement to your horse’s day it is much better to focus on calm movement like hand walking together and enrichment activities. This is much healthier for your horse than having their mouth/face yanked about because they’re too over threshold to contain themselves on the lunge. Being able to mooch and have a good roll in the arena can go a long way to helping them feel more settled.

🐴 Social concerns - if horses are being stabled more this means they’re spending more time alone and feeling isolated from their herd, this can be really stressful for horses. There is also the added stress of their friends being turned out/brought in at different times. Creating a plan so field mates aren’t left stressing without each other can really help. If two horses are good friends you can hand walk them together and let them groom each other too.

I won’t stable either of my horses any more, when they are “in” they are in a corral or large indoor pen together. Being together and having space to mooch between hay stations meets their needs so much better than individual stabling.

🐴 Weather stress - the weather in winter is generally more unsettled and naturally puts horses more on edge. High winds and relentless rain add to a horse’s stress load.

🐴 Gut health - there are so many factors that affect gut health. Seasonal hormonal changes, changes in diet such as moving from grass onto more hay, changes in the grass itself and higher-stress levels as discussed in the previous points. We want to make sure our horse’s have access to appropriate forage 24/7 so they are getting plenty of fibre, then we need to consider how to support them nutritionally and supplement where appropriate.

So there are several ideas to think about before you reach for your gloves and the lunge line, a horse exploding on the lunge is slamming loads of brace and stress into their already compromised body. There are other ways you can better support your horse which are healthier for his body and his mind. Let’s address the cause the best we can instead of just trying to manage the symptoms. 🐴

01/12/2025

Behavioural knowledge should come first 🐴

How to read basic equine behaviour should be the first thing anyone learns about horses, not just something that you talk about once you have a problem. Unfortunately the industry has a really long way to go.

I run online talks for young people/riding clubs/various groups based around reading very basic horse behaviour. Part of the talk involves showing a variety of images/videos and getting people to tell me what they see in terms of how they think that horse is feeling or what could be going on in that scenario. A huge number of people cannot recognise very basic indicators of stress and yet they could name and put together every piece of a double bridle or jump round a XC course. We should be prioritising teaching this stuff.

The difficulty is the instructors don’t know it either, the amount of misinformation being spread surrounding behaviour being taught by highly-regarded people with industry-recognised qualifications is frustrating and harmful to horses. And its not their fault, because that is what they have been taught, this is the industry standard. Its all about getting horses to comply and if you’re good at doing that and you say nice things to the horse while you’re doing it then you’re a great horseperson. How can anyone learn to recognise stress and fear if seeing highly-stressed horses is normalised?

While I appreciate there is much more talk around looking for pain as a reason for behaviour now, things are still very lacking and a lot of horses are still being treated like crap despite people’s good intentions. We’re still describing their behaviour away as dominant, cheeky and stubborn instead of recognising a horse under stress that is not coping with what is being asked of them.

I used to think I was a great trainer and thought I knew all about horse behaviour because I practiced some natural horsemanship techniques which basically involved applying pressure until they did what I wanted. I would get results and compliance and I did encourage people to go to the vet to look for pain when it didn’t work, but it was very basic level and I now realise I missed so, so many subtle behavioural cues. I was working with false information, I had just believed what someone else had told me and discounted anything that made me feel uncomfortable about what I was doing. Once I really studied equine behaviour I realised I had to change what I was doing and the way I was looking at horses if I wanted to be ethical.

My friend told me an interesting memory of her first riding lesson as a child. She remembers arriving and being upset because the pony was tacked up in the arena waiting for her and they wanted her to mount straight up, she said “but the pony hasn’t met me before, he doesn’t know me? I can’t just get straight on his back?” I would imagine the majority of people who start riding horses do so because they love horses. Wouldn’t life be so much better for our horses if we were taught to treat them as sentient beings and respect them as animals from day one instead of indoctrinated into dominating and using them however we see fit.

This isn’t a traditional vs natural horsemanship debate, a lot of the natural horsemanship stuff is full of behavioural pseudoscience and its just making horses do stuff with flags and ropes instead of whips and spurs while using fluffier language. We praise training when we hear kind words and stories that make us feel good, even if the horse we’re looking at is telling us otherwise. How can we hear what the horse is saying if someone keeps mistranslating their words to us?

This isn’t meant to be a negative post, I just really want to offer resources to anyone who wants them. Interestingly I find the people who are newer to horses are much more open to listening and understanding this stuff. There is so much amazing content available online now to open up doors to people who want to do the best for their horses. Feel free to message me. 🐴

30/11/2025

Got to savour the little peaceful moments. ❤️

Winter is feeling a bit of a slog at the moment.

28/11/2025

Just because we can doesn't mean we should 🐴

A common theme with the horses I go out to see is that they have been given the “all clear” by vets/bodyworkers/various other professionals. Therefore the owner logically assumes they are definitely dealing with a behavioural issue as they have done all of the things they’re supposed to do as a caring owner.

Unfortunately diagnostics can be very limited and people seem to have trouble seeing the whole horse. Just because you haven’t found a solid cause yet doesn’t mean the horse isn’t in pain. Horses don’t lie and if they are behaving like they’re in pain I believe them. There is more to pain than hocks, kissing spine or ulcers and bute doesn't magically remove any pain that may be present.

With permission, I’m going to tell you a story which is unfortunately not an unusual one. I was called out to this horse as he had a “fear” of being mounted, but they said he was fine once they were on and they were jumping him competitively up to 1.20m. They had done x-rays of his back, stifles and hocks and scoped him for ulcers. A physio had also seen him and said they found no issues. The owner had tried every training method under the sun to fix this behaviour, pressure/release, chasing him around with a flag, clicker training, putting him against the wall, having someone hold a lick in front of his face etc. The horse was still biting, swinging away and becoming really agitated. I observed him being ridden and he was showing several conflict behaviours, tail swishing, unhappy in the mouth, head tossing etc. I didn’t do any training with the horse, to my eye the horse was definitely in pain and I referred them onto a recommended specialist vet. Upon investigation this horse had extensive arthritis in his neck and issues in his spine that had not been picked up by the first vet.

Horses are so, so stoic and we are also rubbish as an industry at seeing discomfort in them because it is so normalised. We see them as “fine” to ride as long as they aren’t actively decking us. We ignore them until they’re screaming and even then many do not listen because it is justified away as “quirky” or “sassy” behaviour.

Imaging is only useful if the person reading it has the skill to do so well and I have experience of one vet saying x-rays are fine then a second-opinion specialist vet making a pretty devastating diagnosis from the same images.

I am not saying we all need to spend thousands at the vet immediately, a huge part of what I do is gently, quietly improving posture and emotional health to see if we can start to help the horse feel and move better over time, but a hill I absolutely will die on is if the horse is unhappy with any part of tacking up/mounting then we do not ride the horse that day.

There are so many things we can do beyond just medicating and cracking on, if we can all learn a bit more about recognising postural issues and behavioural indicators we can potentially avoid a lot of heartache and frustration.

The industry as a whole is blind to postural issues, I’m still seeing horses regularly who have been “cleared” by several professionals who I find with saddle shaped dips in their back and incredibly poor hoof balance which is going to make their body really uncomfortable. Yet the owner has been told again and again the horse is fine and they need to crack on and get a trainer out, and then the training methods make the posture even worse…

If your horse goes to the back of the stable when you arrive with your tack, you need to restrain him in cross ties or he repeatedly moves away from the mounting block, I encourage you to think about why that is. There is a reason he doesn’t want to, be it physical or emotional discomfort with the situation. Making him move his feet and harassing him until his only option is to stand still isn’t going to change those feelings. A horse complying once you’re in the saddle does not mean they’re fine with it, they just know they have no choice once you’re on because nobody has ever listened to the no. 🐴

27/11/2025

Setting horses up to fail 🐴

I remember taking a pony to a gridwork lesson when I was a teenager, the pony came into the arena eyes on stalks and very anxious. I was told to trot him down a line of poles that was going to be built into the grid. He tentatively wobbled through with absolutely no rhythm while spooking at everything. I was told to use more leg. We came round once more and he did the same, then they immediately put a jump up at the end.

I remember my shy, anxious self expressing my concern that the pony wasn’t settled enough to do that yet and could we just do the poles a few more times. I was told no and that I just needed to kick on and make him go. The pony slammed the breaks on a few feet before the first pole and became more and more stressed while I was pressured into “making him go” while I kept asking if they could just put the poles back on the floor so I could walk him through. Eventually I got off and the instructor got on and smacked and growled at the pony until he went over.

I was left feeling embarrassed, ashamed and not good enough while also feeling really uncomfortable with how the pony was treated. I remember feeling so conflicted as it didn’t feel right in my gut but I was being told I was the problem by these people everyone told me knew best.

If I had just been allowed to walk/trot the pony down the poles as many times as necessary until he was comfortable and then built up to jumping, we’d both have had a confidence building and positive experience. I see horses (and people) set up to fail like this all the time and we are left feeling like we’re the problem.

It is messy, unskilled training. Continuing to push further when a horse is already stressed and struggling, only to use it as further proof that they are "difficult" when they really blow up and start to say no. Good, ethical training should look quiet and calm. Skilled trainers see the stress rising and adjust appropriately before the horse feels the need to escalate.

You do not need to be brave or harsh to train horses, if you need to be brave or harsh then that training is not going to be good for the horse.

Have you ever been in a situation where you've been pressured to do something with your horse that you knew didn't feel right? 🐴

Photo of me jumping my horse Dan a long time ago, we built his confidence slowly and didn’t need any dramas

26/11/2025

Empathy 🐴

Last week I somehow strained my neck and I was unable to turn my head without pain. I couldn’t sleep except in one specific position due to the pain and by the end of each day it would go into spasm just from having to carry my head around without support.

As I very carefully and tentatively worked through my physio exercises, I couldn’t help but think about horses and how much we as an industry oversimplify pain and discomfort.

I’m pretty sure if you had imaged my neck last week it would’ve looked fine, you could poke and prod at my neck and it wouldn’t hurt and, while it caused me pain to do so, I still had a normal range of motion. You couldn’t tell by looking at me that I was in pain, luckily I could vocally moan about it to anyone who asked.

I know I’ve written about pain a lot in the past, and I will link some of those posts in the comments, but I don’t think we can talk about it enough.

There is still the general consensus that we can “rule out pain” by doing lameness work-ups, some imaging or a bute trial. Aside from the fact diagnostics in the equine industry are still extremely limited, why do we never think about the fact pain can be present even if we can’t see a cause? A pulled muscle is not going to show up on an x-ray, but it can still really hurt and bute does not magically make any source of pain go away.

So many of the ways we are encouraged to train, ride and manage our horses are really hard on their bodies and likely to be causing soreness regularly. If we’re riding into a strong contact or our horse is bracing and pulling a lot, they’re going to be sore. Yet we’re taught to see everything as a disobedience or behavioural issue to stamp out. I think of all the times horses try to say no and communicate their discomfort and we call it “sass” or “attitude”.

I was so irritable when my neck was hurting, if someone had tried to make me move quickly or push through my exercises I would’ve bitten their head off.

I’m tired of watching stressed, uncomfortable horses being hassled into compliance and sold as success stories, when all that has happened is they’ve learnt no isn’t an answer. Being ridden around with a compressed neck is no good for any horse’s body and yet it is still the norm. Your after video is usually a horse being ridden over bent no longer “fighting” the contact. Or a horse tolerating being mounted with tense eyes and short reins. Compliance = success regardless of what the horse is expressing.

Next time you feel your horse is being annoying and they just won’t “do the thing”, consider for a second they might not physically be able to do so without causing themselves discomfort and whether the thing you want them to do is appropriate at all. Our horses will be much better off if we can just have a little empathy.

So many of our horses are living in compromised bodies. Understand that if they’re saying no they have good reason and repeatedly putting them into training situations to battle through with them is not ethical. 🐴

Pictured is beautiful Farley learning that being with people can be safe and even fun ❤️

25/11/2025

"You're so lucky that your horse is easy" 🐴

It is common for people to feel frustrated by comments like this when they’ve put a lot of time and effort into getting things right for their horse. Statements like this are often used to explain away behavioural issues without having to look deeper. This horse is just difficult by nature and that one is easy and its nothing to do with any outside influence.

There can also be an air of status around having a more “difficult” horse, as if wrangling a rearing horse or sitting some bucks somehow makes you a better horse person.

“You’ve just got an easy cob you wouldn’t understand my sharp warmblood.”

When I was younger used to feel frustrated that some people didn’t take me seriously because I “only” had native ponies instead of bigger, flashier types. Of course different breeds may lean toward having certain personality traits, but often I think a lot of it is to do with the environment they tend to be in, especially during their developmental years.

Having now worked with probably 100s of horses in my life, there are breeds that come to mind that I find lean towards being more sensitive and reactive, I’m not going to tell you which ones as I don’t want to start discourse🥲, but I will tell you it definitely isn’t warmbloods or thoroughbreds.

The truth is our perception of an “easy” or “difficult” horse is so skewed. Just like us horses are a product of their environment. Many horses are living in a chronic state of high-stress. It is so normalised to keep horses in this way that we don’t learn to recognise these behaviours for what they are. Add to this wide-spread misinterpretation of behaviour leading to inappropriate high-stress training methods and on top of that many horses carrying around undiagnosed pain and discomfort. This is a great recipe for a “difficult” horse.

I’ll tell you why my horses are so “easy”.

🐴 I make sure their needs are met - My horses have freedom to express natural behaviour all day every day, this includes socialising, foraging, having comfortable places to sleep and feeling safe in their environment. They also have access to appropriate forage 24/7. Meeting needs goes way beyond just choosing stabling or turnout, it is down to the individual horse and environment and how we can make it work for them. What is your horse’s life like for the 20 + hours you aren’t with them?

🐴 I am a consistently safe person to be around - I don’t take out my frustration on my horses. If they get upset or stressed I stay calm and non-emotional about it. This takes work, it is normal and human to feel irritated, but if you want to be good around horses you have to work on it. Our horses are not going to be able to relax around us if we start yanking them around or shouting at them when we don’t like their behaviour. My horses now know that my behaviour is predictable and I am calm and safe to be around, they don’t need to be worried around me.

🐴 I take their feelings into account - I don’t expect my horses to behave like machines. Instead of being frustrated by their behaviour I see it as the communication it is. For example if its extremely windy and I can see my horse is really on edge, I may change my plans on the kind of training session we do that day instead of setting them up to fail.

🐴 I train with low-stress - I handle and train my horses with their emotional state in mind. I try my best to not get into situations that are going to cause my horses high stress and I keep training sessions easy and pleasant to create positive associations. The more you create positive associations, the better your horse will feel about training with you and you are much less likely to get any “difficult” behaviour.

🐴 I am very aware of how they use their bodies - I observe my horses and how they move as much as I can. I can recognise when they are finding things difficult and adjust accordingly. So many supposed “difficult” behaviours are caused by horses being pushed to do things they cannot physically do without causing themselves discomfort. Many horses are being ridden with a lot of tension and brace on top of compromised bodies. There is a whole other world with horses out there once we learn to recognise this. If your horse is being resistant its probably because he can’t do it, it is definitely not because he needs to be pushed harder.

🐴 I trust my horse’s opinion - Lastly, if my horse is telling me something is wrong, I believe him. It doesn’t matter how many different professionals are of the opinion he is “fine”. I do not ignore my horses and just crack on, I keep looking for people who will support me and we figure it out together. So many of my clients have tried so hard to listen to their horses and advocate for them only to be belittled and told their horse is just taking the mick out of them, anyone who is saying this does not understand horse behaviour, I don’t care how many qualifications they have.

You may be surprised at how many “difficult” horses become calm and “easy” if we can implement the above changes. The problem is sometimes those changes are very inconvenient for the human. 🐴

24/11/2025

What does a stressed horse look like? 🐴

I think most people would be confident in identifying a horse who is so stressed they have gone into a fight/flight response. Bolting, spooking, broncing, rearing, snorting etc, very loud behaviours. But what about beyond that?

When a horse becomes stressed and fight/flight behaviour doesn’t work to get them out of the situation, where does that stress go? We need to be careful that when we think we’re achieving relaxation, we’re not actually pushing a horse into a shut down state. They can look outwardly calm but they are in fact still feeling stressed about the situation, they’ve just learned there is no way out.

A really common misconception I hear is horses who won’t load, they just plant at the bottom of the ramp and will not be moved. People will say “he’s clearly not scared, he’s just stubborn, look he’s going to sleep”. If a horse stands unmovable, closing his eyes while someone hauls on his face and someone else chases him from behind, believe me he is scared and he is desperately trying to cope with a situation he has learned is inescapable.

Sometimes horses who don’t outwardly express their stress through loud behaviours can be struggling more. I used to help my friend care for her extremely quiet, laid back cob on a livery yard. They ended up not being allowed out of their stables for 2 weeks straight one winter, and while many horses were exploding and box walking, he would just stand quietly at the back of his box and make no fuss. Around this time he started to be a little bit shifty at the mounting block, we listened to him instead of trying to train through it and it turned out he had developed severe stomach ulcers from the stress of being in. I think of this often when I see quiet horses.

When we are training we really need to consider the horse’s emotional wellbeing throughout the process, not just what the end result looks like to us. Only with context are we able to tell if our horse is truly okay with something or if they have perhaps shut down a little to cope when we wouldn't take no for an answer. There is a whole spectrum of stress and behaviour, it is not just a case of a shut down horse is shut down about everything, or that an anxious horse always has to feel anxious.

Many horses are living with a high level of chronic stress in their daily lives that affects them not just emotionally but can hugely impact on their physical wellbeing too. Sometimes a large part of the answer to our issues is not where we’re looking. If we can reduce the level of stress our horses may be experiencing overall, we can see improvements in areas we perhaps wouldn’t think are linked.

If we want to have a genuinely good relationship with our horses we need to look more closely and have higher standards for our training beyond whether it gets the horse to comply or not.

Pictured is me riding Dan "tackless" many years ago, logically you'd think tackless horses would simply leave if they didn't want to do it or felt stressed, but he had been conditioned that if he veered off course I would touch him with the stick to correct him, which he found unpleasant and threatening despite me never actually hitting him with it, "just" tapping and irritating him with it. You can see the tension above his eye, his ear locked onto the stick and his tight muzzle. I don't choose to train like this anymore as I don't want my cues to actually be threats of escalation, that doesn't feel like a partnership to me and created negative associations with training for Dan that I was unaware of.

It is uncomfortable to look deeper, but if you really value your horse and their wellbeing above all else we have to be better and really think about how our horse is experiencing things. 🐴

21/11/2025

Are you training co-operation or just compliance? 🐴

I used to solve training issues by simply applying enough pressure to get the horse to do the thing, I didn’t give much thought to how they were feeling, I just knew that if you applied more pressure, then removed that pressure only when the horse complied, that is how you fixed behavioural problems. Horse won’t load? Apply pressure on the head and only release when they step forward no matter what. Horse won’t catch? Apply pressure by making the horse move and only release when they stop and face you. Horse resists the contact? Apply pressure on the reins and only release when they soften. Horse afraid of clippers? Turn clippers on (pressure) and only turn them off once the horse stands still.

Do all of these work? I guess, kind of? It depends what your metric of success is. If your only metric of success is compliance then yes, this might work. But my metric of success is ultimately the horse feeling safe and okay with what I’m asking them to do because I value our relationship over what I can get them to do for me.

I think most people, like me, really want to have a good relationship with their horse. We want our horses to like us, want to spend time with us and perhaps enjoy training and riding together. We are told so many stories and pushed so many narratives that justify treating horses in ways that they will find unpleasant and even scary or painful, because we get the prize at the end of a “trusting bond” or “connection”. When what you actually have is a compliant horse who is afraid to show you how he feels or express his opinion, because if he does we hassle him again.

Now I’m not saying I don’t use any pressure with horses nor I am saying I don’t set boundaries, but there is nuance to everything. When we start to really consider how our horse is experiencing training situations, we can modify our approach to keep our horse’s stress low and set them up to succeed. Rather than deliberately pushing them over threshold so we can “correct” the behaviour.

To take a couple of the earlier examples, if your horse is afraid of something, instead of making it unpleasant to leave, how about we make it really pleasant to stay? Instead of seeing these behaviours as disrespectful or inconvenient, look at them as the fear or anxiety they are. Stay within your horse's stress tolerance so they don't get to the point of exploding. Also understand that no may be a valid answer, especially if there is underlying pain involved which can be the case for many horses

If your horse is difficult to catch or repeatedly pulls away from you when leading, instead of making it horrible for him to leave by using movement as punishment, or using harsher equipment, how about we make it really pleasant to be with you?

If we do things to horses they find unpleasant, we become associated with unpleasant things. Understand there is a reason why your horse doesn’t want to catch or be near you, and figure out why that might be, rather than just trying to make him comply. Maybe your horse finds training stressful or uncomfortable and associates being caught with that. Maybe your horse has separation anxiety and is desperate to get back to his friends because he doesn’t feel that security with you yet.

The amazing thing about working in a gentler way, is that the horse not only wants to be around you, they also feel safe and relaxed with you, so you are much less likely to run into any of these unwanted behaviours in the first place.

I hear some people talk about groundwork like they’re troubleshooting a computer program. If you unlock the hindquarter disengagement compliance piece then the loading will then happen. “This horse has all the groundwork in place so I don’t understand why he won’t load”. Well because he’s a sentient being who has feelings, emotions and past experiences and he’s trying to communicate something to you. People are throwing around terms like connection, trust and leadership to describe a relationship where the horse responds to every ask, quickly and without question, regardless of how this was achieved.

If we want to have genuinely good relationships with our horses, where they feel safe with us, want to engage with us and don’t feel anxious around us, we have to be pleasant to be around. Its as simple as that. This does not look like giving a horse no guidance and letting them do whatever they want, but it also does not look like dragging them around on halters while they desperately try to leave a situation and calling it necessary just because you’ve decided the horse must comply.

If our only metric of success is compliance then we are doing our horses, and ourselves, a disservice. The best thing we can do for our horses is learn about their nervous system, learn to read their behaviours and learn about their bodies and how they work. We can then make good choices for our horses and in doing so we will cultivate that positive relationship we, hopefully, all want. 🐴

Pictured is beautiful Ebony learning to stand and be relaxed at the mounting block using positive reinforcement (food rewards)

LS Horsemanship

04/12/2025

04/12/2025

01/12/2025

30/11/2025

28/11/2025

27/11/2025

26/11/2025

25/11/2025

24/11/2025

21/11/2025

Address

Website

Alerts

Contact The Business

Shortcuts

Share

Category