Sally Mitchell Equestrian

15/10/2025

I will be heading to Pudsey next Tuesday 21st October, so if anyone in the area would like a lesson please get in touch.

I am an Equitation Science Accredited Trainer, BHSAI Qualified Coach and Equine Behaviour Specialist, providing SAFE, EFFECTIVE, ETHICAL Horse Training. I use a combination of Classical Training with evidence-based principles of Equitation Science to help you become an effective trainer in order to train your horse or pony without confusion and with an understanding of biomechanics to help your horse to use their body with good form and function to improve soundness and wellbeing.

All ages / levels of horse & rider. In hand, Under Saddle, Flatwork or Jumping.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you would like to join on this date or any future dates. Tel: 07801 946775 email: [email protected]

14/10/2025

Aww, remember these two 🫏😍. They were so cute …. challenging, but very cute 🥰

13/10/2025

Aww, little Treacle when she came for backing a couple of years ago 🐴😍. I am now taking bookings for next year for backing / schooling horses and ponies up to 15.2hh. Please message me if you would like more details.

11/10/2025

Some useful things you can do with your horse or pony with TTouch Wraps / elastic bandages (providing it’s safe to do so - don’t just go waltzing up to your horse waving bandages around, go slowly, make sure they are ok with them first 🙈).

Poor little Brucey has been struggling again 😞. He’s been so angry and agitated lately, I think his ulcers may be back, so I have eased off on the work over the last month or so, and gone back to walking him out inhand and just very basic groundwork, until his ulcer stuff arrives. Or it could be his muscles being sore from his PSSM2/MIM, either way he’s not a happy boy at the moment. Soo frustrating but what can you do 🤷‍♀️.

I decided to dig out my TTouch Wraps to see if that might help him to feel a bit better and just calm his nervous system down.

I tried the head wrap as thought he might find it soothing as, when he’s being ‘Mr Angry’ he grinds his teeth a lot and snarls and snaps at me, basically gets himself in a right tiz, so probably carrying a lot of tension around his head.

He seems particularly sore and sensitive around his chest / base of the neck so using the wraps by just gently stretching and releasing on his chest.

I then go over his withers (cos his withers are very twitchy) along his neck, around his belly, across his back, around his stifles. You can basically use the wraps anywhere on the body in this way as it helps with fascial integration.

Then I use the wrap under his tail to do tail circles as he can sometimes be a bit tight and clampy when I use my hands, so using the wrap just helps him soften his tail.

Lots of yawning at the end, which is not something you see Bruce do very often so he must have got something from it which is good to see.

It’s hard to believe that he does all his angry, snarling and snapping at me when he lets me do all this no problem. However, If I’d have gone to stroke him at the end there, which I nearly did but just managed to stop myself, you would have seen, ‘Mr Angry’, but I didn’t want to spoil his moment so left him alone to chill 😌.

He really does drive me mad with his random grumpy behaviour, trying to decifer whether it’s pain or behavioural, it’s so hard to tell 🤯

10/10/2025

Come on we’re ready 😋 !!
Muzzle crew ready and waiting for me to let them down on the track. It hasn’t taken them long to work out that, when I come back with Bruce, it’s time to go out ⏰🐎😂.

09/10/2025

Ponies happy to be back out on the track down at the bottom. That was a bald track 2 months ago but the grass has grown loads down there so all got muzzles on, apart from Snowy who has his own muzzle, as no front teeth anymore, so although he can eat grass still, he can’t get quite as big a mouthful as he used to 🐎🥰

07/10/2025

💖🎶”There’s only one little Snow Po”🎶 💖

That was such a fab day with my little Snow Ponio🐴😍. He really felt like he was enjoying himself 😁. Little did I know it would be his last event 😭

04/10/2025

🌟 10 Things I Won’t Teach or Tolerate — Rule #3 🌟
Ditch the Dominance

Dominance theory has no place in modern horse training. It’s been debunked time and time again — yet I still hear people say things like “You need to be the alpha mare” or “That horse doesn’t respect you.”

Here’s the truth: horses don’t live in a rigid, army-style hierarchy with a “grand chief” at the top and everyone else ranked neatly below. Their social structure is fluid. Horse A might push Horse B off the hay pile, but Horse C can turn around and push Horse A away in another situation. It’s context-dependent, not a fixed rank.

So when humans claim we need to “show dominance,” it’s both inaccurate and harmful. It’s preposterous to think your horse would mistake you for another horse — let alone an “alpha mare.”

And the welfare risks are serious. Framing behaviours as “dominance” usually leads to blaming the horse and justifying the use of force: hitting, chasing, yanking, intimidating. That’s not training. That’s abuse dressed up as horsemanship.

👉 If a horse steps into your space, he’s not being dominant. He simply hasn’t learned to stand still. The answer isn’t to “dominate” him — it’s to train him, calmly and clearly, until he understands what’s being asked.

Science-backed training replaces myths with clarity. It takes away the blame and builds better relationships. Let’s leave dominance theory in the past where it belongs.

01/10/2025

Yes, none of this ‘bending to a stop’ malarkey 👌😄

🌟 10 Things I Won’t Teach or Tolerate — Rule #2 🌟
Spin Class Is Cancelled

One thing you’ll never see me teach is turning your horse in a circle to stop it.

Think about it: for centuries, horses carried us into battle, across continents, through hunts and competitions — and not once did anyone need to spin them in circles to stop. The whole idea of “disengaging the hind leg” by yanking a horse around is a modern invention, and honestly? It’s one of the worst habits I see riders pick up.

Here’s why:
👉 You can’t do it on a hillside, in a hunt field, or in a competition arena.
👉 It’s unsafe — horses often start linking spinning with fear, and some will even begin spinning on their own.
👉 You’re actually more likely to fall off in a circle than you are in a straight line.

Yes, I teach an emergency stop. But it does not involve spinning your horse around. If your horse can’t stop in a straight line, it’s not properly broken in. Period.

Keep the line. Keep the training clear. And please — stop the spin. 💯

30/09/2025

Aww, Little Brucey showing a great example of, ‘Park’, while I put out some poles 🐴😍

29/09/2025

Absolutely! Scratches all the way✊☺️✊

26/09/2025

Poor little Roo, this is what greets me most mornings thanks to naughty Bruce grabbing hold of his muzzle 😈. This is on a good day, sometimes he’s managed to pull it off completely so I have to go searching for it, which is not good as Rooster really needs to keep his muzzle on while the grass is going mental 😬.

While watching Bruce hanging off Rooster’s muzzle this morning, Connor pipes up, “Why don’t you just put a muzzle on Bruce?”. Doh! Why didn’t I think of that! 🤦‍♀️.

Funny how it takes the non-horsey person to state the obvious 🤣🤣. The fun and games might be over soon Brucey 😏