ML Horsemanship

10/01/2024

I hope the cold snap isn't disrupting any training plans!!! Now is the time to be preparing your horse both physically and mentally for the spring, which will be here quicker than you think!!

05/01/2024

Very excited to be able to offer some deals for January and to help everyone kick start the new year with their unicorns 🥳

Please drop the page a message for more info

05/01/2024

I'm very excited to announce this day clinic, it's quite an ambitious one. It's a condensed version of my foundational horsemanship program l, taking horses from riding specific groundwork up to foundational riding exercises. Touching on subjects such as social engagement, a different approach to teaching pressure and release, building a language for relaxation and conditioning, and of course enjoying your horse!!!!!
Get a head start on building the relationship you want with your horse and the communication to enjoy your summer 2024!!

04/01/2024

Looking forward to a great 2024!!! I'm very happy to announce we are able to take on some new 1 to 1 clients this year and more excited to announce some upcoming clinics. If you're unsure if horsemanship or ML horsemanship is for you, why not get in touch and have a chat!!??

04/01/2024

Looking forward to a great 2024!!! Very happy to announce we are able to take on some new 1 to 1 clients this year and more excited to announce some up coming clinics.
If your unsure if horsemanship or ML Horsemanship is for you why not get in touch and have a chat!!!

27/12/2023

Got some horsey new year resolutions? We would love to hear about them 🥳

Below are our 2 most popular services, both aiming to help owners help their horses feel their best, no matter what level of work they are in.

We especially love the distant assessments. They are a more cost effective option that can be done from the comfort of your sofa! Why not drop us a message to find out more about it?

We have a few spaces left in January for treatments in Kent, Surrey and Sussex, with multiple discounts for multiple horses seen on the same yard. Drop us a message to find out more

12/09/2023

Going to be a great ride, great going and well worth going to!!!

A new fun ride, open to all and ridden at your own pace, across the beautiful Hole Park Estate, near Rolvenden in Kent, by kind permission of the Barham family. See Hole Park. Following estate tracks and mown routes through fields, all on private land with no road work. No gates to open, and only tw...

27/07/2023

Super excited for the opportunities this is going to provide and to be able to support the horses more effectively at events in the coming years. Thank you to everyone who has helped and supported me towards this 😍🎉🎉

09/06/2023

New horse problems 🐴

Why do so many people seem to have problems with new horses? You get them home and suddenly they are not the horse you tried and everyone scoffs as the seller swears “he’s never done that before!”. Now I am not discounting the fact that many unscrupulous people are out there lying to make a sale and selling horses they know have issues, but that is not always the case.

No matter how seasoned a horse is, no horse is unaffected by changes in their life. We are taking a very social, prey animal away from their equine friends, the humans they know and the environment they likely felt safe in, to a completely strange place with strange horses and strange people. Add in new tack, a different routine, different forage etc. How could that not be incredibly stressful? 🤯

To move a horse like this then expect them to be as relaxed and trainable as they were in their old home without putting any time and effort into building a relationship with them and giving them time to settle in is just asking for trouble. A huge part of the problem is the lack of education around equine behaviour and what it actually means, people cannot seem to read a stressed horse that’s about to lose it. 🐎

Someone I know recently sold a lovely, quiet, 4yo mare backed and riding away. She had lived in the same home for years, the buyers tried her twice and liked her. Off she went to her new home and within a week they sent her back because she had bucked them off as soon as they tried to get on. Upon watching the video you can see the horse is really stressed and unhappy before they even approach the mounting block, but they proceeded anyway because she was fine when they tried her. We have got to learn to read the horse that is right in front of us. So many of these accidents would never happen and we wouldn’t be going around giving horses bad experiences and labelling them as dangerous.

I often go out to people who are having similar issues, horses seemingly having had a personality transplant from when they tried them, and having everyone around them tell them the horse is just taking the mick out of them. On further investigation they’ve often gone from living in a settled herd turned out 24/7 to being stabled and on individual turnout, or from being ridden by professionals 5 times a week to being ridden solely by a nervous/novice rider with no help. And we expect them to behave the same? Another huge factor is stomach ulcers can flare up hugely with stress and travelling to a new home might just be that tipping point.

I will do a separate post on buying a new horse because the amount of clients I go out to who have bought a horse who is showing pretty obvious pain issues, despite passing a 5 stage vetting, is concerning. We are so used to seeing horses in pain that we don’t recognise it. 😕

This post isn’t to shame anyone at all, I just desperately want there to be more education out there about horse behaviour and what horses actually need, not what we want them to be. There is so much misinformation out there it feels impossible at times, especially when we’re being told it by experienced professionals.

Horses are sentient beings, we expect them to cope with so much and we really need to start appreciating how much of a huge stress it is to move to a completely new environment. Give them suitable management, time, patience and have suitable help on the ground from someone who understands behavioural science and isn’t going to set you up to fail. 🐴

www.lshorsemanship.co.uk

23/02/2023

18/12/2022

New horse in for training!!! So exciting, every horse teaches you something new and helps you to the next level....
And it's always great to be part of a horses and their persons journey 😁👍😁

13/12/2022

Playing I the snow, not sure this is the way to start a horse driving but Tivo seemed to enjoy himself 😁👍😁

07/09/2022

30/08/2022

Julie says we are putting our ducks in a row, I don’t know why we need ducks the last one I saw looked very stupid flapping around on Bewl Water trying to fly. Jess came to visit today, she doesn’t look anything like a duck to me. Jess poked and prodded me, I liked some of what she did and some I definitely didn’t so I tried to bite Julie which wasn’t a good idea, it never is. If you’d like to know more about Jess here’s her company, we really like her and I feel much better after her poking and prodding https://www.brightequinetherapy.co.uk/

28/08/2022

22/08/2022

Great fun helping these two through the water, lovely horse 🐎 😀

12/08/2022

Altivo having a bridleless play at the end of a schooling session 😁👍

17/07/2022