Club Ned

20/07/2024

This picture was publicly shared various times in these last days. It's from a video that has been recorded during a big equestrian competition just happened in Sweden...And it's simply an example among many others, as there were other horses being ridden just like this, there was one with blood in the mouth and some with evident marks and wounds right from spurs. What's more, the lady who was filming all of this was forced by the police to leave the arena where the riders were warming up the horses before the jumping competition... Again I'm really lost in words to comment all of this 😑

19/07/2024

Top riders, top horses, Olympic competitions, champions, winners and so on. The best of the best. The examples for everyone to admire and be inspired from, the ones noone can criticize because they reached those high levels...Then it absolutely doesn't matter if horses even have blue tongues, as we all know them to be "loved happy athletes living the best of life and who just couldn't reach those levels if they didn't really enjoy their job...." Yes, so much sarcasm again, but I really cannot find a better way to comment such an endless shame 🤬

Picture source: Collectif Pour Les Chevaux

18/07/2024

This is not acceptable.
Why is this barbaric treatment acceptable to FEI?
Who runs the FEI?

POV: You’re minding your trade stall at a major FEI competition and you see someone riding in hyperflexion. You make sure you have documentation and you contact the FEI steward.

The rider is left alone and you are thrown out for “disturbing the peace” by police called by the head of security.

This is the FEI trying its hardest not to look like it openly allows animal abuse for human entertainment.

Video in article.

https://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/a/6336ee/jenny-larmade-om-blodande-hast-polis-tillkallades?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1XZPSgwhjRYfd6nhcYlc_hde7MApq01_6iHO7PfGiesmnYQT4CdK7uItc_aem_MdRN8DOnKlyim7-O6GEC-Q

17/07/2024

Debunking the dominance-leadership complex

14/07/2024

Sometimes in my practice I come across an owner who wants to normalize something that isn’t normal.

This sounds like:

❌ My horse works out of the stiffness/lameness after 15 minutes under saddle.
❌ He always crow hops after a bigger jump.
❌She throws her head around in the arena but not on the trail (or vise versa).
❌He always makes a face when I do the girth up.
❌It usually takes me 15 minutes to catch her and I need food to do it.
❌The left lead is always harder to get.
❌She’s always weaved in her stall.

These kinds of statements are usually followed by “that’s just the way he/she is.”

This is your horse speaking to you, over and over and over again. Please listen, before they have to get louder. Stop and think about what behaviors your horse demonstrates that maybe don’t seem totally right to you but you’ve just accepted them as “normal”.

This is a question very much worth asking of yourself, then your horse, then work with your trainer/horse care professionals to get to the bottom of it.

Answer the question as best you can, and you build a deeper, more solid partnership with your horse. Why? Because you listened. And then you did something about it. And your horse knows it.

14/07/2024

Myths about leadership, pecking orders and labels about dominance and alpha mares still persist in the horse world.

"We found no horse which could be qualified as the leader in the two groups of Przewalski horses, whatever the definition used to recognize leadership. No individual consistently moved first, elicited faster joining by group members than other first movers, or consistently travelled in front position."

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0126344&fbclid=IwAR13C5lVNAMyB8ueIhS48cqDUjh6PZk1P5PPcgweGoHfi03nhIWlGF2xrlc

14/07/2024

No horse should be punished (postive punishment or negative punishment) for feeling:

🌿 Scared
🌿 Stressed
🌿 Frustrated
🌿 Pain
🌿 Uncomfortable
🌿 Confused
🌿 Tense
🌿 Unsure
🌿 Conflicted
🌿 for giving a undesired behavior
🌿 For having negative associations with certain things (food, pressure, tack, grooming ect.)

07/07/2024

Reitsport
EDIT: Weil sich so viele hier beschwert haben, dass nicht das Originalbild verwendet wurde: Ich habe nicht die Rechte an dem Bild. Es ging mir außerdem NICHT um eine einzelne Reiterin, sondern einzig darum, dass derartige Zäumungen erlaubt sind und für derart normal gehalten werden. Wer sich dafür interessiert kann das Gesicht der Stute auf dem IG account von springreiter.de betrachten, ebenso wie die Zäumung des anderen Pferdes der Reiterin in Aachen, Limbridge. Mir wurden viele Nachrichten geschrieben, in denen Personen erklärten, das sei eine "ganz normale Zäumung und die sei nicht geeignet, einem Pferd Schmerzen zuzufügen". Das sehe ich anders.

Originalbeitrag:
Gestern wurde mir ein Foto geschickt, von zwei fröhliche dreinschauenden Damen - und einem Pferdekopf, an dem eine Zäumung verschnallt war, bei deren Anblick einen das blanke Entsetzen packte. Mich zumindest. Ein runder Nasenriemen, wie ihn die Spanier für ihre Serreta benutzen, mit einer Kette auf der Rückseite, die über die Unterkieferäste lief. An all dem ca. 20 cm lange Aufzüge, die also nicht nur auf das Nasenbein, sondern gleichzeitig über die Metallkette auf die extrem empfindlichen Unterkieferäste wirkten. Dass der Nasenrücken des Pferdes im Bereich des Nasenriemens (dieser war auf dem Bild höher verschnallt) vernarbt und frei von Fell war, war sicher reiner Zufall und bestimmt nur dem geschuldet, dass es sich um einen Fuchs handelte. Die sind ja "so empfindlich". Zusätzlich war das Pferd noch mit einem Gebiss versehen worden. Und unter diesem Bild stand: "Happy Faces in Aachen". (Die Reiterin reitet übrigens wirklich gut, was es noch unverständlicher macht...)
Zwei Dinge haben mich daran besonders betroffen gemacht: Die Tatsache, dass eine derartige Zäumung erlaubt ist. Und die absolute Unbekümmertheit. Als wäre es vollkommen normal, dass man dem Pferd so viel Schmerz zufügt wie eben nötig, um seine Ziele zu erreichen. Lächelnd neben einem derart gezäumten Pferd zu stehen, dem ach so geliebten Tier, dessen Zustand der begeistert auf das Herzchen klickende Follower auf der Blesse erahnen und in den Augen sehen könnte, so er denn hinsähe, sich dafür feiern zu lassen, auf diese Weise einen vorderen Platz bei einem Wettkampf erreicht zu haben, zeugt davon, wie absolut normal das empfunden wird. Und es zeugt von einer Distanz zum Pferd, bei der es mir kalt den Rücken hinunter läuft. Seit ich das gesehen habe, denke ich ununterbrochen an meine Freunde Brendan und Lyric und dass dies die einzige Art ist, wie ich mir noch Springreiten ansehen kann. Es kann so schön sein und eine echte Zusammenarbeit zwischen Freunden. Nicht das anhand von Schmerz Bedienen grell gemachter Springroboter. Das habe ich schon vor 5 Jahren in "Reitsport - Auf dem Rücken des Pferdes" geschrieben, aber ändern tut sich offenbar - nichts. ©Julie v. Bismarck

07/07/2024

Chifney, snaffle, and a lip chain all in this poor baby's mouth... And there appears to be bruising on the right bar. Notice how it's purplish/blue? It should be pink like the rest of the gum.

It's normal for bits to bruise the gum, and also cut the tongue and gum. Deep tissue damage and even bone damage is common from bit use. Bits are immensely cruel and are designed to cause pain to force horses to obey.

And this isn't even the most I've seen in a horse's mouth... I've seen horses with five to SIX things in their mouths all at once and even forced to race with that much s**t in their mouth.

This horse isn't wearing a tongue tie, but that might be put on soon. If he was a standardbred doing harness racing he would also have an overcheck bit.

This is a Japanese racehorse.

Meet our Horse Meat Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses Horse racing exposed HORSE REVOLUTION Horseracing Wrongs

22/06/2024

Horse trainer, clinician, equine author, public speaker and people trainer.

18/06/2024

17/06/2024

No caption needed, this photo says it all! 🥹🏆

📸: Tilly Berendt Media

12/06/2024

Just a Polo horse evidently enjoying his job so much...Come on, which horse wouldn't love having to crazily run back and forth in a field pressed among other horses and with strong bits yanking his mouth, while the human on his back frenetically tries to hit a ball with a long stick or whatever it is..: his enjoyment is all painted into his "happy willing athlete expression". Sorry for the sarcasm 😑

Picture source: Italian Horse Protection

05/06/2024

When a jumping horse refuses an obstacle, it is not uncommon for trainers to use the whip as the horse stands motionless in front of the obstacle after its refusal. Punishment at that point is non-contingent and, therefore, devoid of any useful training effect.

In some cases, the refusing horse is punished and then turned away for another presentation. When horses do attempt an obstacle after a random act of punishment, it is likely that increased anxiety levels make the horse run and, if the obstacle is in its path, it may well jump over it.

At best, this is a haphazard training exercise, destined to have low, if any, efficiency. At worst, it simply trains the horse to default to a flight response in the presence of jumps.

The need for caution regarding punishment underscores the importance of teaching horse-riding coaches the fundamentals of learning theory.

- An excerpt from Equitation Science Volume 2 by Andrew McLean, Paul McGreevy, Janne Whinther Christensen & Uta König von Borstel

05/06/2024

Pat them. Pat them pat them pat them. If your horse even thinks about thinking about how to think about the thing you want him to think about, PAT HIM. Praise every right thing, all of the time.

DO NOT ‘make the right thing easy and make the wrong thing hard’.

JUST MAKE THE RIGHT THING EASY, and forget about any botched efforts or wrong answers. Don’t take it personally if the horse doesn’t get it right first time. He doesn’t speak your language. He doesn’t understand your ambitions. He doesn’t understand conflict through the lens of human interpretation. He just knows how to horse, yet he is willing to learn, adapt and change for YOU. Make sure you do the same for HIM.

Horses are the only animal on the planet willing to try for us and to give us everything they have, for absolutely no return for themselves whatsoever.

If you do not foster the horse’s desire to try, you will lose this most precious gift.

03/06/2024

Exactly...that's not loving horses at all, that's only loving the sport you can use them for. And there's a world of difference...

Picture credit: progressiveequinepartnership.com

03/06/2024

01/06/2024

And there is a fantastic Equine equivalent- Equi-Knewe.

31/05/2024

How can anyone be ever happy about this? OK, maybe a winning rosette or whatever, but what about the horse who is supposed to be proudly showing it? What about his resigned sad eyes? How can the rider be there happily celebrating his/her result, with it being the cause of suffering for his/her "loved equine partner"? Do we maybe want to speak again about horses, this horse too, being willing athletes so happy and proud about their job? To me the simple point is that no sporting result should ever justify the exploitation and suffering of another sentient being, especially if we say to love him/her: we can hide or deny it in so many different ways, but this will always remain an unquestionable truth.

31/05/2024

That's so absolutely true and that's why there are many people, in the equestrian world too, who simply will never understand the real truth about horses or they will just never want or care to do it. So we can only keep being ourselves the change we'd like to see, leading by example the ones who are truly ready and willing to follow ❣️

Picture source unknown

31/05/2024

Have you seen our equestrian posters on roads across Carmarthenshire? 🐎🚗

Passing horses wide and slow can prevent the death of drivers, riders, and horses.

Let's all share the road safely!

31/05/2024

Whats the purpose of a flash? To keep a horses mouth shut. Why is the horse opening its mouth? Most commonly, evasion of pressure.

Address the cause of the behaviour, not the behaviour itself because it really is counter productive and just causes even more discomfort that there is no escape from.

Why should you say no to a flash and a tight noseband? 👇 do you see that soft bone with no support? That's why. Now imagine a dropped noseband on that. 🫣

Pic screenshot from Henlea Equine Wellness

28/05/2024

In honour of mother's day here are 6 facts about motherhood and childhood for mares and foals.

1. Without human intervention 6months foals suckles from 8 to 10 times a day. Yet in the equestrian industry most foals are forcefully separated from their mothers around the age of 6months.

2. Without human intervention, horses wean their offspring at a much later age and very gradually.

3. Mother and foal bond persist up to 3years and remain strong even after the birth of the next foal. A close association is also formed between the yearling and the new foal.

4. Parental aggression towards young foals (either from stallion or mare) is abnormal and can be the result of lack of socialisation or stress. Both mares and stallions are very tolerant of their foals and yearlings; stallions can tolerate close observation and even sexual interaction from their foals/yearlings during mating. Stallions even have been observed waiting for foals to finish sexual sequences with the mare before breeding.

5. Foals use their mother as a safety base from which to explore the world. As they grow older and more confident, foals venture further away from their mother for longer period of time. First week old foals spend 94% of their time within 5m from their mothers and 8 months old foals spend 20% of their time within 5m from their mothers. (Tyler, 1972)

6. Early and abrupt weaning put the foal more at risk of developing stereotypies. A study conducted on 225 young thoroughbreds found that 35% of them developed stereotypies following weaning. (Water et al, 2002)

If you are a mother or/and an animal lover please share to raise awareness against early and abrupt weaning of foals. Not only this practice is cruel and unnecessary but also counter productive to raising healthy, well-balanced animals.

For more info on humane, science based horse training visits: www.fairhorsemanship.com

For videos and posts on foals, mares and stallions management visit the Meadow Family Rescue & Rehab

Other sources for this post:
NAC equine behaviour qualification course stage 1.
Broom & Fraser, 2015. Domestic Animal Behaviour, 5th edition.
McDonnell, 2003. The Equid Ethogram: A Practical Field Guide to Horse Behavior.