Journey Horse

12/18/2025

12/06/2025

Today's comes from D Jayne Stewart, thank you so much! ❤🐴❤

"I think it was in 1981 that Practical Horseman or maybe Equus Magazine published the first article about Linda Tellington-Jones. I read it and a friend of mine tried it on a group of long yearlings, Standardbreds that were to be used to teach a high school vocational class on the Standardbred racing industry. Her opinion was that the things she used from the article made the transition for the horses easier and that they were calmer and safer when the first students arrived.

Philosophically I understood………………. horses behavior is their language and punishment or rough treatment could not reach them in a meaningful way, at least not in a way that I wanted to behave and treat horses. So my way of seeing horses changed and through the years I bought and read the books, watched the videos and had some good results, without really experiencing the full potential of what could be accomplished or changed by TTEAM and how to consistently put it to use.

Then in 1995, I had my first opportunity to meet Linda and see her do the work. There is nothing like seeing something in person, unscripted. Linda was doing a 1 day demonstration for a local charity in Santa Fe, NM. There were close to 50 people who came to see Linda that day. The barn had mostly Quarter Horse types. The horse they chose for Linda that day was an Arabian mare that was considered by the staff to be neurotic and impossible to fix. The staff actually spent most of the day leaning against a wall in the indoor arena arms crossed and sure that nothing could make a difference with this horse.

The audience in the bleachers was spellbound watching Linda and her assistants handle this beautiful snow white mare. I was watching as a professional trainer with years of experience handling and showing Arabian horses. What I saw in this horse was every man made problem I had ever encountered working with Arabians and had long wished for a magic wand to have the insight and tools to change.

Throughout the day Linda took frequent breaks but most of the day was spent on/with this one horse. Linda began with a body exploration then explained and demonstrated several of the ttouches and included doing ear work, mouth work, tail work, leg exercises. After a break they began leading the mare through the ground exercises.

The farm staff had had a complaint about this horse’s behavior tacking up and when she was to be mounted. So the last thing Linda did with this mare was to tack her up and prepare to ride her. The staff was actually concerned that Linda would not be safe to try this. Well it all worked out and at the end of the day I knew my life had been changed in what I saw …….. all the possibilities of being able to help so many more horses achieve their full potential through this work.
As we left that day the staff offered the mare for sale to the audience for a nominal amount of money. I left not knowing her future.

Back home I reread everything on TTEAM and tried experimenting with a new sense of purpose and a year later attended my first week long training. I continued with the trainings and I became an equine practitioner in 1997.

In 2001 I became the coach for a newly formed drill team that was rapidly growing. There were so many new people and horses I had never met. Names to remember and I was busy keeping track of 15+ people and horses hoping to keep them pointing in the right direction. I think it was our third time together when I noticed an angelic white Arabian mare proudly carrying her Adult Amateur rider. Yes the same mare I had seen Linda work with 6 years before. Here she was a solid steady member of our drill team when she wasn’t strolling quietly on the local trails with her person. I told her person the story from that day at the demonstration and how it was that this horse helped change my life…… and how wonderful for me to be able to thank this horse in person and continue to delight in seeing her participate every time the drill team met."

12/05/2025

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11/28/2025

Blanketing is not just about adding warmth. Horses heat themselves very differently than we do and understanding that helps us support them instead of accidentally making them colder.

Horses heat themselves from the inside out. Their digestive system ferments fibre all day which creates steady internal heat. Their winter coat traps this heat when the hair can lift and fluff, a process called piloerection. This creates a layer of warm air close to the skin and acts as the horse’s main insulation system.

A thin blanket can interrupt this system. It presses the coat flat which removes the natural insulation. If the blanket does not provide enough fill to replace what was lost the horse can become COLDER in a light layer than with no blanket at all.

Healthy horses are also built to stay dry where it matters. The outer coat can look wet while the skin stays warm and dry. That dry base is the insulation. When we put a blanket on and flatten the coat, the fill must replace that lost insulation.

Problems begin when moisture reaches the skin. Wetness at the base of the coat flattens the hair and stops the coat from trapping heat. This can happen in freezing rain, heavy wet snow, or when a horse sweats under an inappropriate blanket.

Checking the base of the coat tells you far more than looking at the surface. Slide your fingers down to the skin behind the shoulder and along the ribs. Dry and warm means the horse is coping well. Cool or damp means the horse has lost insulation and needs support.

Horses also show clear body language when they are cold. Look for tension through the neck, shorter and stiffer movement, standing tightly tucked, avoiding resting a hind leg, clustering in sheltered areas, a hunched topline, withdrawn social behaviour, and increased hay intake paired with tension. Shivering is a clear sign but it appears later in the discomfort curve.

Ears can give extra information but they are not reliable on their own. Cold ears with a relaxed body are normal, but cold ears paired with tension, stillness, or a cool or damp base of the coat can suggest the horse is losing heat. Always look at the whole picture instead of using one single check.

If you choose to blanket, pick a fill that REPLACES what you are removing. Sheets and very light layers often make horses colder in winter weather. A blanket that compresses the coat needs enough fill to replace the trapped warm air the coat would have created on its own.

Blanketing is a tool, not a default. Healthy adult horses with full winter coats often regulate extremely well on their own as long as they are dry, sheltered from strong wind, and have consistent access to forage. Horses who are clipped, older, thin, recovering, or living in harsh wind and wet conditions will likely need more support and blanketing. The individual horse always matters.

It would be easier if a single number worked for every horse. But in my own herd I have horses who stay comfortable naked in minus thirty and others who need three hundred and fifty grams (+) in that same weather. That range is normal. It is exactly why no one chart can ever work for every horse, and why watching the individual horse will always be more accurate than any temperature guide.

Thermoregulation is individual. Charts cannot tell you what your horse needs. Your horse can. Watch the body, check the skin, and blanket the individual in front of you.

11/24/2025

DID YOU KNOW…?

1. Long toes increase the risk of suspensory ligament injury by 3.5 times!🤯
2. Toe grabs increase the risk of suspensory ligament injury by almost 16 times!😳

Talk to us about how to help your horse stay injury free!

11/23/2025

Reiner Klimke told us: “The rider who is sitting a little bit forward, who doesn’t make himself heavy, is what I like. When I ride, I always try to not make myself heavy and bring the horse down, but to go with the movement and keep light."
https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2021/07/wisdom-from-reiner-klimke/

11/17/2025

11/16/2025

yes

I have this really vivid memory of a time I was working with a trainer and a very anxious mustang. I had little self confidence in those days. I put my stock mostly in other people’s opinions, and in lessons, spent more of my energy trying to satisfy the teacher than I did connecting with the horse. This, of course, is all obvious in hindsight, but at the time I only felt an unnamable discomfort.

This mustang held her breath almost all of the time, and would bolt if I so much as sneezed. She was on guard and extremely flighty. My lesson was in the round pen, and I had been working on getting her to allow me to touch her. In retrospect, of course, the approach was all wrong - what scared creature benefits from having “the wrong thing made hard” repeatedly, the wrong thing being self preservation? She was forced between a rock and a hard place- protect herself and run, or shut down and freeze in place. The lesson was not going well, though I followed all the instructions I was given.

At one point after she allowed me to touch, I gave her a break. She started bobbing her head up and down, and shaking her head. At the time, I’d never seen these calming signals and did not know what they meant. She then began to paw, shake her head, and lick and chew repeatedly.

“Get after her!” My teacher yelled. I was perplexed. I had been pulled into observing her with such curiosity that I’d forgotten about my teacher.
“Get after her!” He yelled again. I was genuinely surprised so much so that I could not react. For the first time, I asked why.
“Why?”
“Get after her! Don’t just sit there and let her disrespect you! Pawing is disrespect!”
My eyes were opening to her expression, it’s meaning, feelings stirring inside me that could not be ignored. The mare had no one to defend her at that moment but me. The concern for my teachers opinion was completely overridden for the first time in my life by something else, a stirring sense of injustice, anger, the real me deep inside begging to come out. We don’t just follow instructions blindly like some fool, the real me said. We ask why! We listen to the truth.
“Why?” I said again, louder.
This time, my teacher got up from his seat by the round pen and stormed off, leaving me and the mare in the round pen alone. For the first time, she let out a sneeze, and after that, I was never the same.