Garland Farm & Stables

10/03/2025

Who's looking to adopt a new friend this fall?!

10/03/2025

I feel like myself and a lot of other equestrians have a similar story. I was also only doing the best with what I knew... but I know better now and am always seeking to Learn more, and to be better, everyday. Are you?

“My pony is so grumpy” I would say, and then I would laugh. An animal I claimed to love was visibly showing me he was NOT okay and my response was to laugh.
I had been taught since my first ride at eight years old that my pony was ‘silly’, ‘dramatic’ and ‘cheeky’. All labels that were assigned to make me feel better about kicking and whipping him. “He’s being naughty” I was told. “You need to show him who’s boss.”
And it worked. I learned how to direct my pony around any number of obstacles with very few complaints from him and I was skilled with a crop. But he rarely looked happy.
He would greet me with a side eye and a begrudging acceptance of the halter. I would take photos of these sad faces and post them onto social media with captions about how silly he was to not want to ‘work’. As if he gained ANYTHING from our rides.
In truth, it took getting a second horse who was marginally less passive before the veil of fog began to lift.
Sheldon was a HORSE. He wasn’t my childhood pony. I had expectations of him being a competition horse, because he had the looks. I began working towards that goal.
My instructor once told me to ride him at a canter towards the arena wall to get him to switch canter leads. The stupid thing is, I did it. And of course it ‘worked’. Sheldon, just trying to escape the constant aversives (a bit, bridle, saddle and rider were all aversive in this context!) ran towards the wall on his canter lead of choice. He most likely chose that lead because he’d come from the racecourse. He had lots of muscles that had been built in specific and predictive ways, not for his overall balance and health, but so that he would run faster in the direction they needed him to. He chose which leg to lead with because it’s most likely how he felt the safest, the most balanced and capable of slugging his tack and rider around. And because merely changing direction and amateurly applying sloppy aversives didn’t signal he needed to change to his other lead, on which he may have felt unbalanced and unsafe.. We ended up running at a wall.
At the end of the lesson, with him a sweaty mess and the pair of us miserable, somehow, it still hadn’t clicked for me how ridiculous this was.
It took a few more years and a trip to England before I truly realised I had other options.
But I did stop riding as much, and rarely in the arena, after this run of lessons. It really struck me that he wasn’t being disobedient or malicious in any way. He was trying so hard to do whatever I asked, I was just asking in a very confusing way. But so was everyone around me, to varying levels of success.
Without a clear way forward I gave up on him being a show horse. Competing had lost it’s appeal anyway. I couldn’t bear to ride him into the ground while his heart was on his sleeve. His beautiful big eyes telling me every day that he didn’t like it.
All this, over a decade into my riding career, and I didn’t even know what an aversive was yet. You see, it’s called pressure and release to young, aspiring equestrians. And it’s the only way to achieve anything, they say.
So prevalent is the rich history of riding horses, that most accomplished equestrians, coaches and trainers don’t even understand the theory of learning.
What a world to enter as a young child who just wants to love their pony.

Written By Madi Holmes of the PPGA Equine Sub-Committee

09/26/2025

So many people still call horses “dominant.”
They’ll say a horse kicked, pinned their ears, or pushed into a person because they’re trying to “dominate.”

But that idea has been scientifically debunked, even by Dr. David Mech, the very researcher who first popularized dominance theory in wolves. He later admitted his early conclusions were wrong, and that wolves (and by extension other species) don’t live in rigid “alpha” hierarchies at all.

Studies on equine social behavior (McDonnell, 2003; van Dierendonck et al., 2009) show the same holds true for horses. They don’t organize themselves in strict pecking orders. Instead, they live in fluid, cooperative social groups where leadership shifts depending on context. Most interactions are ritualized, ear position, body orientation, subtle movements, rather than violent attacks.

When we label horses as “dominant,” we frame them as power-hungry or dangerous. That makes it easy to justify harsh handling, because if the horse is out to control us, then we need to “control them first.”

But here’s the reality:

• Horses are conflict-avoiding prey animals.

• Aggression is rare and usually linked to pain, fear, or poor resource management.

• The vast majority of the time, they choose peace.

If horses were truly trying to dominate humans, most of us wouldn’t survive a single day at the barn. Think about how often people lose their tempers, use excessive force, or ignore signs of distress. Horses tolerate an extraordinary amount, more than almost any other large domestic animal.

The truth about their temperament isn’t dominance. It’s tolerance, cooperation, and peace-seeking. And that deserves our recognition, not excuses for violence.

09/20/2025

I could watch my horses all day long and never tire of it 🥰🐴

Why Watching Herds Matters for Training

One of the best things you can do for your horsemanship has nothing to do with riding or training sessions at all.
It is simply watching horses interact with each other.

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🌱 What a healthy herd looks like:

In a balanced herd, communication is subtle and layered. You will see ear flicks, weight shifts, and breath releases. These signals often go unnoticed unless we take the time to watch. Horses also model how to set boundaries without escalation. They negotiate space respectfully, and when communication does rise, it usually happens gradually with many small cues first. Even then, the escalation tends to stay mild.

Horses also co-regulate with one another. Watching them manage tension and return to calm offers lessons we can carry into training, especially when pressure or excitement builds. And perhaps most importantly, a horse whose social needs are met within the herd carries that sense of security into human interactions. Meeting those needs first makes everything we do in training easier.

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What we learn from watching
By observing these interactions, we sharpen our ability to notice the smallest shifts in communication. We learn to see how horses set boundaries without force, how they give each other time to respond, and how they return to calm after tension. These lessons carry directly into training: noticing the try before the resistance, giving space for processing, and creating an environment where the horse feels safe to engage.

When we watch herds, we also see that the majority of interactions are quiet and cooperative. Corrections, when they do occur, are rare and short-lived. For us, the lesson is clear: harmony comes from subtle communication and trust, not from repetition of correction.

Sitting and watching our horses on a continuous basis also allows us to notice changes in behaviour that may not be obvious in day-to-day handling. A horse that withdraws, becomes more reactive, or alters their role in the herd may be showing us early signs of pain, stress, or discomfort. These are things we often miss when our only interactions are during training or care routines.

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⚠️ What an unhealthy herd looks like:

Not all herds provide the above model. When resources or social groupings are out of balance, we may see repeated chasing, frequent biting or kicking, or guarding of hay, water, or shelter. These are signs of conflict, not of health.

The mistake comes when people view this kind of conflict as normal horse behaviour and then use it to justify harsh or forceful training methods. In reality, conflict is usually a symptom of poor management, not a standard we should strive toward.

Research supports this. Long-term observations in equine social behaviour (McDonnell, 2003; Waring, 2003) indicate that stable herds rely heavily on subtle communication and rarely escalate to chronic aggression when resources are adequate. Studies have shown that frequent aggression more often reflects competition over limited resources than daily herd life (Boyd et al., 2016; Christensen et al., 2011). Observations of feral and semi-feral horses further suggest that true stability is marked by calm coexistence, not constant chasing or biting (van Dierendonck & Spruijt, 2012; Feh, 2005).

A horse or herd living in survival mode, constantly guarding resources or fighting for space, should never be the baseline for our training decisions.

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The takeaway:

By taking time to watch rather than do, we learn what relaxation, communication, and consent look like in horse language. Bringing those lessons into training means working with the horse, not against their nature.

Sometimes, the best classroom is the pasture.

09/15/2025

If you are looking for boarding this winter, hands down, this is where you want to be! I'm there once a week to work horse/s, and it is always a fun, very welcoming and professional vibe there! Love the people, horses and menagerie of other happy animals that reside there, and I love their indoor (helpful when I am missing my previous one lol).