MV Equestrian Ocala, LLC

06/28/2025

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06/28/2025

HEAVY ON #7!!!

Things your riding instructor wants you to know:
1. This sport is hard. You don't get to bypass the hard…..every good rider has gone through it. You make progress, then you don't, and then you make progress again. Your riding instructor can coach you through it, but they cannot make it easy.

2. You're going to ride horses you don't want to ride. If you're teachable, you will learn from every horse you ride. Each horse in the barn can teach you if you let them. IF YOU LET THEM. Which leads me to…

3. You MUST be teachable to succeed in this sport. You must be teachable to succeed at anything, but that is another conversation. Being teachable often means going back to basics time and time and time again. If you find basics boring, then your not looking at them as an opportunity to learn. Which brings me to…..

4. This sport is a COMMITMENT. Read that, then read it again. Every sport is a commitment, but in this sport your teammate weighs 1200 lbs and speaks a different language. Good riders don't get good by riding every once in awhile….they improve because they make riding a priority and give themsevles opportunity to practice.

5. EVERY RIDE IS AN OPPORTUNITY. Even the walk ones. Even the hard ones. Every. Single. Ride. Remember when you just wished someone would lead you around on a horse? Find the happiness in just being able to RIDE. If you make every ride about what your AREN'T doing, you take the fun out of the experience for yourself, your horse, and your instructor. Just enjoy the process. Which brings me to...

6. Riding should be fun. It is work. and work isn't always fun.....but if you (or your rider) are consistently choosing other activities or find yourself not looking forward to lessons, it's time to take a break. The horses already know you don't want to be here, and you set yourself up for failure if you are already dreading the lesson before you get here.

7. You'll learn more about horses from the ground than you ever will while riding. That's why ground lessons are important, too. If you're skipping ground lessons (or the part of your lesson that takes place on the ground), you're missing out on the most important parts of the lesson. You spend far more time on the ground with horses than you do in the saddle.

8. Ask questions and communicate. If you're wondering why your coach is having you ride a particular horse or do an exercise, ask them. Then listen to their answer and refer to #3 above.

9. We are human beings. We make decisions (some of them life and death ones) every day. We balance learning for students with workloads for horses and carry the bulk of this business on our shoulders. A little courtesy goes a long way.

Of all the sports your child will try through their school years, riding is one of 3 that they may continue regularly as adults (golf and skiing are the others). People who coach riding spend the better part of their free time and much of their disposable income trying to improve their own riding and caring for the horses who help teach your child. They love this sport and teaching others…..but they all have their limits. Not all good riders are good coaches, but all good coaches will tell you that the process to get good is not an easy one.

📝 Kimberley Reynolds

📸 Max & Maxwell: Equestrian Photography

06/27/2025

💧 𝗔𝗧𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗧𝗔 1996: 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗨𝗠𝗠𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗘𝗗 𝗘𝗤𝗨𝗜𝗡𝗘 𝗦𝗖𝗜𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝘆, 30 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝗻, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗞 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝘂𝗽.

In preparation for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics the equestrian world was braced for a serious welfare threat for horses in addition to its altitude:
🌡️ 34°C heat
💦 60%+ humidity

Thanks to the groundbreaking work of Dr David Marlin the Games went ahead safely. His research revolutionised our understanding of equine thermoregulation - horses cool by the latent heat of evaporation. Sweat scrapers should have become a relic of the past.

💡 The science was clear:
• Soak with water
• Leave it on
• Let airflow do the work

𝗡𝗼 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴. 𝗡𝗼 𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗿𝘂𝗴𝘀. 𝗝𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿, 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗱𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗲𝘇𝗲.

Now, 30 years on, the UK is facing the same conditions. This week:
🌡️ Temperatures of 30–32°C
💦 Humidity exceeding 50%—pushing heat stress thresholds

Atlanta 1996 isn’t a historical case study. It’s modern climate reality.

And yet, incredibly—some veterinary practices are still promoting sponging and scraping. If they haven’t updated their advice in 30 years

It’s 2025. The climate has changed, but the science still stands. It’s time the advice caught up.

06/22/2025

06/22/2025

06/19/2025

The dream works when you do.

06/19/2025

I’ve done a lot of cruel things to horses in the past that I deeply regret.

It wasn’t out of malice, it was because it was what I was taught to do from the time I was a child.

However, my emotional regulation was poor and I often took out my frustration on horses and would justify harsh corrections by saying the horse was “being naughty” and “can’t get anyway with that.”

It led to a lack of self reflection because I could conveniently blame the horse for disrespecting me or claim that they knew better and were doing it on purpose.

I hit horses when they were bad. I was taught to knee horses in the gut if they bloated while girthing. I’ve punished horses for reactions that were out of pain or fear.

Because I viewed the unwanted behaviour as a bad thing that needed to be eradicated immediately rather than the symptom of the horse’s emotional state.

Dominance in horse training is very common.

Equestrians are often told things like “you need to be the herd leader” and “you have to show him who’s boss or he’ll walk all over you.”

All sorts of training gadgets, supplements, bits and equipment are also sold as solutions to problems.

People are often encouraged to ride through problem behaviours no matter what.

This focus on viewing unwanted behaviours as the horse trying to disrespect you turns the horse into your adversary when they aren’t being obedient.

Respect is then viewed as synonymous with obedient.

The horse doesn’t get to communicate as a partner when this is the case.

Horses get “loud” in their behaviour for a number of reasons.

Oftentimes, those reasons involve unmet needs and/or the handler missing earlier signs of stress.

Then, when stress builds to a boiling point, the horse reacts and this is viewed as unacceptable and punished accordingly.

I pushed horses into states of high stress for years and then punished them when they acted out.

I expected horses to be predictable and obedient even when I wasn’t meeting their needs.

I kept my first horse stalled for the majority of the time and then became frustrated when he would bolt with me under saddle and spook at everything.

It was due to a lack of knowledge and a lack of emotional control on my part.

And for years, I resisted the information that exposed the gaps in my understanding of horses because it felt threatening and I had a lot of deep seated guilt and shame.

But then, little by little, my perspective changed.

Once I knew better, I started to do better.

Making mistakes with horses doesn’t mean you’re doomed to repeat them forever.

People can and do change.

We don’t have to let guilt and shame overwhelm us to the point where we defend our behaviour and refuse to change out of fear of being vulnerable.

A lot of the people advocating for horse welfare the loudest right now are doing so because they’ve made a lot of the same mistakes.

You aren’t doomed to be a terrible person because you’ve been unkind to your horse.

What matters the most is how you self reflect and make adjustments once you do know better.

This is why I would love to see the industry adapt to be more horse welfare focused and normalize more education on horse behaviour and operant conditioning.

Most people don’t start out in horse sports wanting to harm horses.

Everyone is capable of changing and adapting.

Modernizing the horse world with an evidence informed perspective on horse welfare and training will benefit the horses AND people.

I am incredibly grateful for the people who relentlessly shared information that helped lead to me recognizing how I had gone wrong.

While I denied it initially, fought with them and commented in the same ways as many do in my comments sections now, their words planted seeds.

Seeds that matured into a major paradigm shift.

So, if fear of being labelled as a bad person is holding you back from being honest with yourself about toxic behaviour patterns, don’t let it.

The commitment to doing better by your horses is a noble journey and making that choice speaks for your love of horses.

Growth is sometimes messy and no one is born perfect.

I don’t advocate for welfare because I’ve always been this way.

I advocate for it because I have been on the other side and I wish I had learned earlier.

Top photo is me on my Arabian gelding at ~ age 15 (2011)

Bottom is Milo and me in 2024.