
07/04/2025
You can't fix a management problem with a horsemanship solution.
Very often, part of what I end up counseling owners on falls into the category of horse husbandry. We discuss supplements, forage choice, turnout, herd dynamics and feed schedules. It's not all that infrequent that we get into the weeds a little bit about some of these things - not because there isn't plenty that might need tending toward from the horsemanship side but because training cannot overcome basic management issues.
I'm alright dying on this hill - 25+ years with horses has taught me that it is incredibly rare that a horse doesn't benefit from more turnout, friends and forage. I say "incredibly rare": I haven't come across a case yet.
This, by the way, doesn't mean indiscriminate turnout, friends and forage. We can put horses under tremendous stress by putting conflicting personalities in too small a space. We can create situations where resource guarding develops. We can cause horses to develop dangerous metabolic conditions and obesity. We can - despite our best intentions - manifest more problems than we're solving if we're not thoughtful and attentive to how we implement management solutions.
So when someone comes to me with a "training issue", one of the first things I'm checking on is how the horse is living.
How close I can keep a horse to how biology intended him to live is somewhat of an preoccupation of mine. I figure there are worse things to be come obsessed with. It's not always easy to get the formula right for each individual horse, but it is always - in my mind, at least - a worthy pursuit.