Luv of a Horse Equine Rescue, Rehabilitation And Training.

25/01/2022

19/01/2022

Author's note: this is not my best piece of writing. It's a bit of a mess and a muddle. I'm giving it to you anyway, because it came from a place of deep emotion and I think there may be something, somewhere, in the muddle, which is important. Important to me, anyway.

Here it is:

I see quite a lot of horse videos. They pop up on my timeline because the algorithm elves have worked out that I’m interested in horses, and some of them start playing when I have not even chosen them.

One of those happened this morning. It was clearly supposed to be funny and adorable. The thousands of people who commented on it thought it was funny and adorable. I stared in deep melancholy because I don’t think watching ponies bucking and pulling and shaking their heads is funny at all.

The commenters, however, had many other words. The whole sight wasn’t just hilarious and heart-warming, but the pony was ‘naughty’ and ‘stroppy’ and ‘cantankerous’ and ‘cheeky’ and ‘the work of the devil’ and ‘silly’ and a ‘sh****ad’ and a ‘monster’.

I don’t normally write this stuff. I want to stay with the positive. I want to tell you of the red mare and the Place of Peace and how Florence is growing in confidence and poise. I want the stories to be filled with hope and love.

But sometimes, something will push me over the top.

It’s not this particular pony. The humans in the case appear to be utterly lovely. They are of the traditional ride through it school in which I grew up. (I am itching to leave a comment about Warwick Schiller and the transformative nature of groundwork and how horses are always, always telling you something, but I don’t want to be the party pooper, because every single other person is having such a good time.)

What I find incredibly upsetting is the words used by the hundreds and hundreds of commenters, all in a spirit of tremendous joshing and jolliness, as if it is properly amusing to accuse small ponies of satanic intention.

Imagine you had to live or work with a human whom you described as stroppy and cantankerous and a sh****ad and a monster and the work of the devil. How would you feel about that person? How would you act towards that person? Would you stop for a single second to wonder what happened to that person, to make them this way?

I’m going to say something which should not be controversial, but which is.

I don’t think any pony is naughty.

There. I’ve said it. I shall now be sent to BHS Coventry and accused of A. Never having met a pony, and B. Having no sense of humour.

I admit that Florence does have a little streak of the mischievous in her, and I think many horses have that - you definitely get the spirited ones and the antic ones and the ones with strong opinions - but I would never, not if you tied me to a tree and threatened me with slugs, say that a single thing Flo did was naughty.

And that’s not because I am a po-faced pedant, but because that statement would not be true. And I love truth.

Horses and ponies are not naughty. When they do the things that their humans would rather they didn’t do, this is either because the human has unwittingly taught them to do those things, or because the horse is desperately trying to communicate that her needs are not being met.

The red mare reared so wildly in the early days that I’m not sure how I’m still in one piece. She wasn’t being naughty, or stroppy, or nappy, or devilish. She was trying to tell me that I was not the person she required. I didn’t know how to listen, in those days, so I kicked on. She then added the operatic head-shaking to her repertoire, so that I thought she had a brain disease.

Now, she teaches small children to ride. If I had fallen back on cheap adjectives, that would never have happened.

This is what bothers me. It’s not just that there are unhappy or confused or misunderstood horses and ponies out there, with increasing amounts of complicated tack - it’s that people seem to think this is perfectly fine. It is the subject of insults and comedy videos. Ha, ha, ha, ha, you little s**t.

How can a pony or a horse ever, in a million years, be a little s**t? They don’t have the prefrontal cortex to do the plotting and planning required of s**ts. It would be like saying that a penguin is doing physics. It makes no sense whatsoever.

It’s also totally non-useful. If you understand that horses are prey animals and flight animals and that everything in them is geared to survival and that bad things can happen if they get stuck in the sympathetic nervous system, then you’ve got a hundred lovely options in front of you.

You can find the root of the problem, and fix it. You may have to change yourself, which is hopeful and liberating. You have the satisfaction of watching your horse grow in confidence and ease.

If you throw labels around, you just get cross and sad and so does your horse.

I heard someone say the other day that a good way of going through life is to think that everything is your fault. I bridled a little at this. It sounded very gloomy and nihilistic and inaccurate to me. Obviously, if your house falls down in the night because it was constructed by drunken builders, that is not your fault. That person, I thought, sniffily, is talking nonsense.

But then I listened a little more and I caught the scent of something interesting. The idea is to wean yourself off the habit of blame - it was the fates or the government or my s**tty childhood. It wasn’t me; it was those people over there.

To say ‘it’s my fault’ is not a form of self-loathing, but a retrieval of power. If you blame other people and other things, especially those beyond your control, then you have no agency at all. You are a straw in the wind. It’s a horrible way to live.

I have long said that everything which goes wrong with my horses, without exception, is my fault. That is truly liberating, because it means I can fix the mistake. I don’t lash myself for the fault, because I am human and I make errors. I have flaws. There are many things I would like to get better at.

But I do, very firmly, make sure I know where responsibility lies. It is never with the mares. The bad thing did not happen because they are difficult or devilish, it happened because I got something wrong. The lovely thing about that is that I can go back and get something right.

I didn’t think about applying this fault theory to my human life, but I may give it a go. I’m going to adapt it a bit, because I think it might need a tweak, but I like the feel of it. Responsibility is a lovely, grown-up word, and I need to be a grown-up just now, because I’ve got some admin to do, and I am almost tipping into the mistake of blaming bureaucrats for my own lack of organisational skills. (Why the hell do they need TWO forms of photographic ID?)

I don’t know how I got from a bucking pony to applying for a new passport, but I felt so sad after that video that I need to ramble and roam. I feel calmer and better now. I shall go down to the red mare and listen to her and feel her peace steal into me.

I probably should not publish this, because it is a tremendous muddle, but I don’t think I’ve had this rant before and I am curious to know what your feelings are. I love your perspective always, and I need it now.

07/01/2022

Good morning fine people and horse lovers. Last night there was a freak accident involving one of the horses and a trailer.
I am reaching out for help. I am asking for donations to help cover the cost of continued vet care, medications and supplies. The below injury will be a months long process to heal.

Venmo =
PayPal = [email protected]

Every donation, no matter how small helps immensely!

01/12/2021

🎉🎊ADOPTED!! 🎊🎉”Winter” is a grade paint mare. She was a kill pen rescue. She is a super easy keeper. Good for the farrier, loads and trailers well. Will stand tied all day. Easy to saddle and bridle and has had some ground work done. I have sat on her ba****ck and led my son on walks on her. She ponies from another horse as well. Has good feet always barefoot. She would make an excellent lead line/ childrens therapy/lesson horse with more training. Has potential for in hand obstacles classes as well. Is not spooky, no buck, kick, bite or rearing. Has been sitting for awhile.
Is a boss mare, and will chase dogs. Is food aggressive with other horses ( was starved) approx 14.2 hands and 8-10 years old. Current on vax and worming.
Located in Spring Creek NV

02/10/2021

An important thing to study and learn.

https://www.habitatforhorses.org/the-henneke-body-condition-scoring-system/

Don Henneke, PhD, developed the Henneke Body Condition Scoring System during his graduate study at Texas A & M University . It is based on both visual appraisal and palpable fat cover of the six major points of the horse that are most responsive to...

19/09/2021

These pretty babies are coming here for rehab and to figure out what people are. Rounded up off the Res Mustangs.
They will need lots of feed, wormer and vaccines as soon as I can get halters on them.
A big bale of hay is $170 and should last them about a month.
Help is appreciated! You can help by sending funds to $luvofahorse on cash app
Or directly to my hay dealer on Venmo -Knight -1107.

And for other needs https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/77134734AXJ5?ref_=wl_share

Stay tuned for updates!

16/09/2021

Trying to bail this sweet baby out! Res Mustang on Fallon NV feedlot. Bail is $700!
2 year old gelding. Deadline is the 19th

27/08/2021

26/08/2021

Horse “resisting?” Perhaps think Fatigue---

When we are sitting on top, unless we have lots of empathy, the ability and the willingness to consider what the horse down below might be feeling, it’s too easy to think that a tiring horse is being resistant “on purpose.”

See this sketch of the horse and rider headed home after a long day of hunting? Do we think that this quietly walking horse started the day like that? No, he was probably up and snorting and eager. But because physical effort creates tiredness, lack of spring, loss of balance and lift, deterioration in athletic ability, this horse is probably just plodding along.

So, we are schooling a horse, say, on the flat, and we feel the horse getting less “obedient,” less willing to perform what we feel to be simple tasks, circles, transitions, the building blocks of training, It’s easy to forget that THE MOMENT that we pick up the reins and establish contact, we are creating a push into a containment, and that asks the horse to step under itself and to add lifting to what, on a loose rein, would mainly involve pushing.

Lifting is vastly more rigorous than pushing, and unless a horse is used to it, has the strength to engage and carry, fatigue soon results. If we feel that fatigue as “I won’t,” and get grinding, it’s only going to get worse. Then maybe we get frustrated, ask harder, and it all starts to go downhill.

Now I am not saying that YOU do this, only that we so often see this downward spiral. If we could instead give the horse even six to eight more weeks of slowly building, think how we could avoid much of that slide from asking him to making him.

The next time he seems to be saying “no,” try considering that maybe he’s saying “I am tired. I would if I could, but I can’t.”

It can change how you train.

25/08/2021

Don’t give up on me…

Don’t give up on me, I gap my mouth because I have an abscess.

Don’t give up on me, I bow off my left turns because my hocks hurt.

Don’t give up on me, I refuse the gate because I have ulcers.

Don’t give up on me, I run by my first barrel because I’m a bleeder.

Don’t give up on me, I buck because I have kissing spine.

Don’t give up on me, I elevate in my turns because I have EPM.

Don’t give up on me, I can’t stop hard because I have sharp points on my teeth.

Don’t give up on me, I’m head shy because my TMJ hurts.

Don’t give up on me because I’m not exactly what you think I should be.

Don’t give up on your horse, he’s fighting a silent battle and he can’t tell you why he’s behaving a certain way until you care to pay attention.

Horses put out what you put in, put your all into listening to your horse and see what he gives in return.

14/07/2021

Wise words of Tom Roberts (who has read the book?)
Happy Monday 💕

09/07/2021

Purina’s horse feed is backed by 90 years of research in nutrition. Sign up to try Purina’s horse feeding programs for 60 days!

06/07/2021

Sale! 💥
A favorite for feeding at home and on the go!

https://haychix.com/collections/flash-sale-1

19/06/2021

After 2 years, I finally have a horse doing what I set out to do. Doc is a volunteer equine for Ruby Mountain Handicapped Riders. I am over the moon excited for this next step in our journey!

22/05/2021

Once in every equestrian’s life, they will meet a special horse.

This horse wont necessarily be a Badminton winner or dressage champion. They won’t always carry multiple titles or be the most talented with the best breeding.

Very often, these horses are nothing more than ordinary. They might have the odd lump here or a strange marking there. They probably won’t tick all the boxes for conformation and they will probably have some character “quirks” that not everyone will be able to see past.

You don’t find these horses, they find you. They can come to you by accident or hide in plain sight. They are the one rescued from the meat man or the one in the last stable at the dealing yard. They are the last horse you go to see before you give up searching or the scruffy three year old stood in a field of mud. They are the horse you never even knew you needed.

People will raise an eyebrow when you say this is your “best horse”. Not everyone will see what you see and that’s ok because this horse will be special to you. They will unlock little things inside you and make you feel more at home than you’ve ever felt anywhere else in your life.

They may not always be easy, in fact they might be anything but easy, but it doesn’t stop you loving them. I’m not saying the will follow you round the arena with no lungeline, or that you can ride them tackless down the beach... but you’ll have your own connection that is hard to describe and even harder to explain.

There is no rhyme or reason as to why this horse is so special. You don’t have to have won at every event or defied death together to validate your relationship, it just happens.

You won’t feel this way about another horse. Sure, there will be ones that come close and it doesn’t stop you loving any other horse just as much as this one, but this one is special. This is your heart horse.

Some people stumble across their heart horse early on in their life, others wait a lifetime to meet, but somewhere out there is a horse that was made for you, so if you haven’t met them yet... be patient, they will find you.

They might not always be the horse you want, but they will always be the horse you need.

26/04/2021

Today, April 26, is National Help a Horse Day, and the official start of month. Equine rescues, re-homing centers and sanctuaries across the country, will be raising awareness and fundraising to help horses in need. Please join our efforts, in partnership with the ASPCA’s The Right Horse Initiative, to raise awareness for .

Ryder (Rare Diamond) is an graduate of our Monty Roberts’ Mustang & Transition Horse Program, who found his forever home with Californian Eventer Allyson Snyder.

“I’ve always wanted to adopt a horse, as they are the ones that really need a home and a second chance at a new career. I had been looking for a few months after losing my first horse about 9 months ago. Ryder definitely caught my eye. Everyone involved in my adoption was a tremendous help and I could tell everyone just wants these horses to have a good and caring home. Right when I saw Ryder, I could tell he had a great personality and I knew that was the guy I wanted to bring home. He has been in training for almost a month now and he has been very cooperative and is coming along very nicely. He has a very bright future ahead of him!”

Visit https://aspca.org/AHM to learn more about the ASPCA’s Adopt A Horse initiative. Learn more about our available adoption horses at https://montyroberts.com/adopt.

25/04/2021

HOW vs WHAT - http://carsonjames.com

17/04/2021

Random horse training thoughts:

There are several fundamental lessons I preach……if you’ve been to any of my clinics or taken a lesson or had a horse in training with me, you will no doubt know them by heart by the time you leave my ranch 😉

1. Make doing the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard (for the horse).

example: So good ole’ Flicka has decided that she will not stand by the mounting block, you say whoa, you re-position her by the mounting block, then the minute you go to step up, Flicka steps just far enough away that you’d be doing yoga to reach the stirrup. Stop, think, make doing the right thing easy (standing quietly by the mounting block) and the wrong thing (moving away from the mounting block) hard. So immediately when sweet ole’ Flicka steps away, step down, assert your body energy and make flicka trot around that mounting block in a small circle until she wants to stop, then go another lap and start over. It won’t take long for her to realize, wow, when I just stand here, I can breath and rest, but when I move away, she makes me work hard.

2. Horses learn from the release of pressure, not the pressure itself.

example: You are working on lateral flexion, you are asking the horse to give it’s nose to it’s side, either on the ground or under saddle. You have the horses nose pulled to the side, the horse gives and goes to return it’s head to it’s regular position and before that happens, you pull it around again. You read somewhere that you need to do it “X” amount of times each way. I am okay with the multiple exercises, but what you missed was the opportunity to reward that horse and achieve success with that task. Horses don’t learn from the pressure, they learn from the release of it, So the minute that horse bends how you want, give the horse it’s nose, let it take a breath and then repeat.

3. Whoa….means whoa!

example: You are riding along the rail at a walk and Ole’ Flicka speeds up and starts trotting, without being asked, you yell Whoa, and make her return to a walk. You have now UN-TRAINED your horse….whoa means “ALL FEET IN CONCRETE”…..nothing else, not slow down, not listen to me, not stop what you are doing, it means stop. Pick an other word, any other word (although I suggest not using NO, as it sounds too much like Whoa”, and use that to focus the horses attention. I use the world Quit, when I say quit, that horse knows that whatever their last action was, it was wrong. Because one day when you need whoa, if you’ve used it for everything else, you won’t have it.

4. Let the horse make the mistake…..don’t stop them before they do it.

example: You have been working on straight lines with your horse, who usually drifts or drops a shoulder. You ask for the trot and you can already feel your horse drifting and you know within a few strides he’s going to be off course, your first instinct is to correct him before he veers from your straight line. Don’t! If you always correct your horse before they make the mistake, they will never over-come it and learn correct self carriage. Let your horse make the mistake first, then correct it.

5. Expect success…….

example: You are riding your young horse in the warm up pen at the show for the first time. You feel him get tense, he starts jogging, gawking around, keep moving, keep riding, small trot circles and lateral drills are great for this. Ride the horse you brought and build on small success. Maybe your goal is one pass around the arena or one run down, be confident in your preparation. Often times, I see riders, expect the worst from their horses and they almost always get it!

6. You must have lateral flexion to get vertical flexion…..

If you can’t get lateral flexion and can’t move each of your horses’ body parts laterally, you are not going to be able to achieve vertical flexion or collection. Lateral is the key to almost everything.

7. The nicest bit can be the harshest in the wrong hands…..it’s not the bit, it’s the hands that hold it that matter.

I’ve seen horses mouths ruined in snaffles (and for that matter, I’ve seen horses noses’ scarred from sidepulls and bosal’s too) when used by riders with harsh hands and I’ve seen horses in spade bits and correction ports, go with little to no contact, to the point they didn’t know it was there. It’s not the bit, it’s the riders hands it’s in that matters. Same for spurs, the only rider that should wear spurs, should be able to guide with their legs, knees and calves with enough control that the horse has no idea that the rider even has them on.

8. Air is priceless………

The worst thing you can do is run a horse out of air. You will take away their trust and try in a single instance. There is no shame in getting off, tieing the reins up and taking a breather yourself, you owe the horse the same respect.

9. Short and Sweet versus Long and Lenient………..

One of the biggest and most frustrating situations I watch with novice riders and trainers, is they don’t know when to push and when to stop. Instead of asking and insisting on answers from their horse and rewarding that behaviour immediately, they spend hours and days and weeks and years…..doing the same thing over and over and over again. If you find yourself repeating the same lessons over and over with your horse, stop, get outside help. I once watched a “trainer” try to de-sensitize a horse to an object for 3 weeks straight. They’d approach and instead of sticking with it, they were afraid they’d scare the horse, or put too much pressure on it, they’d retreat before they made any progress at all. In those few weeks, that person taught that horse more bad habits then they will ever realize. If you can’t follow through and don’t have the experience, don’t start it in the first place. And don’t be afraid to stop a lesson quickly if you get quick success. example: you decide to work your horse on lead changes and circles today. You warm your horse up, expecting this to be a lengthy lesson and drill, but much to your surprise, your horse nails the first 4 lead changes perfect. STOP, get off, loosen the cinch and forget the circles, that lesson will last for decades, you will have plenty of time for circles tomorrow. Many incredible training sessons have been accomplished in 15 minutes.

10. Your mood matters…………

Having a bad day, headache, tense, upset, sick? Your horse knows it. If you are not set for success, don’t set your horse up for failure. Skip the training session, the saying is “5 minutes to make a bad habit and 5 months to break it”. There will always be tomorrow.

17/04/2021

This is why teaching voice command is so important. Your best friend may not always be able to see you. Endo and his momma are amazing!

16/04/2021

13/04/2021

"Allow the horse to choose to be with you or away from you".

11/04/2021

Problems are caused by people. How can something “misbehave” when it does not understand the request. Stop, breathe and quit assigning human behavior to your equine friend.

One of the most amazing things about what I do is getting to hear people’s stories, of their struggles and their triumphs.

I received this one today from Sonja Martin Young it made me so happy inside. When you can find that peace within yourself and present it to the horse, the magic happens.

And I’m hearing about it every day from people (I kinda wanted to say ordinary or average people, but there’s nothing ordinary or average about them, I mean people who aren’t necessarily hugely experienced with horses) who tell similar stories.

It seems to be the ones who can let go of previous ways of looking at horse behavior (as in that behaviour is a problem to be fixed) and start to look at every little thing they do, especially the parts you don’t like, as a cry for help or at least some very valuable information about how they are feeling.

Once you develop that connection like that, there’s no real use for a lot of the tecniques that we know work, and work well . Not that there’s anything wrong with a lot of training, but many times we have a bag full of tecniques to treat symptoms.

I used to take in a number of problem horses, rearing horses, bolting horses etc. I used to always think that I was getting to the real problem, not the symptom of the problem which is what the previous trainers were doing , but I started to realize I WAS part of the problem.

Anyway, I’m rambling now, but it’s a journey and I’m so humbled to share it with you all, here’s Sonja’s amazing message to me .

“I got the wants to train a mustang starting about a year ago and stumbled upon WS and fell hard down the rabbit hole. My 22 year old mare is a fan of the method and is like a completely different horse now with the connection we have made. My husband (also a horse guy) started watching the videos with me and when I decided to make the leap and get a mustang , he decided to join me. We left Alaska 11 days ago and went to the corrals to pick our new wild ladies. We got to spend 4 days hanging out with them. We didn’t push much but started making a connection. I think it worked! On day 2 out of the pens, Tom was in with them in meditation mode and they lay down and fell asleep within a couple feet of him. We are home now and they will come up to us in June. We are looking forward to using the amazing plan to get started! Meet the magic mustang mares, Bruja and Wren!”

I’m just so honored to be a small part of this !

29/03/2021

Purina’s horse feed is backed by 90 years of research in nutrition. Sign up to try Purina’s horse feeding programs for 60 days!