Fair Deal Horsemanship, INC

09/11/2025

I wish this is read by every horse enthusiast to integrate into their principles for teaching horses.

Freedom “To” or Freedom “From”
[⚠️But before we begin, this is a satire warning. Satire uses humour to help you see things that might be hard to see. This blog discusses ideology around the idea of “freedom” for horses - an idea, not an individual, and definitely not your favourite guru or high priest/priestess of moral superiority. (In fact, if you have even the faintest hint that you are morally superior with horses, probably stop here. If you read further, I’ll take it as consent to be offended - which means you can’t complain about it later. You did that willingly.)]

Back to the blog...

Ah yes, freedom. The holy word of modern horsemanship.

Freedom to choose. Freedom to say no. Freedom to make decisions.

It sounds noble, enlightened, almost revolutionary. But lately, “freedom” has become the most expensive word a horse can own.

Somewhere between the flapping-flag frenzy of the old “show them who’s boss” era and the new-age serenity of “emotionally monitoring horses for any sign of possible stress,” we lost the plot. We replaced the chaos of pressure with the paralysis of intense staring and immobility. We traded training for moral performance art in the hope of emotional regulation and horses that don’t scare us.

Now, freedom “to” has become the rallying cry of the self-described morally superior division of the equestrian world. Freedom to refuse. Freedom to opt out. Freedom to live perpetually confused while the human whispers about “consent” and “agency,” studying their nostrils like they’re reading tea leaves.

Divisive rhetoric separates them and us - the evil, unenlightened, violent traditionalists who actually teach horses things😎.

The result? Horses that are free to remain alarmed, threatened, unfit, and chronically conflicted. Horses that have learned the only way to cope is to resist, avoid, push, pull, or zone out completely.😑

This is freedom TO avoid the momentary stress that comes with learning.

Now, to be fair, the idea of freedom “to” originally came from a good place - horse welfare.

The classic Five Freedoms (freedom from hunger and thirst, discomfort, pain, fear, and the freedom to express normal behaviour) were created to guide humane care and management. But some people took the parts about discomfort, pain, fear, and freedom to express normal behaviour to an extreme level - turning a thoughtful welfare framework into an ideology that rejects any form of temporary stress, even the kind that builds resilience and understanding.

But there’s another kind of freedom - the kind that actually helps horses navigate the reality of the world they live in. Freedom from. Freedom from fear. Freedom from confusion.

Freedom FROM the stress of not knowing what the human wants.

This kind of freedom isn’t flashy or hashtag-friendly. It comes from education, fitness, and clarity - the unglamorous kind of love that looks like showing up, teaching, guiding, working through the messy middle, and believing your horse is capable of learning... and so are you.

Because horses aren’t philosophers. They don’t want to debate moral theory. They want to know whether the lead rope means “restraint and capture” or “follow along, you’re safe.”

So when someone preaches about letting a horse be “free to choose,” maybe ask:
Free to what end?

Because I believe horses deserve freedom from suffering, confusion, and chronic stress any day. To me, that’s fair - and I’m not even claiming to be morally superior, just pragmatic.

So, are you freedom “from” or freedom “to”?

This is Collectable Advice entry 74/365 for you to save or hit share (just a warning with this one - you to might offend people 😜). But no copying and pasting (or I will get offended 😜).

02/11/2025

I was certified in Therapy Ball by the Chek Institute back in the early 2000"s. It's a great tool for assessment and therapeutic exercise. This setup is instrumental in teaching self-awareness to equestrians. I am going to employ this setup for helping horses. If equestrians aren't aware of their own balance as it affects the horse's balance, then abhorrent adaptations to carry the tippy passenger will prevent quality movement by the horse. I will be polishing up the assessment methods to improve this as a modality to improve horse's lives.

30/10/2025

Nuno succinctly describes what Denny Emerson explains in a wonderful analogy included in this post. Save a large portion of your equestrian lifetime by applying the wisdom shared.

The timeless lesson? What we feel in our hands so often begins behind the saddle. I was incredibly fortunate to learn under 𝗚𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘆𝘀 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗹𝗲𝘆, who trained with 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘇 𝗠𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿, 𝗡𝘂𝗻𝗼 𝗢𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗶𝗿𝗮, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗘𝗱𝗴𝗮𝗿 𝗟𝗶𝗰𝗵𝘁𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗸 - a tradition that shaped my understanding of true connection and self-carriage from the very beginning.

Nuno Oliveira said, “𝘔𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘶𝘱 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘩.”

Decades later, 𝗗𝗲𝗻𝗻𝘆 𝗘𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻 explained the same principle in his own way, using a brilliant analogy between engagement and athletic discomfort. Both of these wise horsemen’s words still make me pause and think - not only when I feel too much in my hand, but especially when I see a pupil learning to lighten theirs.

It’s a reminder that what we feel in our hands so often begins behind the saddle - not only in the clarity of the rider’s seat and legs, but also in the strength, balance, and weight-lifting ability of the horse’s hindquarters.

So next time you feel your horse leaning on your hand, or you’re tempted to tighten or fight the contact - pause. 𝗔𝘀𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳: 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙙𝙞𝙙 𝙄 𝙖𝙨𝙠 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙡𝙚𝙜𝙨?

With respect and gratitude to 𝘋𝘦𝘯𝘯𝘺 𝘌𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯 (𝘛𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘏𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘍𝘢𝘳𝘮) for articulating this so clearly. His full post follows - it’s well worth the read.

"My horse leans on my hands" and other similar comments----A discussion.

Let's say we jog in place---we humans. Now let's say we squat down while jogging in place.
Try it, it hurts more. Now squat lower, jog higher----It hurts still more, we pant more, we struggle more. We are feeling the effects of athletically induced discomfort.

Now imagine that you are sitting on a horse being ridden (correctly) back to front. You drive with seat or legs, create some impulsion, and simultaneously you "contain-receive-balance" that impulsion with your quiet, negotiating hands, so that the horse is being asked to take a "deeper" step, come more under himself, and lift himself more rather than simply push himself along, as he'd do naturally.

We call this things like "asking for more engagement", "asking him to carry himself".

Even though what we are doing may be careful asking rather than forceful demanding, it STILL hurts the horse. No, it doesn't INJURE the horse, but it causes him athletically induced discomfort, because when you ask him to engage his hocks, and start to lift and carry his own weight, it's the same as what you felt jogging in place while squatting, lots of physical exertion.

Now the horse, feeling the effects of being asked to be a weight lifter, (and having zero incentive to become a well trained dressage horse---hahahaha, you anthropomorphic dreamer!) the horse tries to avoid the engagement.

He can invert. He can roll under. He can lean on the bit. He can flip his head. ALL these front end/head evasions are---listen here---to get rid of the "correct" connection between the driving aids and the receiving aids, because that connection makes him weight lift, and he'd far rather not.

In other words, we FEEL the resistance up FRONT, in the bit, reins, hands, but the resistance we feel up front is because he doesn't like the pressure of engagement BEHIND. (It took me about 212 years to figure this out, by the way)

So now we MAY think, as many of us do---"My horse is "resisting" in his mouth/jaw. I need to use stronger rein aids. I need a sharper bit. I need draw reins. I need one of those leverage rigs."

(This process can turn, easily, into ugly adversarial fighting, rider demanding, scared, uncomfortable horse resisting)

NO---What we need is to think very long term about strength training.
We ask him to step under (engage), negotiate for some moments of semi-lift, back off, let him recover, ask for a little more, back off, repeat, repeat for months, tiny increments, little by little, "building the horse like an onion", one tiny layer at a time.

WEIGHT LIFTING IS SLOW. WEIGHT LIFTING DOESN'T FEEL GOOD. Yes, it will eventually turn your horse into a better athlete, but your horse doesn't know that. He isn't "being bad" when he resists, he's trying to get away from athletically induced discomfort. So----GO SLOW, HAVE COMPASSION for what he is undergoing.

End of long discussion. I was no big saint about horse training. It took me too many years to equate much of this. Don't make the mistakes I made, and that so many riders make. Be better than that.

Denny Emerson, Tamarack Hill Farm

(𝘗𝘚 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺 - 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘴: 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘥.)

27/10/2025

My primary concern is the horse. The secondary concern is will the human grasp the concepts needed to maximize the potential of my primary concern.

25/10/2025

Horse Trainers using coercion reveal their lack of understanding.

21/10/2025

Spot on! Competitive humans climbing aboard an unsuspecting sentient being and usurping their will to force servitude ruins horses, physically and mentally.

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20/10/2025

Balance! Horses are very sensitive to balance as an innate self-preservation skillset. When sitting on a horse, humans create a dynamic variable for how the horse responds to the human's position. If the human is out of balance on the horse, the horse is out of natural balance. Movement is affected, and problems arise that are the fault of the human. It's important for riders to realize that position on the horse has to begin with a balanced seat. Any changes to that balance will mean something has to change for the horse to accommodate. Riders, your position matters! Learning how to feel a balanced seat is not innate, it is a learned skillset. The photo shows what I use to work on my seat.

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05/10/2025

Rachel and Pippa are caught worshipping the OTTB with a divine light shining down from the universe.

OK! That's absolute nonsense. Everyone recognizes one of Baucher's flexions being taught by Pippa.