Strong Spirit Stables LLC

09/08/2025

If our performance expectations of our horses are changing for the better, shouldn't our assessment for pain change too?

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For many people - I like to think certainly those that follow this page - we are getting better at recognising pain or discomfort without it being accompanied by a head-nod/hip-hike lameness or crazy wild behaviours that you would need to be a bronc rider to sit to.

We see the discomfort in the way the horse moves away from the saddle when you go to tack up, or the way they don't want to be touched in a specific area, or the change in facial expression when we ask them to do something different with their bodies, or the way they take the food from our hands when we are using R+.

And with this in mind, we do less with them - not because of a lack of skills - there is very little skill involved in making a horse comply - it's because we don't want to do anything that harms them.

We choose to not ride them. Or if we are riding, we choose to stick to things they can comfortably do. We work within their threshold not just physically, but also emotionally.

We have good observation skills - we ask ourselves, and the professionals around us: "when I do x, my horse does y. They are clearly finding this specific thing difficult. Why might that be?"

But I am finding that, more frequently than I feel comfortable admitting, people who have high expectations of their horse's welfare are often not taken seriously. Because they're not pushing their horses to display overt pain.

Their horses aren't going overtly lame because they are so good at listening to the little niggles that they're never pushed through the discomfort into fatigue to actually go lame.

Their horse isn't rearing or bucking because when they ask them to move forward but their horse resists, they stop asking rather than escalate the pressure.

They're not being thrown off because they see that their horse is unhappy being tacked up or mounted. So they don't get on.

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In a standard lameness assessment, the horse will usually be walked and trotted up, followed by being lunged on hard and soft ground, followed by being ridden.

This is quite an ordeal for an animal experiencing pain.

But from my perspective, I find this to be an ordeal which oftentimes is completely unnecessary - because the indicators are usually already there in plain sight(!)

And whilst people might suggest that the less you do with your horse, the less there is to see, I would invite you to get better at observing because there is often quite a lot to see whilst doing significantly less!

Posture leads my assessment -

And whilst I appreciate it is simply a moment in time, many moments strung together equate to a long time and if your horse adopts a stance for a sustained period of time there will be a reason.

And posture isnt static. It's how your horse organises themselves around the field. It's whether their back moves when they tug from a hay net. It's how they choose to load each limb. It's how comfortable they are picking up their legs for you. [This is not an exhaustive list]

It's so much more than what frame they adopt under saddle (and I can tell how your horse might move under saddle by how they navigate all of the above)

Then I use palpation to support my postural assessment - that area that looks extended, can it flex if I ask it to? That area that looks restricted, can it move a little more than it does at rest?

If I try to get that area to move, what is the horse's reaction? What does their face do? What other behaviours do they do?

There is so much information to be gleaned from this without having to ride or lunge or antagonise.

So much information to be acquired without putting your horse through stressful, painful experiences.

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I have had clients be told:

"In order to assess your horse for pain, they need to be in full work, trotting for 20 minutes per day" - the horse in question was refusing to move under saddle - how, dare I ask, would you envisage us making this horse move without using cruel tactics to do so?

"Your horse is old so likely to be riddled with arthritis and therefore there is no point in looking" - whilst simultaneously not helping them to put together a pain-management plan for the horse that is in obvious pain.

"They have arthritis, but it's the normal amount of arthritis" - as far as I am concerned, the normal amount of arthritis... is none?

"I can't see lameness present, therefore your horse is being naughty"

"Your horse doesn't palpate as sore, therefore they're just being naughty"

"There's nothing wrong, they just have tight hamstrings" - I swear if I hear tight hamstrings one more time I'm going to spontaneously combust.

Incidentally, people with ponies seem to be taken less seriously - I hypothesise because they are smaller and therefore easier to push around/punish/flood/train with fear - because if a big horse is throwing itself around it's scary and dangerous, if a pony is throwing itself around it is an inconvenience.

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I am not writing this to bash any professional. I am acutely aware that every healthcare professional is doing their best and that the job is not easy and we all miss things because we are human -

I am writing this to invite anyone who works with horses to DO BETTER.

Ask questions.

Be curious.

Palpate.

Palpate again.

And please, please, please -

If you dont know what the problem is. Tell your client. Support them in finding a solution.

Do not fob people off that there is nothing wrong with their horse when the chance is you just do not currently have the skills to see it.

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LS Horsemanship and I are doing a live this evening discussing all of the above and more. We would love to see you there at 7pm BST.

📸 Olivia Rose Photography

09/05/2025

Took Kim and Prince on a field trip to hay creek today!

09/05/2025

Are they looking for it or just avoiding pressure?

09/05/2025

I mean this from the bottom of my heart:

If you want something that you can jump on and ride whenever you want without having to factor in emotional or physical well-being, there are a number of great machines on the market that you can do this with.

Horses are not one of them.

If you choose to get a horse and pursue riding as a passion, that should come with the responsibility of caring about their well-being instead of feeling so entitled to riding that your desires come above their physical, emotional and mental well-being.

If your horse’s physical and mental comfort does not matter to you in your pursuit of riding, you are better suited to a hobby that involves machinery because then you can disregard emotion without there being a negative impact to your mount.

09/05/2025

They do demand our presence if you wanna work with them well❤️

09/02/2025

THE NEUROLOGY OF THE HORSE’S TONGUE AND IMPORTANCE IN PERFORMANCE

The tongue - we rarely see or think it but it is one of the most integral parts of the horse.

My work with people has put this into stark perspective - because we and our horses are mammals and have very similar central nervous systems we can take huge lessons from our own tongues.

The tongue has a part several functions - tasting, licking, chewing, swallowing but it has a whole other mechanism that we use daily but never give a thought to.

THE TONGUE IS ONE OF THE MAJOR COMPENSATORS IN THE BODY along with the jaw, hyoid and ankles (in a human).

What is a compensation?

A mechanism that the brain uses to strengthen the body’s pre-existing weaknesses due to physical and emotional trauma.

We may see our horses having issues with it’s tongue with symptoms such as:

These symptoms could indicate a horse is experiencing tongue pain or discomfort:
Dropping feed/hay
Not eating
Hyper-salivation
Bad breath
Bleeding from the mouth
Swelling in tongue and/or cheeks
Standing with head outstretched
Resistance to the bit or to handling of the head
Tongue hanging from mouth
Discolouration (a healthy tongue should be pink and moist)
Explosive reaction from nerve impingement

What is especially important to consider in horses?

Physical trauma in the body means that hey need their tongue to make that area stronger. Who we strap their mouth shut, we remove this ability to compensate, making weak muscles work, causing pain and risking injury.

When we put bits in mouth that do not have room for the horse’s individual tongue or use straight bar bits we risk compressing the tongue which causes trauma to the tongue and affects the horse’s ability to compensate.

When we pull straight back on the reins at a low level this nutcrackers and pinches the tongue causing pain and trauma.

Is there trauma in their body or emotions that the tongue is compensating for?

Iridology is a fantastic tool for locating areas of past trauma and I have found it very useful to consider when looking of the root cause of any compensation in the body.

When we see the horse eliciting their symptoms - what are they doing? If ridden, is it all the time/ lateral movements/right rein/left rein/walk/trot/canter/loose rein/tight rein/on a corner/on the straight/transitions - by seeing what muscles they *should* be using at that moment and what they are doing instead with their body, it can lead us towards the cause.

So much pain is hidden in our horse - as prey animals they are masters of disguise and it is only when our horses are really in pain do we actually see them as ‘lame’. There are so many signs before that. Looking at all these signs allows us to build a picture of what is going on within the horse and find it’s hidden pain.

The tongue muscles themselves tell a story.

The sternohyoideus and sternothyroideus muscles directly connect the horse’s tongue and mouth to the chest of the horse. This fascial and muscular connection carries on through the pectoral muscles along the ventral aspect of the horse, along the abdominal muscles and into the pelvis.

The tongue (via the hyoid) is connected to the shoulder, poll and head directly and to the hind limb indirectly via the facia - so tongue problems are who body problems and vice versa.

So what can you do to delve deeper into why your horse needs to use it’s tongue as a compensation?

First, look for something that can changes what you see in the tongue or the body - better or worse is always a good sign because it gives you clues. I would recommend slow motion filming at walk for comparison.

Change the bit (material/height/width/joints), take the bridle off, ride from the head collar, take the saddle off ride with the bit, change rider, weight the right side of the horse in your stirrup, weight the left side of the horse in your stirrup, put your body weight forward and backing the saddle, put varying degrees of pressure on the reins, halt and walk on with no/little/steady contact, lateral work with the shoulder leading and the hind end leading.

Each movement will give you clues and now you can start to look a t your horse’s history and piece together what you see.

For example -

Horse sticks tongue out during left shoulder in and right hand corners and has a profits thumb/scar on the right shoulder would lead me towards the injury that caused the scar, the scar itself and the physical and emotional trauma that the brain is still compensating for before I would be led towards direct tongue trauma.

Sometimes we see symptoms cascade - it starts with just a little tongue poke and then the tongue is out all the time - especially at competitions - as the stress levels rise and the capacity that the horse has at home, when he is relaxed, diminishes.

It is a truly fascinating way to approach management of our horses and it offers so much freedom from the norm when we are able to give the vet a host of relevant information to help them help us and our horses in the highest way possible.

https://onlinepethealth.com/the-role-of-the-tongue-and-hyoid-in-movement/

09/01/2025

Enjoying my daily walks with Custer!

09/01/2025

Grateful for the mentors God has placed in my life recently ♥️

When seeking a mentor, find someone who is a better human than you.

Find someone who is grounded to a moral code
Find someone who is less judgmental, more patient, stronger emotionally, and more giving.
Find someone with strong boundaries and a soft heart.
Find someone who you aspire to be like- if you aim for 100% and manage 60-70%, that’ll be far and above where you already are.

Aim for the top, with a sharp eye on where you want to be. A mentor models how to be a better horse person, but more importantly, how to be a better human.

08/31/2025

IMPROVING FOCUS

Focus is an essential ingredient of good horsemanship.

Recently, I explored how, as horse trainers, we constantly compete for our horses' attention.

Focus can be soft or hard. Hard focus is where a horse is attentive because it fears not being attentive. For example, a horse with separation anxiety will have a hard focus (anxiety-driven focus) directed towards the herd. On the other hand, soft focus (focus with calm emotions) is where a horse has minimal stress directed towards whatever is the source of its primary focus. For example, a horse’s soft focus might be fixed on the horse it is sharing a grooming session with.

If we are not our horse’s primary soft focus, then any conversation we attempt to have will be muffled and lack clarity. It guarantees our training and our relationship will be more of the master/slave variety than a willing friendship.

Horses are very aware of the world around them. A horse’s innate sense of survival means its focus and attention to its surroundings is constantly vigilant. Their focus easily swaps from primary to secondary and then secondary to primary with the sight of a bird, the feel of gravel under their feet, the sound of wind, or the smell of another horse.

The challenge of any training is to maintain the training and the trainer as the horse’s primary focus. Without the human as the horse’s primary focus, the struggle to achieve clarity and softness is elusive. As I explained in my book, The Essence of Good Horsemanship, good training entails strong focus, a high degree of clarity, and the resulting mental and physical softness. But notice, focus comes first. This is important to understand because without a strong focus, clarity, and softness are just a wishful dream.

How can we achieve better focus?

Firstly, however you approach changing a horse’s focus, it must involve changing a pattern. If a horse is asked to repeat a habit it knows very well, there is no requirement for the horse to alter its focus. For example, lunging a horse at a walk, trot, and canter in mindless circles is one of the fastest ways I know to teach a horse to ignore us and not focus. There is no need to focus on us or the circle or the gait because it can do them in its sleep. So the first thing to consider when altering focus is to ensure the work requires a horse to mentally engage in the exercises and not repeat a well-known pattern that it can do in its sleep while playing Monopoly.

Now that we've established the need to avoid predictable patterns to improve focus, the next step is determining how, specifically, to foster stronger focus in our horses.

I tend to recommend two slightly different options.

The first approach is to work with a horse on something new. By asking a question that is totally unfamiliar, it helps a horse to focus on the conversation with us and the task we present. They don’t know the answer, so they either choose to ignore us or they focus on the problem. If we handle it correctly (with feel and clarity), we will improve focus. But, for a lot of people, I don’t recommend this approach as a first choice because they often struggle to introduce a totally new task without creating a fair amount of anxiety in their horse.

The second approach is my preferred approach and what I mainly want to discuss. It involves doing exercises that a horse has been taught and knows, but to perform them in a way that is unfamiliar.

Let me give you an example, going back to the lunging exercise I described earlier. Many people lunge horses in a pattern of circles. The exercise discourages focus because it is just repeating circles over and over. But what if we changed the pattern?

Walk your horse in a circle to the right.

* After 5 steps stop.

* Back up 3 steps while still on the lunge

* Trot 10 steps

* Slow walk for 8 steps (slow walk is 1 step = 2 seconds)

* Stop.

* Hindquarter disengagement - 1 step

* Forehand yield - 2 steps

* Trot medium for 1/2 lap

* Slow jog for 1/4 lap

* Stop.

* Walk a triangle instead of a circle

* Trot circle for 1/4 a lap and stop

* One foot forward. Stop. Another foot forward. Stop. One foot back. Stop

The list goes on and on. As the focus improves and your horse listens intently, the work will flow more smoothly, and there is less need to interrupt your horse so often.

It is important that your horse knows how to do all those exercises individually before asking for them on a circle or a triangle, or whatever pattern you choose. If it doesn’t know how to leg yield on a longe line, don’t include it in the circle work until it does. Only ask your horse to perform tasks it already knows and understands.

I might begin with a simple walk, stop, back, and walk again, every few steps, while circling. As my horse understands how to yield the hindquarters, leg yield, and canter transitions, I will add them to the circle work. Putting them in a dance (like a circle) is where the power of this work helps to improve focus because every transition from one movement to the next requires focus.

In time, your horse’s primary focus will remain with you because it will learn that at any moment you could ask another question. This creates a conversation where you ask a question, your horse replies, and then it asks, “What will we do next? When will we do it? What comes after?”

I have used the example of a lunging a horse on a circle as a means of improving focus. But the principle applies to almost any exercise. Leading, trailer loading, riding on a trail or in an arena, grooming, saddling, blanketing, etc, are all areas I use this principle. I can’t think of anything we do with our horses that it could not be applied.

It is my experience that if we devote a lot of time gaining our horse’s focus in the early training, keeping their focus is easy. A horse will mentally engage with us automatically in a calm and relaxed manner. It becomes like two mates hanging out together and both working on the same idea.

Photo: My mare, Six, has a soft focus as I teach her to circle following a feel of the lariat.

08/30/2025

I had someone ask me this week why attendance is one of the factors that affects scheduling.

I thought it was an odd question, because it has a pretty simple answer...open lesson times don't pay bills. So scheduling someone who isn't going to show up regularly isn't a good business decision.

But it really goes deeper than that.

One of the most profound lessons that horses teach us is commitment. Commitment to caring for them, commitment to bettering ourselves, and commitment to setting goals and achieving them.

If you aren't attending the lessons you scheduled (horseback riding or any other sport) regularly, you're missing this point. Your progress will be minimal and you'll end up frustrated.

Holding space for someone who isn't committed to that space will suck the life right out of you. (Read that twice, because it applies every single day of your life). It isn't just a financial drain. It's tough to get excited to teach someone who isn't committed to learning.

So yes, I'm going to schedule riders who are committed to learning and who attend regularly first. Their enthusiasm keeps me going when the day is kicking my butt. They remind me that this purpose is far bigger than just what is happening in the arena.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk. 🤣