Cheval’s Run - Tallebudgera

12/10/2023

Great to know!

18/06/2023

A happy herd.

14/05/2023

HMD to all types of mammas out there 🫶🏻

13/05/2023

.

11/05/2023

Horses do not feel feel the cold like we do ❄️🥶❤️
#

30/04/2023

gets it 🤭.

25/04/2023

Lest we forget

15/04/2023

“ in our love and gratitude for our horses, and for all the gifts they give.”

Two days ago, I was leading Florence up the field and to the gate. We were going for a little adventure together with Freya and Kayleigh. The red mare would stay behind and hold the fort and look after Clova.


They had been grazing at the far end of the field, so it was a relatively long walk to the gate. I was concentrating wholly on Florence, on my energy and her emotions and the connection between us. When I’m in that state, I could not tell you whether the sky is blue or the birds are singing, because my whole self is immersed in this point in time, in this sentient creature, in each step we take.


But suddenly I was aware of something else.


It was a presence. It was a sensation of something happy and benign and comforting.


I turned my head and there, to my right, was the red mare. She’d come up beside me and was walking alongside.


I felt a starburst of intense, singing pleasure go off in my chest.


I reached out my hand and rested it her mane, just above the withers. She’s a shade over sixteen hands, but when she is all loose and easy and at peace she lets her head hang low, so I don’t have to stretch or strain. It’s as if we fit together.


I looked down at her feet and did the little skip I do to change legs, so that we are matching exact steps. Her left foot goes forward at the same time as mine.


A feeling of spreading harmony filled my body. I knew that I was beaming all over my face.


I said to her, ‘We are such good companions, you and I.’


We are such good companions.


And there it is, my favourite thing - the everything in the nothing. I always think, in these tiny, non-newsworthy moments, that if a stranger were watching, they would think there was not a single remarkable thing to see. A slightly scruffy woman of middle age, in a questionable hat - some of my hats are splendid, and some are frankly peculiar - pootling along beside an old mare who is covered in mud and doesn’t have her spring coat yet. (She is wisely holding on to her winter wool, because the Scottish weather is doing its usual unpredictable thing and we’ve had wind and hail and ha-ha-ha temperature drops.)


Nobody would ring up Horse and Hound to suggest they put us on the cover. The people who give out the prizes at the Horse of the Year show would not award us a huge silver cup. The Olympic judges, who hand out the medals, would remain untroubled.


Yet, that moment is, as Auden once wrote -


…my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song.

I write it down because I don’t want to forget. I write it down because I want to treasure it up and let the joy of it go deep into my bones.

I write it down in tribute to the red mare, because of everything she gives me, with her generous heart and her mighty spirit.

And I write it down because I know that some of you - out there across oceans and time zones and endless landmasses - will nod your heads and smile your own smiles and know exactly what I am talking about. And that brings us together, across time and distance, in our love and gratitude for our horses, and for all the gifts they give.

12/04/2023

Amazing The Bit Fitter. Horses first always 🙌👏

22/03/2023

There is no quick fix in our sport. Not a sharper bit, not a bigger spur, not a quick injection to numb the pain, no drugs, no doping. We are dealing with a living creature. With a heart, a soul and a body we are responsible to take care of the best way possible for the long run. Be a horseman first, then an equestrian athlete...

17/03/2023

💯

08/03/2023

🙌

The Barn ❤️❤️❤️

07/02/2023

Good morning boys. ☀️Wilson sure loves a morning cuddle 🥰
._

31/01/2023

“Our duty as custodians of animals is to be their voice, and speak up - even in those times when we feel that we can’t” 🙏

Entitlement, empathy and compassion.

I was surprised a couple of mornings ago to find myself in a small altercation with a woman, after I asked her several times to step away from my vehicle, where my dog was located in a secure dog crate, and was irate and barking at her. The vehicle was parked at a showground, we were using it to pack up the canteen, and it was not parked in a carpark or any area where people needed to be near the truck.

Phil and I were cleaning out a canteen, having finished our 5 day clinic, and our truck was parked by the canteen, with both dogs in the crate. We had been there for quite some time, and were just finishing up sweeping out the undercover area, when a woman who was camped nearby in her caravan, walked out to view the horses in the arena (not our horses, but a new group had checked in), she commented on how many there were, and I explained who the group was. As she was walking closer towards the truck, my dog offered a warning bark. I said to her “he’s not friendly” and she smiled and started talking to him, trying to calm him down. I said “he’s a guard dog, he’s meant to bark”. She continued talking to him, and trying to ‘calm’ him, while he continued to escalate in his barking and guarding the truck. I said again, can you please stop talking to him. She ignored me, and stepped closer, continuing to talk to the dog, with him continuing to escalate. I said again, step away from the car, can you please leave him alone. She again continued to ignore me, causing me to escalate and instruct her to step away. With a roll of her eyes she turned to me and began telling me that I had a poor attitude, and I didn’t understand life.

The mind boggles that a woman of at least over 60 feels not only entitled to ignore a dog owners request, but that the torment that my dog was in gave her no cause for concern. This is what fuelled my surprise at the situation. He was clearly distressed, and no amount of her goo goo talk to him was going to help, and, being a guard dog, shouldn’t help.

As owners of horses, dogs, cats, whatever, it is our right, and in fact our duty, to protect them from undue stress or torment. When I work other peoples horses I always ask if I can, and let the person know that they are entitled to say no, and I also let them know that they can tell me to stop if they do not like what is occurring.

Our duty as custodians of animals is to be their voice, and speak up - even in those times when we feel that we can’t. Im sure many of us have been in a situation where we have felt we wanted to stop an interaction, but also felt that we couldn’t - perhaps when we have a coach, body worker or clinician who is doing things that we don't think is right for our horse. Many of us are conditioned to ‘respect our elders’ which, in many ways is the ‘right’ thing to do. That respect stops however the minute that our, or someone or an animal that we are trying to protect. It also stops when there is no mutual respect in the interaction.

The flip side of this situation is the entitlement, despite the distress. Unfortunately humans have been socially conditioned to believe that animals are for our pleasure and entertainment, irrespective of the distress the animal might be feeling. In fact considering how the animal may be feeling is often not even a thought, and many an industry is reliant on the continued ‘blissful ignorance’ of attendees. I have seen animal shows at both ends of the spectrum - animals stressed out and worried, and those calm and relaxed. I consider myself fortunate that my parents always raised the idea of how an animal was feeling. I was not allowed to have birds like my cousins did, we never went to the circus or the zoo and if I picked up a dog or cat and it struggled, I was told to put it down and that “he doesn't like that”.

I truly believe if we can embrace a compassionate point of view when it comes to all animals, the flow on will be felt in our human to human interactions as well.

Tk xo

Train with Us

February

7 & 8 Coutts Crossing

9 & 10 Gold Coast

15 & 16 Taree - One place remains

28 & 1 Coffs Harbour - Fully Booked

22/01/2023

🤍

It’s ok for you to;

Love your horse.

Want your horse to be happy.

Have concern for how he feels.

Have compassion for him.

Never let anyone tell you that you are ‘too soft’.

It’s easy to be hard. It’s easy to be indifferent.

Kindness takes courage 💛

Train with us

Bangalow
Gold Coast
Coutts Crossing
Coffs Harbour
Glenreagh
Taree

10/01/2023

Morning fence checks on the run 🙌

10/09/2022

This doesn’t have to be about horses. A beautiful perspective that struck a chord in me ❤️

Someone left me a comment under a picture of Florence today and it hurt my feelings. It was not meant in unkindness, I am sure, but I was tired this morning and it hit a bruise.


I started composing a magnificent response in my head. I would write it here and it was going to have excellent jokes in it about Dostoevsky and Leonard Cohen and the end of A Tale of Two Cities.


I’m not writing you that, after all, and the reason is an interesting one.


I went down to the field to talk to the mares. We’ve had wild rain and winds, but the air was still and the sun had come out. Florence and the red mare were deep in Horse World, right down at the far end of the field, at the treeline which divides them from the curious coos.


I was still writing my flaming essay in my head. Even though I thought it was coming from a place of humour and self-knowledge, I realised that in fact it was going to come out all passive-aggressive, my least favourite thing. So I stopped. I thought instead of what my horses love in me and what they need from me.


They need someone who makes them feel safe. They need me to be the kind of person who makes everyone feel better when they walk into a room.


I thought of what those people do. You know the ones. They don’t have to do anything or say anything. They arrive, and you find yourself smiling and your shoulders come down and you know that everything will be fine.


I pondered what elements and traits those lovely humans hold, so lightly. It’s a list I am still working on, but this is what ran through my head.


They know who they are. They don’t have to prove anything, because they are sturdy in themselves. They don’t have to do jazz hands or fancy moves or belt out show tunes. They don’t need the spotlight trained on them; they have no need to take centre stage.


I think they have a plan. I think they have lots of plans. They are just as happy with Plan B or Plan Z, if the other plans don’t work. They are flexible in their thinking, so if one thing doesn’t work, they’ll move seamlessly onto the next thing.


They accept all the emotions, in themselves and in others. They know that there are grumpy days and doleful days and bent out of shape days. They allow themselves to step into fear or fury or sorrow, because they understand that if they do not allow those then they can’t feel the joy or the delight or the chiming note of pure happiness.


They take people - and horses - as they are, in that moment. (My dad had this beautiful gift. He didn’t rank people or mark people or try to change people. He took them as they were, and bought them a drink.)


They don’t make three act operas about things that really don’t matter that much. They are not drama queens. They don’t create havoc, just because they are having a bit of a jangle.


They are willing to step up, if that is what is needed.


They have a sturdiness to them and a steadiness and a stillness.


They believe in love.


They can let things go. They cherish the small, unshowy virtues, like reliability and patience and consistency. They don’t make everything about them.


They are kind, not because they want claps on the back (they may not need to put this in their Twitter profile), but because they know the power of kindness.


They operate out of abundance, not scarcity.


That’s just my starter list. I thought of all this as I was standing with Flo. The red mare was happily eating and I gave all my attention to Florence and tried to beam out of me that sense of keeping her safe and making her feel good about the world and being in her corner. I was not going to let anything alarming happen to her. I was here, and she could rely on me.


She softened into me and breathed and I breathed and I kept on thinking about being the person she needed. It was fifteen minutes of something real and true and connected.


And that did the emotional processing for me. I was focusing on something that meant something, something which had purpose, something which lifted the heart. By the time I came in, I didn’t need to write my furious post, which would have hidden the hurt under a phony veneer of humour. I’d been a little wounded, which is fine, because I’m human, but I had a choice. I could turn it into that three act opera, or I could come back to something which was much more important, which was that mare in that field in that moment.


I want to be their person, the one who makes everything all right. And that is not a question of running through a few techniques and ticking them off and being finished and getting my gold star. That is a practice, every day, for the rest of my life. That’s my job, and it makes me smile and smile.

08/09/2022

Thank you Ma’am

21/08/2022

“There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of man”
~ Winston Churchill .

05/08/2022

Horses are amazingly tolerant, giving creatures.

It unfortunately means they’re often exploited due to the ambitions of the human. After their basic needs are met, you must be very thoughtful in the training of your horse.

Your first duty is to preserve the purity of the paces. What does this mean? Walk has 4 beats, trot has 2, canter has 3, gallop has 4. ALWAYS. If not, something is wrong biomechanically, and your horse is at risk of injury. BTW impure paces can usually be detected in a photograph, even though it is only a “moment in time”, AND this applies to all disciplines.

Strapping a horse’s mouth shut with a crank/flash (or other) noseband very often contributes. The fact is, a horse cannot maintain full range of motion with his hind legs if he can’t move his tongue and jaw. FACT.

For jumping, if the horse bolts off - away from, towards, or after a jump, putting on a bigger bit and a martingale will not fix it. If a horse hesitates or stops, pulling out the whip will NEVER make him more confident.

These are just a few hints that your horse is asking for HELP. Go back. Consolidate the basics. Another wonderful thing about horses is they're retrainable. If you ignore the hints, eventually the horse will either break down, or will SHOUT to get your attention, and you will get hurt.

After all, horses are dangerous. We tell everyone that. But actually they are not. We wouldn’t be able to ride them if they were truly dangerous. You know what’s dangerous? People are.

Ponder this excerpt from Franz Mairinger’s book “Horses are made to be Horses”:

I recall an incident in Sydney when we had a lame horse with a very bad tendon, and the rider wanted to start the horse the next day. We asked Roy Stewart, the veterinary surgeon, and he said, ‘Yes, that’s the trouble. People always think that horses are made for man, but that’s not true. Horses are made to be horses’. I thought about that a lot, and decided that if I should write a book I would call it Horses are made to be Horses.

(Franz Mairinger was the first coach of an Australian Olympic Equestrian Team, his excellent book is out of print, but can occasionally be found second hand - buy it if you see it)

(Picture credit Thinking Art )

30/06/2022

Don’t you hate it when chef doesn’t mix in the turmeric enough 🙄 😅

09/06/2022

Beautiful winter morning on the run.
❄️

24/05/2022

Unlike humans, horses are designed to run on a full stomach. Feeding your horse 2-3L of chaff or a biscuit of hay prior to exercise has two benefits :
1️⃣ The chaff will form a ball of feed in the stomach, which will help prevent acid from splashing up from the lower part of the stomach to cause gastric ulcers.
2️⃣ Blood is normally diverted away from the stomach during exercise, which reduces some of its normal protective mechanisms. Research has shown that feeding your horse before exercise actually reduces the amount of blood that is shunted away from the stomach and also increases the amount of blood delivered to the skeletal muscles and muscles of the chest. So not only are you helping to protect the stomach, you also might be improving your horse’s performance.

16/05/2022

What is this? 😅 ☀️ 🌈 😂

15/05/2022

And… ~ Breathe ~

14/05/2022

🖤🧡🤎.

06/05/2022

To rug or not to rug? 🤔 great explanation from AHS Horsemanship!

If are someone who cannot unrug your horse of a morning remember this. Horses are very good at regulating their own body temperature without a rug and It’s much easier for a horse to warm up than cool down.

Horses have a much lower and wider thermoregulation range than us humans do. Their thermoneutral zone where they are most comfortable is between 5°c and 25°. So when we think it’s cold, horses may still feel quite comfortable. This is just a guide so of course it’s dependent on age, health, condition etc.

Some people may think I’ll just pop a cotton on or a rainsheet that way it keeps the chill off at night and won’t be too hot during the day. This is also problematic and can actually make the horse colder. When cold a horse will fluff up their coat in order to keep warm. A rug will flatten the coat and in turn may make them colder than they would be without a rug at all. Not to mention most rain sheets and even some cottons aren’t all that breathable and will make most horses sweat during the day. Basically when it starts getting cold, around 10° or under, rug for warmth (at least 100g fill) and take it off in the morning or don’t rug at all and supply good 24/7 roughage. Keep in mind too, rain may make a horse colder considering the wet will flatten the coat. So when raining rug accordingly unless in humid rain then a horse may sweat under the rug, defeating the purpose.

A Horses best way of generating body heat is through digestion of high fibre diets, high starch diets not so much. Generally, Horses living in cold climates are able to keep condition as long as they have unlimited access to good quality roughage (grass and/or hay). Horses are designed to eat forage for at least 16 hours day, and this keeps the gut healthy and the digestion of forage creates body heat. Of course this depends on age, health etc. So rug and feed accordingly.

02/05/2022

Goodnight pony 🌙

28/04/2022

Playing the long game 😝.
Via

24/04/2022

Lest. We. Forget.