Remedy Ranch

07/12/2024

Stress Hormones, they are comfortably misleading us.

Cortisol. If you asked most horse people what cortisol is, they would say, it is a stress hormone. But upon closer analysis, cortisol is not a stress hormone. First, let us define exactly what stress is.

Medi-line Plus is the US National Library of Medicine and their website which is an official extension of the US Government, describes stress as:
"Stress is a feeling of emotional or physical tension. It can come from any event or thought that makes you feel frustrated, angry, or nervous. Stress is your body's reaction to a challenge or demand. In short bursts, stress can be positive, such as when it helps you avoid danger or meet a deadline."

Our layman's understanding of stress simply, is
Stress = Bad.
Stress = Unhealthy.
Stress = Poor Moral/Ethics/Welfare.

We need to know that this meaning of stress is not scientific. It is an implied emotional meaning to the word. It is a societal conditioning.

Yet if we detach ourselves from the implied emotional meaning that our society has conditioned into us as to what stress means, and look at the components of stress, we find ingredients of "stress" everywhere in the body in a whole host of functions.

If you fall in love, the neural-chemistry is very akin to negative-emotional-stress. In fact, more similar than it is different. Like how chimpanzee's share the majority of the DNA with us. So much so that studies of chimpanzee's have been used to influence human healthcare. Love and Negative-Emotional-Distress are chemically very similar in the nervous system.

Eustress.
Described by Miriam-Webster as
"A positive form of stress having a beneficial effect on health, motivation, performance, and emotional well-being."

Yet chemically, stress and eustress are almost (not completely) identical.

They both involve cortisol.

Did you know that without cortisol, you would faint every time you stood up after laying down? Without cortisol, you couldn't interpret a new recipe for dinner. You couldn't drive a car. You couldn't exercise. You couldn't engage with other humans socially. You couldn't care for horses. You couldn't learn to ride. You couldn't in fact, learn to do anything, and then do anything you have learned to do, without allowing your body to produce cortisol.

Because Cortisol is NOT a stress hormone. Cortisol is a metabolic regulator. Cortisol ensures that your body has the right systems online, for the right tasks. Without it, you actually dysregulate.

But the horse training world has not understood this. As a necessary departure from the Negative-Emotional-Distress we have witnessed for much too long in our industry, we have run head first into a total over-correction. We have demonised cortisol, often because we do not have enough healthy role models of trainers creating Eustress is horses, and horses enjoying Eustress. Or if we do, our leaders are not promoting it publicly, they promote it privately and silently, because they can feel that the community at large does not have the ability to recognise the difference between a positive and negative stress state.

So we err on the side of caution. And promote down-regulated parasympathetic nervous systems only. I have played a very strong part in this trend. And to this day, down-regulation IS my starting point with almost any horse.

But down regulation is not my Achievement Goal. It is not the ultimate version of horsemanship.

The ultimate achievement is a horse that can experience ALL that life has to offer, together with their human. All of it. I will take all of it. Up and down the nervous system. Side to side through valance and arousal. In and out of emotional meaning.

I wish for you to imagine the following allegory, to help you understand the potential negative effects, over-focusing on down regulation can have on your relationship with your horse.

Imagine you invite a friend out to coffee. You and your friend are not traumatised people, or recovering from trauma. You are both mentally and physically healthy and happy generally. Good moods, most of the time.

You go to the cafe. You start to tell your friend a story. As you tell the story you become animated. Excited. (Cortisol). You recount this funny and engaging story with facial expressions. With emotions. With hand gestures. You passionately describe the story to your friend you hope is listening and enjoying the story.

As you up-regulate your nervous system while you communicate with your friend, they do something strange now.

They stop looking you in the eye. They even look away from you into the middle distance. They deeply sigh. They fold their hands into their lap and go quiet. They disengage with you. You ask them what's wrong and they don't answer. They just deeply exhale again. They begin to meditate deeply while you are in the middle of your exciting story.

Eventually, the message you get from them passively, is that your excitement, your passion, your expression... IS NOT WELCOME with them.

So you copy them. You gaze into middle distance. Fold your hands. Get quiet. Behave yourself. Stop looking at them. And stop telling your story.

Then, and only then, your friend says
"Good!" And rewards you. Pats and strokes you. Then they smile at you and reward you with the return of their social engagement.

They repeat this pattern so consistently, that now every time you see them, you have been conditioned by them into being chronically subdued. Then eventually, coffee dates become dates at the gym. And the process is repeated there. When you try to recruit exciting nervous system and emotional states to help you feel motivated by the gym, your friends bizarre fixation on relaxing stops you in your tracks. And now you are lifting heavy weights, trying to cosplay a delicate, particular, pretty veneer of polite quiet confidence.

Trying to make it look relaxed. Which is anathema to offering effort.

All of this is not applicable, if you and or your friend are ill. Sick. Unwell mentally and physically. In the initial stages of healing the body and mind, down regulation is the easiest starting point, and the safest.

And I acknowledge the work of my colleagues who focus on down regulation as their clients generally present varying degrees of sick and unwell horses.

But as soon as horses have a base line of wellness, we are supposed to pivot, and teach ourselves how to power up, and enjoy high effort activities too.

Because that is the spice of life.

Everything else is just a bland mono-culture.

And here with EH, our goal is to ensure you and the horse are mentally and physically healthy, in down regulation, so that you can return to life. To joy. To excitement. To fun.

www.emotionalhorsemanship.com
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Some of the scientific literature I used in the building of this understanding and training approach:

Mommsen, T.P., Vijayan, M.M. & Moon, T.W. Cortisol in teleosts: dynamics, mechanisms of action, and metabolic regulation. Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries 9, 211–268 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008924418720

Elizabeth A. Young, James Abelson, Stafford L. Lightman,
Cortisol pulsatility and its role in stress regulation and health,
Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology,
Volume 25, Issue 2,
2004,
Pages 69-76,
ISSN 0091-3022,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yfrne.2004.07.001.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0091302204000184)

RT Journal Article
A1 Stalder, Tobias
A1 Oster, Henrik
A1 Abelson, James L
A1 Huthsteiner, Katharina
A1 Klucken, Tim
A1 Clow, Angela
T1 The Cortisol Awakening Response: Regulation and Functional Significance
JF Endocrine Reviews
JO Endocr Rev
YR 2024
DO 10.1210/endrev/bnae024
OP bnae024
SN 0163-769X
RD 12/7/2024
UL https://doi.org/10.1210/endrev/bnae024

Lauren A.M. Lebois, Esther K. Papies, Kaundinya Gopinath, Romeo Cabanban, Karen S. Quigley, Venkatagiri Krishnamurthy, Lisa Feldman Barrett, Lawrence W. Barsalou,
A shift in perspective: Decentering through mindful attention to imagined stressful events,
Neuropsychologia,
Volume 75,
2015,
Pages 505-524,
ISSN 0028-3932,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.05.030.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0028393215300452)
Keywords: Decentering; Mental simulation; Mindfulness; Neuroimaging; Self; Stress

Michele M. Tugade, Department of Psychology, Vassar College; Barbara L. Fredrickson, Department of Psychology and Research Center for Group Dynamics at the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan; and Lisa Feldman Barrett, Department of Psychology, Boston College.
Preparation of this paper was supported by a National Service Research Award from the NIMH (F32-MH64267) to Michele Tugade; grants from the NIMH (MH53971 and MH59615) and funds from the John Templeton Foundation to Barbara Fredrickson; and NSF grants SBR-9727896, BCS 0074688 and NIMH grant K02 MH001981 to Lisa Feldman Barrett.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2004.00294.x

Interoceptive Sensitivity and Self-Reports of Emotional Experience.
By Barrett, Lisa Feldman,Quigley, Karen S.,Bliss-Moreau, Eliza,Aronson, Keith R.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 87(5), Nov 2004, 684-697

Equine Stress: Neuroendocrine Physiology and Pathophysiology
Written By Milomir Kovac, Tatiana Vladimirovna Ippolitova, Sergey Pozyabin, Ruslan Aliev, Viktoria Lobanova, Nevena Drakul and Catrin S. Rutland. Submitted: 26 July 2021 Reviewed: 25 April 2022 Published: 09 June 2022
DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.105045

https://books.google.es/books?hl=en&lr=&id=bwi9DwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=horses+positive+eustress&ots=R9CV5HX1lf&sig=2su0QXyicfeDrzc_jda2x_b-70g&redir_esc=y =onepage&q&f=false

14/11/2024

How many rules are you willing to break?

Are you able to get outside of the little prison you made for yourself? The little prison that keeps you stuck. Stuck on anxious ruminations that never go anywhere. Round and around and around. Stuck on reasons why you shouldn't try. Stuck on fear to make a choice. Stuck on a belief that tells you, that you cannot, that you shouldn't. That you are wrong.

To get unstuck you need to be willing to break some rules. Be willing to look weird (to others). To have people become intrusively nosey about what you're doing. Have sticky beaks get in your business and ask invasive and inappropriate questions about you and your choices. You will need the resilience to stand in the face of the status quo, and be "Othered".

If you have never, until now, been An Other, I would like to speak to you directly now. I speak to you directly as a person who has lived in various degrees of Otherness all my life. Sure, there's plenty of me that camouflages. Plenty of me that fits in too. But when it really came down to it, I have lived my life by the awareness that I was only "Tolerated" by those around me. People let me know that I should feel lucky to be listened to by them. That I am An Other. And they only deign to pretend I exist when it serves them. And never as an equal. I developed a sensitive detection for this. And now put a lot of effort into distancing or protecting myself from those who feel like integration with Lockie is their social-good-deed to The Others for the year.

But the paradox with horses is this: if you want to treat horses selflessly, kindly, altruistically, you are going to be One Of The Others. Everywhere you go.

It is not common place, or status quo to be kind to horses. It is accepted however to
- ride their bodies too young, to great detriment to their health.
- separate them from all social interaction, despite abundance of resources that they are fundamentally social animals that suffer when isolated
- To ridicule and make fun of horses, while also using them for our own fun, sport or financial gain
- To throw them away when they are not useful anymore
- To escalate pressure until you get what you want- always.
- To never hesitate to use pain to control them

etc.

If you choose to no longer identify with above practices, and more of their ilk, you will now be considered An Other. A weirdo. A Strange Person. A Confusing Entity. A Not One Of Us.

You will eventually, somewhere, be socially rejected. And horses have taught us that nothing is more damaging to a social animal than social rejection.

So, it is in situations like this, where (often against your will) you will need to ask a Weirdo; "What do I do now?".

This is why I am busy at this moment in time. Waves upon waves of horse people walking away from systems of abuse and their first step is often to ask the weirdo, what to do now.

What do I reply with?

Invariably, know yourself. Know your horse. It starts there.

10/11/2024

Happy Horses are Healthy Horses and a healthy hoof means a healthy horse... Not our pics just agree with this article...
We offer pasture boarding in small herds, feed like paddock paradise to encourage movement, perfect for retirees, have large shelters & great footing. Never floods... Feel free to DM for more info...

21/10/2024

I can relate... 😁

14/10/2024

Brave

Feeling brave, might delete later.

I’ve been pondering the dignity of the horse lately. At the level of collective species: “Horse”, and at the level of the individual horse, with a name, a place in the world and (hopefully) a loving human safeguarding them at their side.

I could mince my words and couch this, or I can speak to it plainly. If you’ll permit me, I’ll speak my view plainly here.

We can be doing better to keep in mind the dignity of our horses. Using them for our recreation and pleasure, is not something we are entitled to do. No matter how good our care and horse keeping is.

A well fed circus elephant, is still experiencing an egregious affront to their dignity when it is asked (nicely) to balance on the stool.

I am haunted by the expression in the eyes of some horses I saw in my past. The expression was one of a profound, deep, disassociation. To offer you a metaphor, to help you understand but not to describe accurately the horses experience, they had gone away in their mind. To the Bahamas. St, Lucia maybe. They were reclining in a hammock and sipping a Mai Tai under a palm tree, Bob Marley playing on the radio in the distance. While in the flesh, their flesh was being used by an upper primate for pleasure and fun.

Or sport.

They had long since stopped fighting. Their fight, their push back did flag them for their owner enough so that a trainer was called in. A trainer was called in who was a horseman. The horseman pet the horse and said
“I know.”

And then the horseman equipped the horse with some coping strategies. Explained to them that they are best off if they exchange a bit of their dignity and offer their owner what the owner wants of them: fun. If they give away a bit of their dignity- without trouble, and disassociate to tolerate the period of use that follow, they can protect themselves from a worse fate of trading all their dignity, or comfort, or safety, or life, for a period of use that follows.

Because Use of the horse is what always will follow.

I speak this as someone who enjoys riding as a pleasurable activity. I enjoy training as a pleasurable activity. But I am also someone who enjoys centering not MY desires, but I enjoy centering the horses dignity.

In fact, I seem to be a magnet for horses who have a pretty profound dignity streak. It shows up in a multitude of ways, but if I don’t preserve their dignity and centre their experience, they tell me straight away, and I am committed to the response-ability of what happens next.

All of us trade our dignity in disease, and the prevention of it. Almost nothing is worse than being a patient. Especially if you are a being who is impatient in the face of the loss of autonomy. If a horse finds basic care, trimming, handling, housing, an affront, then I triple check that I am firstly Doing My Best to offer the best conditions possible at this time. If I am not doing my best to afford the best possible conditions- I take action until I’ve exhausted the possibilities. I’ve put this to test thousands of times, long before I had my own land.
Then, I do my best to get the basics done as efficiently and painlessly as possible- I speak vetting, feeding, housing, trimming etc.

Then we come to training- horsemanship. And here my standards are much higher. A well fed, cared for, properly housed horse now doesn’t “need” human driven interaction, riding or training, in order to maintain base line of health and well-being. They feed, exercise and entertain themselves if you set it up so that they can. So… as an upper level high functioning primate (allegedly) I now have to prove myself worthy to be the thing that causes the horses cup to overfloweth. Not the thing that keeps the horse from the brink of the abyss.

Imagine a happy healthy horse who doesn’t “need” you, telling you that what you’re asking for, is an affront to their basic dignity. Imagine then upping your game. Getting better. Being honed- not by your selfish human desires, but being honed by the horse.

Now imagine a happy healthy horse who doesn’t “need” you, telling you that they love spending time with you, are interested in what you have to say, and find you the thing that makes their great life, an incredible life.

That’s what I mean when I speak about dignity.

And asking a horse to be ok with something that is not ok (to them) is only applicable if it is a Must-Do activity.

And our use of a horse for fun has never been a Must-Do activity.

But I guess that depends on what you define as fun. I don’t find “Use”, fun.

13/10/2024

Interesting Info...

Could your horse’s fly mask be interfering with their gut function?

(Edited 11/11/24 to include studies to support my inquiry, and added information on the importance of sunlight)

This is a question I have been wondering about for a while now. Let me explain why.

The science of circadian rhythm is a newly emerging field. Although the cycle of the sun has been a large part of society’s well-being dating back to Egyptians most likely earlier. After all the sphinx does face towards the rising sun. And the culture at Sarmizegetusa in Romania has an entire village set up to reflect different times of day, winter and summer solstice, and even has a large sun dial in the center of their worship.

Circadian clocks in our brain and all around our body controls most (if not all) of our biological processes, which is governed by natural sunlight… or disrupted by artificial light or lack of natural sunlight. Research now proves that our light environment is as fundamental to our health as air, water, and food. Some would argue it is even more important than what we eat. [PMID: 32668607]

Light is one of the most powerful influencers on all mammalian physiology. Every cell in our body that forms every tissue, organ, skin, everything, relies on a circadian rhythm. And this comes from deep in our brain through our naked eyes.

All mammals have whats called a superchiasmotic nuclei (SCN) that goes from our eyes to our hypothalamus, and is considered our internal time clock. Taking in the light in our environment and interpreting it as to what time of day or night it is in order to synchronize millions of physiological tasks that have to happen inside every single cell at every moment.

Recognizing what blend of light (or darkness) that is happening in present time is crucial to the functioning of all the things that our body needs to accomplish at a cellular level. The back of our eyes captures all of these light frequencies.

When we are attuned to nature, and to natural light, every physiological process is not only synchronized in a circadian rhythm, but this also is how our mitochondria creates a coherent domain water that internally hydrates every surface of our body. This water gives our cells the negative charge needed for optimization. It acts not only as a protective barrier around every hydrophilic surface, but also is how every process in our body communicates with each other. Our internal exclusion zone water transmits signals, emits signals, gathers information around our body, and creates a protective coating so the lining of for example, our endothelial walls, are protected. The water we create is more important than the water we drink. And it is the light from the sun that is crucial for the creation of internal water from our mitochondria.

When we are attuned to artificial light, or even light coming through windows (all windows block out red and IR light), or light coming through sunglasses - the master clock in the brain is being told it is a different time of day and this disrupts the timing of all of our biological processes. This creates a circadian mismatch, or chaos within our body. This also creates cellular dehydration which then gives our cells a positive charge. This positive charge basically means we are loosing our health as we loose this protective coating of coherent domain water, and it looses it’s structure and is no longer able to communicate. [PMID: 36030088]

This got me wondering about fly masks as so many are advertised as “UV” blockers. And what this is doing to a horse’s circadian rhythm. And how their physiological processes effected when the sun entering their SCN is filtered through a mask that is blocking UV light coming from the sun.

The sun contains every color of the rainbow. Some we see, and some light frequencies we don’t see. When the sun rises it is super rich in red and infrared light, and as it continues to rise it starts to bring other colors in. At solar noon every color of the rainbow is present. Then as it starts to go towards the opposite horizon it gets more violet and green then red and IR again as it sets.

Natures light is always changing throughout the day. And our bodies, when attuned to this light are responding in unison transforming energies from the sun to our mitochondria. Creating liquid crystalline water that is the primordial quantum molecular machine resulting in 100% efficiency of cellular optimization. Synchronizing all processes in present time.

Not only does artificial light stay the exact same throughout the day, but filtering light through windows or sunglasses also causes a confusion our biology and the timing of when different processes need to happen.

So for example, when our eyes see the sunrise, this mix of red and IR light turns on our hypothalamus through the SCN which is responsible for communicating with our hormone pathways telling them to wake up and synchronize.

When our eyes and skin (skin has non visual photo receptors that support the light coming through the eye) see the rise of UVA, which is when the sun is about 10 degrees above the horizon, this stimulates a few very important processes.

The first pathway to start when our naked eyes see UVA rise from the sun, is serotonin. Serotonin actually comes from tryptophan. Tryptophan is an aromatic amino acid, means it is designed to interact with light and is essentially considered a time crystal. As soon as tryptophan captures UVA light in the back of our eyes, that catalyses tryptophan to become serotonin.

There is a large store of serotonin there found in mammal’s guts. The serotonin stores in the small bowel can be harvested to make pineal melatonin from the gut stores of serotonin. The stimulus of this complex program is UV and IR light during the day via the RPE of the eye, with no blue at night. When these factors are present we will get no peristalsis in the gut. This also shut down fat burning. Fat burning by the TCA cycle requires us to see the sunrise. Dr. Jack Kruse

Neuropsin is also stimulated by UVA rise which is involved in anchoring our circadian rhythm.

But then, the dark environment is just as important to this process. When our eyes capture the dark environment, this tells serotonin to convert into melatonin. Melatonin sensitizes the photoreceptors within the retina [PMID: 1582795].

So essentially being outside at UVA rise is what helps us get a restorative sleep. This is true for all mammals.
[PMID: 1582795]

So what do you think happens if the first light in the morning that your eyes see is an artificial light from a lamp, or a phone screen? This tells our brain through our SCN that it is later in the day. This process of tryptophan becoming serotonin is compromised, and you might consider yourself “not a morning person” taking a long time to wake up. Or, you might be tired all day, always exhausted. And you go to bed exhausted yet you might not sleep well since you are now lacking melatonin production.

What about horses who get UVA blocked? Or if the first light they see is a barn light, then goes to their turn out pasture with a fly mask on blocking all UV light? Think about how important serotonin is to the gut. And the gut is intimately connected to brain health, skin health, metabolic health, etc. From what I see, all of these issues seem to be chronic conditions among our equine family. A disruption in circadian rhythms has been directly linked to poor gut microbiota. [PMID: 32668369].

There are also other amino acids that trap UVA rise to become things like dopamine, norepinephrine, thyroid hormone, and most importantly the production of pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC). Which is a pro hormone that becomes a whole host of downstream molecules that do things like reduce anxiety, improve memory, support healthy immune, reduce compulsive behaviors, enhance dopamine, responsible for ACTH to lower inflammation, or beta endorphins to lower pain.

Anyone with a horse knows of ACTH as this is what is tested for cushings disease. Cushings is another chronic disease among our beloved horses. So is insulin resistance, which has direct links to lack of sunlight. Neurodegeneration has been associated with GI issues via the gut brain axis. Which can be a result when any of the above mentioned pathways are weakened.

UVA rise hitting our naked eyes and bare skin is what stimulates ALL of these neurotransmitters and neuropathways to begin.

When we block UVA, these processes suffer.

Then we have UVB rise, which comes after UVA. You can get the circadian app to see this timing for your location. UVB is crucial not only for for vitamin D synthesis, but also UVB directly modulates microbiome to increase microbial diversity. This happens more when UVB hits the skin, but when the eyes and skin are not in the same circadian timing these pathways can become compromised.

Vitamin D is responsible for anti-inflammatory responses, healthy immune function, among so many other things.

Sunglasses blocks or changes nature’s light coming through the eyes. Sunglasses tell our brain that it is twilight, so important functions start to slow down. We have a circadian mismatch between our eyes and the photo receptors on our skin. Important process like digestion, that slows down when the sun goes down, might always be slow. An indoor life, or an outdoor life in sunglasses, is like living in perpetual twilight. Does the same hold true for a horse who always wears a fly mask? If our digestion slows when the sun goes down, and sunglasses cause our body to think it is later in the day, can fly masks do the same thing?

All mammals have this physiology and in the last 15-20 years the sun has become demonized yet we still need it for our survival. As we move further away from nature, our furry 4-leggeds com along with us. We have forgotten how healing the sun is for our survival. Studies that demonize UV from the sun have been done in isolation, without balancing the red and IR and all of the other colors of the rainbow that harmonizes the light spectrums. And now we are covering up our horses with fly masks, fly sheets, blankets, even sprays. And they are also getting sicker and sicker.


Inflammatory problems in so many horses I see mostly with skin and gut. Insulin, cushings. Osteoarthritis, ulcers, microbiome issues, ligament tears, anxiety issues. Could these be a result of blocking their access to nature?This is a picture of my horse with a fly mask that he wore for the most part of his last 3 years. He died from an unexpected gut problem.

25/09/2024

Lots of good info here...

25/09/2024

25/09/2024

19/09/2024

Keep it fun... 😊

02/09/2024

Wow...

"I am fine!"

"No, you're not."

"No... I am fine."

"I can feel that differently."

"Don't feel me."

"Why. You are literally on my body and next to me. I am always feeling you."

"Because I am holding back the flood of feelings that I have no idea what to do with. If I felt them, I might fall apart"

"Ok. I won't feel you then."

"Excuse me... can you pay attention to me? I am asking you a question nicely. Can you respond to me nicely please?"

"But we just made an agreement. That I disconnect to how you feel, just like you disconnect to how you feel."

"Yes but, don't connect to my feelings. Connect to my actions and commands."

"They are one and the same. That is impossible unless..."

"Unless what?"

"Unless I detach myself from you. Emotional death."

"Great. I'll have one emotional death please. None of those nasty inconvenient feelings. Let us just do actions please."

"Ok. But I am here, waiting for you."

"What are you waiting for?"

"For you to feel. So that we can communicate with feel."

25/08/2024

Kiwi... get on it! 🥰

24/08/2024

So common...

What if we have it wrong?
I remember being so excited to show a dressage rider client footage of one of my favorite horseman riding one of his more advanced horses.
I still go into a trance-like state watching him ride, and I, perhaps foolishly, expected her to feel the same sense of awe.
Her criticism came fast and sharp. His lack of contact was harming his horse, apparently. That horse was going to break down, physically, if he didn't get him into more of a frame.
I tried hiding my disappointment, but I showed more and more footage to gauge response, then I asked her to show me footage of "better riding". Stressed horses held in a frame followed.
My take away from this interaction, because I know this horsemans herd well, is that the dressage rider had a skew sense of what is important for the horses physical and emotional well being.
The horseman she critiqued has a herd of 8 horses, some well into their 20's, sound and happy. The rider herself has 4 horses. 2 Grand Prix dressage horses, and a 6 year starting it's journey to Grand Prix and a horse retired at 17 due to soundness issues.
Both of the Grand Prix horses have been through surgery, and the 6 year old was on stall rest at the time for a mystery lameness.
Workload is undoubtedly a variable, because the horseman in question enters one Ranch Roping event a year, while the Dressage rider competes most weekends. Every single one of the horsemans herd work a 3 day week on the ranch though.
When I mentioned this to my dressage rider client she got a little angry with me, and intimated that said horseman probably just doesn't notice the soundness issues in his herd, being so uneducated.
Let's say that's true. Let's say he doesn't pick up subtle soundness issue caused by his lack of contact. This lady has 2 horses out of 4 that can't trot without a limp, and she is critiquing someones ability to spot subtle unsoundness, with no actual evidence in front of her.
I don't want to spread heresy, but what if we have it wrong? What if those vet bills aren't just because "horses are badly designed?' What if some of these backwards work horse riders are doing something right?
I am not saying all dressage must be wrong, I love dressage, and I do know happy, sound dressage horses. I also know the downfalls of ovwr specialized breeding play a part in soundness issues.
I do, however, feel we need to be open to the possibility that people working horses 8 hours a day, and relying on those horses staying sound, may also have something to add to the conversation.
Photo by Talya Mari