RiverOak Stables

13/10/2025

Around here, we trade pressure for peace and control for connection. Happy, healthy horses is always the priority 🌾❤️

25/08/2025

Spring having a peak around the corner 😍

25/08/2025

✨️❤️✨️

04/08/2025

💖🫶🏼

If you were to strip away all of the accessories, leaving only the bare minimum, the saddle, a basic saddle pad, a headstall with browband, throat latch and a bit, what truths would you discover?

For every extra piece of tack or equipment, ask not “Do I need this?” but instead, “Why am I using it?”

And when you find that answer, look deeper still.
Is it there to manage behaviour?
To contain a reaction?
To solve a problem?

Now be honest…
Is that behaviour a message of pain?
Is that reaction a cry for help?
Is the problem rooted not in the horse’s will, but in their body and their ability?

Head in the clouds? Perhaps your horse isn't strong enough to carry himself properly and uses his neck to rebalance.

Tongue over the bit? Perhaps the bit doesn't fit, or his teeth are bothering him, or just the placement of the bit in the mouth.

We gag their voices with tight nosebands.
We muffle their movement with layers of gear.

We stack solutions on symptoms without ever asking:
What if the tack is hiding the truth?

You cannot listen with your hands full.
And you cannot see clearly until you’ve stripped away the clutter.

Let your horse speak.
You might be surprised by what they’ve been trying to say.