Horse About

09/11/2024

How to Make a Horse Spooky😫

This photo was taken 10 years ago. While it’s easy to pick apart what I clearly didn’t know at the time, one thing I can tell you is that I was very confident💪.

If you’d asked me to train that horse in any behaviour, I could. If I needed to get that horse to do something, I could. In that photo, I was skilled in training behaviours. I could get horses to do things, and I felt the power of that.

But this horse, Saxon, was spooky, and it took me a while to realise that, despite my confidence and skill, I had accidentally made him this way.

It was almost comical—going from a nervous, inexperienced rider who was making her horse spooky, to a super-confident, skilled rider who was doing the same thing with a different horse😱!

By then, I was working with many horses who weren’t spooky, so why was this one?

How was this happening? What was I doing wrong?

There were a number of reasons, but the biggest one was that I was only seeing everything as behaviour. I didn’t realise that while I was riding him, I was also influencing how he felt…and I was making him feel pretty terrible.😔

Why? Because I wanted perfect behaviour, and I was relentless. I was micromanaging him, flooding him with constant pressure, overworking both his mind and body.

From his perspective, I was making him feel threatened. When I was on his back, he felt alarmed. If something in the environment added to that sense of alarm, it would result in reactivity, as he couldn’t process his surroundings with an overloaded sensory system. So he would spook—or, at the very least, move with tension.

There were other things I was doing wrong. But this story shows how sensitive, spooky, nervous, tense, reactive horses are created in a variety of ways—and being confident or skilled doesn’t stop you from making mistakes.

Being skilled doesn’t mean you’re immune to ignorance💡.

It also says something about me. In both extremes—the nervous rider creeping around, trying to protect my horse from the world, versus the confident, hard-taskmaster micromanager—I was trying to control uncertainty. Nervous-rider me was trying to control the environment, while confident me was trying to control the horse.

Now, I realise it’s not control I’m seeking but influence, and it’s more than just training. It’s about the decisions I make on what and how to train, where and how I do it, and basing each of those decisions on how the horse is feeling—all to build their trust and confidence.

This journey requires creativity, grounding, and humility to keep ego in check.

I released The Sensitive, Spooky, Nervous Horse Resource a few days ago. Its purpose is to raise awareness of the creative, strategic approach we need to build a partnership with a horse❤️.

This process requires an understanding of the horse as a species. Saxon was just being a horse, and his responses are completely predictable to me today. It also requires self-awareness—understanding that, regardless of what you think you’re doing, the horse’s reactions may show it feels threatened, and you need to figure out why. Along the way, you’re bound to make mistakes that might seem logical at the time but aren’t.

But can it be worked out? Absolutely. It’s about understanding, awareness, and strategy so you can make the best decisions for your horse’s welfare🤓.

Details are in the usual place⬇️.

‼If you found this helpful, please hit the share button to spread the idea...however, DO NOT copy & paste‼

➡️If anyone wants to find out more about me go to calmwillingconfidenthorses dot com dot au

08/11/2024

Storm sorted for summer ☀️

02/11/2024

This...

01/11/2024

Sunrise with Madam Caradoc

31/10/2024

Beautiful yard with so much knowledge available for training, backing, rehab etc.

29/10/2024

Evening rounds with the 3 young uns..the busy ones!

28/10/2024

It's a thing...morning snoozes with buddies

28/10/2024

Biggles says that was alot of water for one night! Grateful that we have no major damage and all the horses handled it like pros!

25/10/2024

After seeing multiple videos posted by various breeders bragging about their 2 ½ year olds/recently turned 3 year olds and sharing videos of them cantering around in the arena, I have decided to once again circulate the below article.

First of all, breeders *should* have the knowledge to understand a horse’s fragile and slow maturing musculoskeletal system. Breeders should not condone their own horses let along anyone’s horses being cantered around under saddle at an incredibly young age. Period. This sets a terrible example and is quite honestly animal abuse. Just because a horse does not object does not mean it is right. And quite frankly, most of the videos posted show animals that are already in pain or developing pain…

As breeders, we should strive to produce healthy and sound animals. We should promote horsemanship that produces long term soundness. No, starting a horse later does not guarantee soundness. But it certainly helps.

I am a firm believer in scientifically backed approaches to horsemanship. You can’t argue with science that has been proven time and time again. Let’s dispel some stupid rumors:

1. There is no such thing as a (skeletally) slow maturing horse or one that is fast maturing. No horse is skeletally mature before the age of 6. And that is on the low estimate for age.

2. Growth plates are not just in the knee. Every bone behind the skull has a growth plate. Not every single one needs to be converted to bone before starting. There is a schedule of when bone fuses…this is the information needed to know when to start a horse. Not their outward appearance. It is a known fact that during growth, proprioceptive awareness can regress, greatly increasing the risk of injury.

3. Starting a horse is not the same thing as riding a horse. Starting a horse does not mean cantering it 3-4 days a week in an arena.

4. Injecting a horse that is in pain does not mean you fixed a problem. You masked it.

5. You can build correct muscle and teach a horse how to move their body from the ground. This creates a solid foundation to work from once your horse is ready to actually be backed. Teach a horse to use its body correctly before backing and you’ll save yourself a lot of vet bills down the line.

Hocks are “late” for maturity. The growth plates on the tibial and fibular tarsals do not fuse until a horse is 3-3 ½. Ever wonder why so many horses seem to have hocks issues?? Horses need to learn to carry themselves and their own weight well before adding a rider.

The growth plates that are LAST to close are at the base of the neck. This area is where we ask a horse to raise the base of their neck and come round. If under too much stress, the growth plates can fracture or be permanently damaged.

There are DOZENS of activities you can do with a young horse to build healthy muscular development. None of them involve a saddle or your weight on their back. Teaching a horse to carry themselves correctly BEFORE adding a rider is essential and cannot be done in a week. A 2 ½ year old horse is a baby. Mentally and physically. We see far too many injured performance horses at VERY young ages - broken down and/or sour from work. It’s wrong. Period. They need slow and steady work and need time to recover from even the slightest of injuries.

PLEASE, if you are considering when you should start your horse and what that work load should look like, please read the below. There are some wonderful things you can do with your young developing horse. Please don’t rush a year out of greed.

http://www.equinestudies.org/ranger_2008/ranger_piece_2008_pdf1.pdf

24/10/2024

Early morning trims and the support group. It's important that horses and the herd are relaxed when essentials are done.

23/10/2024

Early morning snooze huddle.

20/10/2024

Geronimo checking in for scratches and possibility of sharing a snack

19/10/2024

It’s about to get controversial up in here.

Horses don’t “need” jobs.

They need fulfillment, yes, which involves having things to do throughout the day. But it doesn’t need to be structured like a job.

It doesn’t need to be hard work.

It doesn’t need to be structured or centered. It certainly does not need to be riding.

As humans often project our personal biases onto horses.

We feel like we “need” and have normalized this to the point where we projected onto the animals around us. 

As if they two need to work in order to “earn” the care that we take on the responsibility of providing by choosing to have them as companions.

The thing is humans don’t “need “jobs either.

In the society that we’ve created, there has been a manufactured need for a job because the basic necessities of living are not readily provided to people.

However, basic needs like food are in excess.

They are just withheld so that labour can be exploited in exchange for them.

Ask anyone who’s worked in food services how much food is thrown out on a daily service. Put in the dumpster bin instead of the mouths of the hungry because feeding them isn’t profitable.

Humans have existed on this planet within a community minded structure longer than they have within a capitalistic environment.

So, while for most of us this is all we have known, it doesn’t mean it is normal for the human species to exist in this way.

I think it’s time we start to reinvent what is viewed as normal and realize that common does not equate to normal.

Things always being a certain way does not mean that they are doomed to stay that way forever.

We can enact change for the better and create environments that serve everyone in a more holistic way.

None of us “need” jobs.

The “need” for them has been created by profiteering off of basic needs.

We need community, safety, comfort, food, water.

We need fulfilment of our needs.

And horses are the same.

How wonderful would the world be if we didn’t have to be useful for creating profit for others in order to be viewed as deserving of basic needs?

The way things have been is subject to change.

We can reinvent the way things are simply by dreaming of a better way of doing things.

Currently, I see a world that is far more selfish than it should be.

One that doesn’t view living breathing things as deserving of life unless they provide labor.

I hope to one day get to see a world where life is loved for the miracle that it is and where we view shelter, food and water as a fundamental right to all, regardless of whether or not they work.

I’ve gotten to the point where I vow to provide my horses the same, whether they’re “useful” for riding or not.

But, to be honest, it wasn’t always that way.

When I was prioritizing riding the most, my horses lost value when they weren’t “useful” for riding.

My world felt as thought it were ending if riding plans were disrupted by injury or otherwise.

It was a fragile, flimsy and unfulfilling world to exist in.

Community is the way forward.

Love and support are what give us strength as a species.

Let’s reevaluate why we have developed the belief that basic needs are to be earned through labour, instead of freely given because it’s the right thing to do.

Horses don’t need to earn their keep.

We owe it to them for bringing them into our world in the first place.

They’ve long since “earned their keep” by effectively building the world we live in today with years of unpaid labour.

By they shouldn’t have even needed to do that in order to have value.

We owe the animals we have adequate care because they’re living beings, they don’t have to earn it.

It’s our duty to provide it regardless.

12/10/2024

The gorgeous Felicia.

10/10/2024

Fat bottomed boys ..🎵🎵🎼🌎🔴

09/10/2024

24/09/2024

We don’t often link electrolytes and in particular salt, as important for muscle function. For muscles to contract and relax correctly during work, it is vital that our horses have sufficient electrolytes in their systems to help maintain hydration and ensuring that nerve impulses fire correctly giving the signal for muscle fibres to contract and relax.

Working with Hayley from EquiTone-ETT, it is interesting to hear how the muscles respond differently to the Transeva treatments when salt is or isn’t included in the diet of the horses she works with. As Hayley puts it - “Muscle contractions feel smoother, as though the muscle fibres glide better” when the horses are fed salt compared to those who aren’t.

Salt provides sodium and chloride the two most deficient electrolytes in the diets I work with and can easily be added to your horse’s meals to ensure overall hydration and proper muscle responses.