You are your horse’s advocate. That does not mean you have the knowledge to make all the decisions you need to make. That means you are smart enough to surround yourself with people EDUCATED enough to help you advocate for your horse. When you have to make large decisions regarding your horse, RESUMES matter. Your cousin who had an uncle that had horses is not an advocate for you and your horse. They are emotional support for your, which is NECESSARY. Advocation has to

You would not put a new driver in a car that was only half way built. You would not put a new driver in a sports car. Those are recipes for a disaster.

A day late

By the time your horse is limping, they have been lame for a significant period of time. Outside of catastrophic injury, lameness is a cumulative disease. The best way to cure lameness is to prevent it. This means we must be better at noticing the small changes in our horses and not just writing them off as crabby, naughty, cinchy, etc. Our horses have long been telling us something was amiss; we just fail to notice the subtle conversation. We take notice when they start

Your horse is not being stubborn, naughty, lazy, reactive. Your horse is being a horse and responding to their current situation based on their current circumstances, previous experiences and your energy. Your horse is on the struggle bus. You may have not put your horse on the struggle bus. You may have contributed to them boarding the bus. Your horse may have gotten on the struggle bus from pain, confusion, previous education (good and bad), current environment, living

Judges. I am one and have been judging for close to three decades. I struggle with judging because I know people put too much value on my opinion of an 8 minute picture of their partnership and performance with their horse. It could be the best 8 minutes you’ve ever had or the worst. It’s my job to uphold a standard and evaluate the performance on that standard.

Yes I know it’s late. I’ve been teaching a group of cooks kids (and young at heart adults) in Michigan.

Horses are a hobby for 95% of people. They are not necessary for our way of life. Horses are expensive. Horses are something we want to enjoy but our enjoyment comes at a cost to them. What we do for enjoyment is work for our horses.

Here is a little hack. When you need to soak a horse that doesn’t like a soaking boot or you don’t have time to watch them, get 4x4 gauze sponges. Soak them in your desired soaking solution (we use oxine). Get some plastics wrap and secure the gauze sponges on the hoof with the plastic wrap.

There are some things domesticated horses must do to exist in our world.

A day late

When we identify a habit in our horses we do not like, we want an instant fix. We want the behavior to go extinct now.

Short and sweet.

Yes late. I am trying to catch up.

When horses show pain, they are in advanced stages of failing. Horses by nature are designed not to show pain because the weakest in the herd will get eaten. If we are going to ride them, we need to do better preventing pain.

We must be good stewards of the horse. If they are in pain, we can’t expect them to continue in their job for our satisfaction without resolution to their discomfort. I see too many people unwilling to invest in their horse’s welfare, they just want the horse to perform. Horses were not designed to be ridden. If they are uncomfortable, we need to figure out why. We need to change our expectations. Discomfort leads to behavior issues. Behavior issues lead to us being un

Threshold

Let’s talk about pain management. Ultimately it is up to the horse to decide what is working for them.

We need to create a moment of silence after our aids make a request of our horse. We do not need to nag until we get the answer we want. We do not need to prevent them from making a mistake. It is our job to present our request with accurate aids. It is the horse's job to interpret that request and formulate a response. They might get it wrong. Let them. Do not get frustrated, angry or irritated. Review and present your aids again. Do not make your aids more firm. J