Im sick of silence.

I’m sick of silence on this. I am so so so sick of seeing horses broken both physically, and mentally by breakers/starters/trainers, then being deemed too dangerous to continue with. This is not normal, it is not acceptable, and it is not okay. Undoubtedly they all get passed onto the next person to ‘bandaid’ or break more. Expressions of flight & fear have no effective place in the horse training process. Absolutely none. They should never be encouraged, OR allowed to continue throughout the breaking/starting process. It is all up to the trainer, ALL OF IT. Horses will break themselves if they are not prepared for what they are being asked to do, and are overfaced. They will break themselves, usually catastrophically through fear, through fright, and through unrealistic expectations on them mentally and physically. Ideals of ‘Respect’ have no place in horse training - respect is irrelevent to horse learning, and it certainly won’t come from chasing, unbalancing, or scaring horses into an unclear, or even clear response. You horse should NEVER come back from a trainer in a compromised welfare state. I don’t care if their job is ‘training’ - their job is to be an expert who specialises in Equine Learning, and that only comes from majority basis of WELFARE. Do not tolerate getting an underweight, unhealthy, dehydrated horse back from training. This is NOT normal, and NOT okay. Do not tolerate horses getting injured during training from particular trainers regularly, using particular techniques. This is NOT normal, and NOT okay. Do not tolerate getting a horse back from training, in anything less than a calmer, more relaxed, more confident, more responsive combined with relaxation at the same time, consistently. Anything less is NOT normal, and NOT okay. Do not tolerate a horse coming back from a trainer with an exacerbation of conflict behaviors or ones that were not present before (bit chewing, lack of straightness, one sideness, tension, mouth gaping, bucking, rushing, head tilting, refusing to go forwards, reactive to the bit pressure or your leg pressure, cold backed) and tension alongside ‘responsiveness’ aka reactiveness. This is NOT normal, and it is NOT okay. It also is not a good training result. It is a problematic result, and an outcome that will need many levels of retraining to resolve. The standards that are being tolerated, ENABLED, & walked past are exactly the same standards that will bring our industry, and passion, and love to a reckoning and will call the end of it. Set the dam standards yourself. I am sick of seeing what I am seeing, and I am sick of hearing what I am hearing. Good, correct, welfare oriented training comes in the subtle progressive changes, and the clear results - NOT the big sudden changes, and inconsistent results.

#equineethology #equinetraining #equinelearning #horsewelfare #horsetraining #equinescience #equitationscience #thestandardswewalkpast

All reactions: 2727

Choose something fun.

Well, Yes I guess so ….

#equestrian #horseriding

The process of recovery looks very similar to the process of decline - just in reverse, somewhat....

The process of decline in musculoskeletal soundness, or functional movement patterns as a cause of injury or the result of an acute injury is intertwined with the outcomes and resolution of any pain or movement deficit.

'Lameness' unfortunately doesn't exist as an island, and compromised load or deficits in power generation will always be transferred to other aspects of physiology creating secondary compensatory outcomes. Protection comes at an expensive cost to the horses physiology, as it does to all biological systems.

The process of the recovery or rehabilitation of a disfunction to a complete recovery, or a sustainable phase of management without further decline follows a linear, but multi layered approach of both management of pain to reduce decline of proprioception through persistent 'protection' and subsequent loss of flexibility, strength, endurance capacity and functional demands on the horses physiology.

There are vital milestones in the process to take the horse from owner recognition, to injury or movement pattern disfunction recovery + resolution and these remain pivotal around the initial recognition, isolation, resolution to and sustainable management of movement pattern impacting pain in the horse.

Once this initial step has been taken, the process tracks back safely, and methodically through a similar path that the decline took....with a difference.

The difference lays in the actual movement patterns, and processes that must be physically undertaken.

These must be deconstructed down to redevelop + remind the nervous system + physiology of what to do correctly, retrain the horses cognitive pathways and responses, and subsequently methodically move through them progressively to arrive at both a resolution of the injury or dysfunction with a sustainable foundation. This foundation provides the basis for progression onwards from the point of initial injury or decline, where possible into functional demands on the horses movement.

In a nutshell, the way to regain movement, is to retrain movement. But to get to where you can start that, you need to be able to regain each facet of that correct movement - painfree.

Reference: Haussler, Kevin & King, M. & Peck, K. & Adair, Henry. (2020). The development of safe and effective rehabilitation protocols for horses. Equine Veterinary Education. 33. 10.1111/eve.13253.

The process of decline in movement patterns + recovery

.pdf

Download PDF • 4.66MB