Peel Coastal

Times are available in the Peel Coast West area on a regular 4 weekly basis, with some times available in between depending on other trips arranged. It's always best to check on the online booking system as they will pop up where available.

This area covers;

• Nirimba

• Birchmont

• Dawesville

• Bouvard

• Herron

• Clifton

• Lake Clifton

• Preston Beach

Bookings in this area start from 9:30am with the last available at 4:30pm, and are usually regularly on Saturdays, and sometimes on weekdays.

Bookings can be made on the online booking system, via this link:

Bookings in the Peel Coastal Area

Clients of KDH Equestrian may have their bookings at KDH Equestrian, in Waroona. This can be very useful for accurate assessment (flat ground, arena for assessment, and round yard) as well as for inclement weather planning if you do not have a safe undercover area for bookings in hot, and wet weather.

Please contact Katlin Hull - KDH Equestrian, as their may be a small ground fee to be paid to KDH, for the use of these facilities. If you are planning on coinciding with the time of your lesson, please plan to book your appointment for after your lesson.

Does your horse have a 'tell'?

Does your horse have a 'tell'?

A 'tell' is often referred to in human behaviour, as an unconscious signal that a person many give when they are keeping a cognitive process, thought or information from those around them or at least trying to! Movies and stories have depicted it in poker scenes, or during some for of deception or manipulation, usually it indicates to the bad guy what is going on for the good guy to escape. Our real life example may be that person who can never keep a secret because everyone can 'tell' when they are keeping one..... However, when it comes to horse training, over the years it has been used to describe the visual indicators of a horse having 'learnt' something, or having experienced a mental shift to relaxation etc. Personally, the way that I train horses, I took for the physical response as the key primary indicator of their understanding, and secondarily I observe the small physical changes that give me insight into their base line cognitive state, and level of stress - indicating either good or bad, stress can be either. This behavioural observation, called the Yerkes-Dodson Law is present in humans, and horses.

This is Rosie's, (my 5 year old thoroughbred mare) most distinct 'Tell'. I call it her 'perturbation' tell.

Perturbation has two meanings that I apply here, 1. Anxiety; mental uneasiness. 2. A deviation of a system, moving object, or process from its regular or normal state or path, caused by an outside influence.

Rosie can have the tendency to continue to have varying degree's of the "sunny side up lip' where her jaw tension pulls in her lips flat to her bottom jaw (mandible) creating a protrusion of the middle 'chin', and a protrusion of the bottom lip past her upper lip. This can be present when she is verging on the flight response, when she is expecting something she wants (food), if she is waiting, if she is watching something that has aroused her, or if she is very focused when there is a lot of external stimuli going on. This can also be present throughout a big and successful learning experience for her. At times it can be less severe compared to other times, and it can be present along with entire body signs of relaxation. This is usually related to hormonal cycle changes. Some may even see this facial expression as a sign of relaxation, but with consistent and close observation it is very clearly associated with behaviourally induced jaw / neck / shoulder tension in Rosies case.

This facial expression is different to the equine grimace face, or equine pain face. So, I consider it as her perturbation tell. I use it as a measure of her capacity to be positively or negatively engaged with the situation she is in. I observe it, along with other behaviours as just another of the many important pieces of visual information the horse gives us, to help us to provide them with the best opportunity to succeed at what we are asking of then.

Being masters of, and life long students at the visual information the horse provides us will always lead to better training, welfare, management and health outcomes for our horses.

#equinescience #equinebehaviour #equinewelfare #resetequinesem #horseridersofinstagram #horsesofinstagram #horsetraining

Anaerobic exercise - why do we call it that?

Anaerobic exercise is a type of physical exertion that requires the conversion of glucose in the horses body (and yours!) without using oxygen, to provide a fast access source of energy (ATP).

Anaerobic means “without oxygen”, an (without), aerobic (oxygen).

In real time application terms, this means that anaerobic exercise results in a greater exertion, with a more powerful outcome, much more rapidly - but can only be sustained over a shorter duration than aerobic exercise. Anaerobic, and Aerobic pathways are in use basically all the time, however the dominant takeover of this 'oxygen free' energy producing pathway occurs systematically throughout the whole horses body (and humans) at the point of maximum oxygen consumption (VO2max), so therefore any further energy must be generated by anaerobic glycolysis.

The flip side of this, is that beyond V02 max, when the recruitment of muscle fibres that are suited to anaerobic metabolism commences, a subsequent a sharp rise in blood lactate accumulation occurs as a product of glycolysis, aka the anaerobic energy producing process.

If you are lucky enough and time it right, this accumulating lactate can actually be reconverted to an even more efficient form of energy as the oxygen comes in and mops it up....but you have to balance exertion, hr recovery, duration to change over to the aerobic pathways again. If you over cook it, and it's too late and your horses deficit of glycogen (the form of 'sugar' stored within the muscles for rapid energy production) within the tissue out weights the capacity for recovery and keeps it well away from metabolic adaptation. ie. fitness development.

So lets try and steer well clear of that...