As I sit here in a power cut waiting for Storm Eunice to pass, I'm reflecting on the past 7 days and the all-too-common horse suffering I've witnessed both personally and in the horse press. Perhaps the swirling wind has awoken my inner storm. These musings are just my experience of this last week but are not limited to it, sadly these experiences are something I've been witnessing for the last 25 years. However, how can it be that in this day and age with easily accessible knowledge on learning theory and healthy horse biomechanics I’ve still seen:

1.    A (once) highly respected equine Olympic champion using fear and pain to train a frightened horse. A well-known horse publication not fully lambasting this, indeed some people rallying to support..the usual comments "a one off" "the horse was being naughty" "he never normally trains this way". The horse was suffering - THIS IS WRONG

2.    An international event rider showcasing how she educates her young horses on a cross-country course using long lines AND short side reins to train over fences! I can't even begin to fathom how any intelligent person could not see how damaging this is to those young horses’ mouths, necks, bodies, yet 2,000 likes and comment after comment about "how wonderful this was to see", "lucky baby horse". The horse was suffering - THIS IS WRONG

3.    An Olympic dressage rider promoting a rider training app where there are many clips of the horse being ridden severely overflexed with a severely compressed neck. I don't care how decorated that rider is, the horse was suffering - THIS IS WRONG

4.    An instructor teaching a rider on a mechanical horse to keep their hands absolutely still, they must never move, the rider’s hands are an ANCHOR!!! Wow, I'm glad I'm not a horse being ridden by that ship - horses will suffer, THIS IS WRONG

5.    Another new gadget being advertised to connect (FIX) the rider's hand to the horse’s mouth. Teaching low, unyielding, still hands. Again, and again more horses’ tongues will be abused. Horses will suffer - THIS IS WRONG

6.    A newly backed 4-year-old horse who was welded to the idea, having been taught to, that she must never move her head out of an overflexed position, chin near chest, staring at the floor. "She's on the bit, this must be correct training" - NOPE the horse was suffering - THIS IS ALSO WRONG

When will this change? When will horse trainers start seeing the pain they are inflicting on the horses they train?

When will people become more aware of what abusive training looks like? It's everywhere, it's not hard to find. Would you strap your dog’s chin near to its chest because the local dog trainer told you it would be good for them? Would you go for a jog or a walk holding your chin by your chest, straining to look up to see where you were going because you thought it would improve your movement!

When will horse trainers and riders stop obsessing about horses being "on the bit" and start focusing on a training system that's pain free, promoting healthy biomechanics?

When will people see horses for the gentle souls they are, willing, generous, sentient beings that feel pain, that try so hard to please us and get it right. Their subservience is their downfall. We often fail them.

How do we encourage people to care less about competition success and goals and more about how their horse feels during a training session?

When will Instructors start realising the words they use when training riders’ matter to the horse. It makes the difference between a horse being ridden in pain and one without pain.

When will manufacturers stop developing equipment that tortures horses? 

When will horse people start listening more to their intuition and gut feeling about something they are being asked to do or are watching being done to horses. I'm not talking about a young girl standing up to a powerful figure but about your own belief system, what feels right? what feels wrong? Watch the horses. Do they look like they feel OK? Our horses only have our voice. Be heard. Let them be heard.

For the sake of your horse and all the horses you come across, be brave, be a leader not a follower. Go and seek out the right information, the right training practices, train with empathy and compassion, horses feel pain, make sure you aren't one of those riders or using one of those trainers or supporting one of those manufacturers that inadvertently promote painful training practices.

Knowledge on pain free horse training is out there. Knowledge on training for healthy biomechanics is out there. Decent, knowledgeable, compassionate horse trainers and Instructors are out there. Open your eyes, go and seek the right approach.

The storm is subsiding.

Our horses need us to learn better and challenge better, for the love of the horse - BE BETTER

By Kat Layfield thinkingequitation@gmail.com