It's fair to say, I've had my fair share of ‘broken horses - shattered dreams’, in fact over the last 12 years I haven't had anything BUT broken horses and shattered dreams. Prior to this current sorry period in my life, I had owned or loaned horses for 25 years and aside from the occasional cough or virus I never had any lameness's and had horses fit and in work well into their early twenties. However, over the last 12 years I've had 6 horses I've wanted to buy fail vetting's and I've bought 7 horses who have passed vetting's, 6 of whom have ended up with insurmountable problems. Is this just my bad luck or is there a bigger problem emerging in the horse world?

I've done a lot of soul searching with each horse's diagnosis and as each one of these horses has had a different set of issues. I don't believe I'm the cause of their problems, I also I don't believe I'm living in denial or blissful ignorance. The only thing I could be guilty of is knowing too much and seeing the problems before many would notice them. I'm also guilty of listening to my horse and listening to my intuition, despite how inconvenient and painful the truth may become.

I've devoted my life to understanding how best to care for and train these animals and how to offer them their best health and performance potential yet that doesn't seem to help or protect me from the heartache of getting a seriously limiting diagnosis with my own horses.

Through my job as a classical trainer and remedial saddle fitter I see a very high percentage of horses with pathology. These horses come to me this way, with caring, dedicated owners all trying to make a positive difference to their horse’s lives. However, pathology is real for the horse and sometimes even with the best support team it is only possible to help these horses maintain comfort. Progress is often limited, sometimes progress is not possible at all - there is no magic pill or miracle cure.

Many of my colleagues, very experienced horse people, sadly share my own experiences - the sad tale of buying a horse which flies through its vetting only to discover months down the line the hidden, often incapacitating problems beginning to emerge. It turns out pealing back those onion layers really do sting.

I genuinely believe, in this modern age, we are living in a pandemic of unsound horses. The reasons for this are multi layered, but over the last 30 years I have witnessed a number of things change. I don't think its coincidental that the high prevalence of unsoundness in our horses has been rising during this same time period. For my two pennies worth these are my thoughts on this problem.

It's fair to say, I've had my fair share of ‘broken horses - shattered dreams’, in fact over the last 12 years I haven't had anything BUT broken horses and shattered dreams. Prior to this current sorry period in my life, I had owned or loaned horses for 25 years and aside from the occasional cough or virus I never had any lameness's and had horses fit and in work well into their early twenties. However, over the last 12 years I've had 6 horses I've wanted to buy fail vetting's and I've bought 7 horses who have passed vetting's, 6 of whom have ended up with insurmountable problems. Is this just my bad luck or is there a bigger problem emerging in the horse world?

I've done a lot of soul searching with each horse's diagnosis and as each one of these horses has had a different set of issues. I don't believe I'm the cause of their problems, I also I don't believe I'm living in denial or blissful ignorance. The only thing I could be guilty of is knowing too much and seeing the problems before many would notice them. I'm also guilty of listening to my horse and listening to my intuition, despite how inconvenient and painful the truth may become.

I've devoted my life to understanding how best to care for and train these animals and how to offer them their best health and performance potential yet that doesn't seem to help or protect me from the heartache of getting a seriously limiting diagnosis with my own horses.

Through my job as a classical trainer and remedial saddle fitter I see a very high percentage of horses with pathology. These horses come to me this way, with caring, dedicated owners all trying to make a positive difference to their horse’s lives. However, pathology is real for the horse and sometimes even with the best support team it is only possible to help these horses maintain comfort. Progress is often limited, sometimes progress is not possible at all - there is no magic pill or miracle cure.

Many of my colleagues, very experienced horse people, sadly share my own experiences - the sad tale of buying a horse which flies through its vetting only to discover months down the line the hidden, often incapacitating problems beginning to emerge. It turns out pealing back those onion layers really do sting.

So that's my two pennies worth. Our modern-day horses have an uphill struggle for soundness and we as owners are along (or not) for that ride. Unless things change significantly for horse breeding, management and training I can honestly see a day in the future when there will be no sound horses left ATALL! I hope I'm wrong but my experiences tell a different story.

By Kat Layfield thinkingequitation@gmail.com