Welcome – to Australia’s go-to resource on horse care, management and training that is holistic, sustainable and grounded in both, science and practice.
HORSE HEALTH & WELLBEING
A Bit-FREE, Pain-FREE Future for the FREE-Breathing Horse
Without food, a horse’s expectation of life is measured in weeks; without water, in days; without air, in seconds. The purpose of this article is to provide an illustrated sequel to a previous article "Horse Sports’ Option: Ban or be Banned” (Cook 2024). A series of...
The Evidence for Allowing a Bit-Free Option in Equestrian Sport
If equestrian sport remains in the grip of an Iron Age custom, and continues using the bit as the means of rider-horse communication, its social license to operate will be lost. It is time to relinquish the A.B.C. of Atrocity, Bit usage and Cruelty that stems from the...
Horse Sports’ Options: To ban, or be banned
Firstly, this article is about a basic need of the ridden and driven sport horse, the need to breathe. Secondly, it is about the role of veterinarians in drawing attention to this need to breathe. Thirdly, it is about the responsibility of horse sport administrators...
Racing Horses on Forage-only
Forage is the preferred and ideal diet for most classes of horses, but can it meet the needs of the performance horse with high energy & nutrient demands? To help us in our quest, we spoke to Dr Brian Nielsen, a licenced racehorse trainer and Professor of Equine...
Exclusive Interview with Thoroughbred Geneticist, Dr Emmeline Hill
Dr. Emmeline Hill is an Irish equine geneticist and horsewoman who has dedicated her career to understanding the genetics behind thoroughbreds. An early fascination with genetics led her to study human genetics and cattle genetics during her PhD. However, time and...
Study identifies genes linked to successful galloping performance in horses
A new DNA study has identified a set of genes linked to successful galloping performance in horses selectively bred for racing. Horses have been selected for athletic characteristics for thousands of years. Traits that first evolved in the wild when horses needed to...
HORSE TRAINING
Thoroughbred Horse Welfare Challenges: From Rape to Relegation
Written here as a poem, each verse is structured as a three-line haiku. The haiku is a Japanese poetic form, in this case consisting of seventeen phonic syllables in a five-seven-five pattern. Traditionally, haiku evoke images of the natural world. The author's aim:...
Horses recognise human emotions. Use that to strengthen your bond
Horses are incredibly good at recognising human emotions in your voice and expressions, but did you know how to leverage that super power to strengthen your bond?
The Road to Bridle-less Explained
At the 1998 Equitana, my husband, Dr Andrew McLean, decided he would demonstrate riding bridle-less, with a rope around the neck of the stallion Tintagel Magic. At the time, Andrew was competing Magic in dressage at Advanced and Prix St George level, and managed to...
The Coaching Sweet Spot, Part 4: The Happiness Factor
Happiness is like balance – it’s not something you can teach because it’s a result of what you’ve already taught. If you’ve ever wondered what motivates us to connect so closely with our horses, and what drives this life-long equestrian passion, you could cheerfully...
The Coaching Sweetspot Part 2: The Real Meaning of Coaching
In the last few years, the sporting world has raced ahead to professionalise coaching. In the process, teaching has receded into the shadows, and coaching has become the glamour-girl of the sports world! Yet, teaching is the foundation on which everything we do is...
The Shoulder-in: More Than Dressage Gymnastics
Recent scientific findings support what many students of Classical dressage principles have known all along: The shoulder-in exercise is not only good for the horse's physical development but it also influences their mental state - and the benefits of practicing it...
HORSE WELFARE
Seven Pillars of Deception to Delay Action on Horse Welfare
Scenario Consider a prominent international organisation that has global leadership and regulatory roles in a well-known area of competitive activity involving animals. Participants are members of a global elite, lauded and applauded for their mastery of the...
Improving Sports’ Horse Welfare: A Way Forward
Many features of the Thoroughbred Horseracing sector have been seriously challenged from an animal welfare viewpoint[1]. Their character is so explicit and striking that immediate action is required by implementing sector policy changes and updating codes of practice...
Thoroughbred Horse Welfare Challenges: From Rape to Relegation
Written here as a poem, each verse is structured as a three-line haiku. The haiku is a Japanese poetic form, in this case consisting of seventeen phonic syllables in a five-seven-five pattern. Traditionally, haiku evoke images of the natural world. The author's aim:...
Living History: Saving the world’s last wild horse
Takhin tal Research Camp, Gobi B Strictly Protected Area, July, 2023. Lit only by a faint glow on the eastern horizon and the fading light of stars, we hike into the hills at 4am, stumbling on loose sheets of rock which shear away in thin vertical slices under...
SPONSORED CONTENT
Financing Your Travel Options For Dressage Competitions
Getting the right travel option for competitor and horses can yield dividends instead of sinking money into costs that you’ll never recoup.
How to get more out of your next horse transport purchase
We all want to save money on horse and transportation – equestrian, racing, and other horse related activities can add up to a lot! With the current international shipping delays, some horse goosenecks, trucks, and trailers may be delayed – and be quite expensive...
B-COMPLETE™ by Banana Feeds Australia – The Revolution in Equine Gut Health
There’s a new supplement on the market, and we think you should know about it. Green bananas are a powerhouse of nutritional and gut health value. They've been a staple diet in many human cultures and due to their very high content in dietary fibre, they have been...
From the All Blacks to the Stable… Ice N Easy Cold Therapy
Paid Content Ice N Easy Equine is now providing cold therapy solutions specifically for the equine industry. In the sporting industry, Ice N Easy is synonymous with quality. Their cold therapy products see teams such as the New Zealand All Blacks Rugby Union, Sunshine...
Saddle Fitting Guide
WELFARE REPORT Sponsored by Fitton HorseInsure Teach yourself to evaluate saddle fitting and recognise problems to ensure good welfare and maintain performance with this handy guide. Finding the correct fitting saddle is essential to ensure good welfare and maintain...
Protect and Prepare
SAFETY REPORT Sponsored by Fitton HorseInsure In a time of crisis there may be nobody to help you, no power, no communications, no emergency services, no veterinarian, no daylight... What is your plan? Everyone’s situation differs according to the size and nature of...
EQUITATION SCIENCE
Horse welfare through the lens of the Five Domains
Postgraduate students, representatives from the equine industry, teachers and riding instructors came from as far as Australia, Canada, Spain, Hungary, Great Britain, Finland, Denmark and Sweden and gathered at the picturesque and wintery Equine Centre Wången in...
British Vets Embrace Horse Behaviour
The value of behavioural science was in the spotlight at British Equine Vets Association (BEVA) Congress last week. Gemma Pearson and Sarah Freeman shared their considerable knowledge and experience in two complementary plenary lectures, on how embracing learning...
Tool Use Confirmed in Horses
Horse owners have helped researchers confirm tool use in horses. You may have seen viral videos circulating online of a horse picking up brushes to groom another horse, or another using a broom to "sweep" the floor. They are nor just incredibly amusing, these videos...
Horses recognise human emotions. Use that to strengthen your bond
Horses are incredibly good at recognising human emotions in your voice and expressions, but did you know how to leverage that super power to strengthen your bond?
The horseracing industry is ignoring what science says about whipping
When the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) released its recent whip consultation report, it claimed to have consulted the science. But it insists whipping doesn’t hurt horses and fails to recommend that the racing industry changes its approach.
Cross-sector collaboration for equine welfare improvements
Leaders from a wide range of equestrian and racing disciplines came together to discuss challenges and opportunities around the social licence to operate. They took on the challenge of working together to "do more, faster” to demonstrably prioritise equine welfare. An...
HUMAN MINDSET
Making Success a Habit
When you talk to yourself (in your own mind), do you tell yourself that you are heading for success? Or do you tell yourself that you are failing? Our thought patterns create a large part of our reality because we act on our thoughts. They can also become habits. I...
It’s the thought that matters
How much of your life and riding is influenced by your thoughts? The answer is much more than you think! I have undergone some major changes in my personal life and, naturally, when big things happen to us, our mind goes into overdrive. As the changes unfolded, I...
HORSES AND PEOPLE IN ART
When Dogs Meet Horses in Art
As we see above, in de Vos and Wildens’ dramatic ‘Horse attacked by dogs’, dog and horse contact can end in disaster with both reverting to their raw primal selves and the humans ending in a heap. Each day, different versions of the above scenario occur thousands of...
The Gift Horse in Past and Present
The gifting of horses is an ancient practice in many cultures that continues today. Historically, offering a horse is a sign of respect or allegiance and is done to seal relationships whether they be public, political, and personal. It has been a way of bonding...
HORSE WELFARE
Willinga Park Bushfire: Planning and Preparation Paid Off
A decade of considered bushfire planning and horse property maintenance helped save an entire town. Willinga Park effectively blocked the advance of the massive Currowan Fire towards the coastal town of Bawley Point during Australia’s catastrophic 2019-2020 fire...
Open the Gates to Good Horse Welfare
When we picture scenes of animal cruelty, we generally imagine thin, malnourished horses in haphazard paddocks filled with abandoned cars, barbed wire fencing and empty gas cans. Less commonly associated with mistreatment are luxurious stabling facilities housing...
NEWS
A mission to make Paris 2024 the Olympic Games of horse welfare
This post is an AI aided translation of the online article published by Le Parisien, following up on the French Parliamentary report sent to the Games' organising committee in 2022, and which included 46 recommendations for welfare reform. Most of which have not been...
Le Parisien: What if the Paris 2024 Olymic Games were about horse welfare?
Last Sunday’s edition of Le Parisien, a French daily newspaper with a circulation of over a quarter of a million copies, devoted a full page to the welfare scandals of Tokyo, and questioning whether enough will be done to protect horses and the sport from such...
