Macfarm Agistment

19/08/2026

17/08/2026

𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐎𝐓𝐓 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞?

Why does an OTT’s conformation make such a difference to their balance and ability to work like other horses?

The short answer: their body is often still stuck in a ‘racehorse’ frame.

Racehorses are all about the push. A lot of force drives forward and down from the hind end through the thoracic sling, while the head and neck stick out like a cantilever to counterbalance that. The gallop is a huge stride too — to cover maximum ground, the horse stretches nose to tail.

That’s the opposite of collection.

Why does this matter? Because it shapes the body in a completely different way to what we want in a riding horse.

🐴 The pelvis usually has an anterior tilt — flat and weak on top, over-built through the hamstrings

🐴 This limits flexion through the hind end joints: tight hips and fetlocks, hocks that are either tight or weak, unstable stifles

🐴 With little core engagement, the psoas and back muscles have to tighten to compensate for pelvic instability — which also limits flexion through the spine and ribs

🐴 The force through the front legs often leaves the shoulders restricted, the neck stiff from being braced out, and the jaw locked from then tension carried through the body

🐴 Add natural asymmetry (worsened by racing predominantly one way), plus average feet and teeth, and it’s a lot working against them

Just coming off the track and being asked to work usually ends in frustration — not because the horse won’t, but because they physically can’t. Small circles alone need a flexible spine, a soft neck, and real balance — things their body hasn’t been built for yet.

Getting bodywork done before you start re- training, along with balanced feet and up-to-date teeth, isn’t just a nice extra. It’s often the difference between a horse that can build toward collection — and one that stays stuck.

04/08/2026

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." — Charles Darwin

Over the centuries, horse trainers have come up with many names to describe unwanted behaviours. These labels generally imply that the problem lies with the horse's attitude or temperament. Labels include nasty, mean, malicious, stupid, stubborn, lazy, difficult, chicken-hearted, honest, dishonest, go-ey, too forward-thinking, too keen, cheeky and arrogant.

These terms that blame the horse are problematic because they justify not looking to ourselves as the problem.

New Age trainers have also muddied the waters with inaccurate, complex, yet superficially salient terms to describe horses, such as alpha-mare, leader, dominant, emotional and disrespectful. These terms imply a sense of permanence to apparent dominance-related issues.

However, the correct way to see dominance in horses is as "bilateral dominance," where each horse only knows his/her relationship with each of the others and, more importantly, for whatever resource.

To build a training system on the notion of dominance is not only anthropocentric, but also bound to be limited, inaccurate and ineffective.

Modern Horse Training: Equitation Science Principles & Practice, Volume 2 by Andrew McLean.

29/07/2026

Whilst it is tempting to describe problem behaviour in horses in terms of mental states, it is also misleading and inaccurate. If you want to efficiently analyse behaviour, you should begin with only what you can directly observe.

For example, a horse who is "excitable" in jumping, actually pulls against the reins, and therefore the problem is in the training of the rein signals.

💡 Modern Horse Training: Equitation Science Principles & Practice, Volume 2 by Andrew McLean.

29/07/2026

👁️ The horse’s field of vision 👁️

In terms of senses, the horse has one of the largest eyes of vertebrates with panoramic vision of 350°.

Instead of a central mass of retinal cells like humans, horses’ retinal cells are elongated to enable equal visual priority of the entire horizon at once.

With such an eye, horses do not visually focus on any one thing but have the ability to focus on the entire horizon and therefore much more broadly than humans.

The horse’s eye is also dichromatic, that is, it lacks red-green differentiation.

It is largely dominated by rod cells rather than cone cells, which implies that equine vision is less sharp than that of humans in daylight, but better than human vision in semi-dark to dark settings.

However, horses take longer to adjust to dark settings than we do, so it is important to take that into account when releasing horses into unknown fields at night-time or when moving from daylight into buildings or dark trailers.

This is an excerpt from Andrew McLean’s Modern Horse Training: Equitation Science Principles & Practice Volumes 1 and 2, both of which are available to purchase on the ESI website. ✨

05/07/2026

🐴 What does a good life actually look like for a horse?

It’s a question shaping conversations across equestrian sport, racing and animal welfare around the world.

In the first of a special two-part feature, internationally respected equitation scientist Dr Andrew McLean explores the Five Domains Model and challenges riders to think beyond physical care alone.

From conflict behaviours and self-carriage to predictability, communication and emotional wellbeing, this thought-provoking conversation encourages us to see the world through the horse’s eyes.

One of the most thought-provoking and important conversations we’ve published this year.

📖 Read the full feature in the June edition of Equestrian Hub FREE https://issuu.com/equestrianhub.com.au/docs/equestrian_hub_june_2026

22/06/2026

14/06/2026

One of the consequences of the horse’s outstanding recognition memory is they remember precise events and do not generalise immediately.

This is known as ‘context-specific learning’.

For example, when you are training a new response, it can be advantageous to ask for it in the same place.

Think of asking for your first canter transitions in the corner of an arena, your horse soon learns to anticipate your cue in this place, and possibly only in one particular corner or context initially.

Competent trainers who train complex movements such as piaffe, know full well the power of context-specific learning.

We want to help our horses to generalise, which means they respond in the same way with similar stimuli.

Because of their extraordinary recognition memory horses are slow to generalise and certainly they do not immediately do so.

Horse people commonly know that if a horse has never seen a white pony or even a donkey, they don’t immediately generalise that its a horse, or non-predator. To that horse, this is not the look of a predator BUT it also doesn’t quite look like a horse!

It makes good sense from an evolutionary point of view to be suspicious of any new stimuli that is different to what they have mentally stored.

In terms of horse training, on average the horse needs to be trained to go through/over at least five different types of the same style of obstacles before he or she generalises (e.g., five horse trailers/trucks, or five water jumps etc.) and shows no hesitation with altered forms and shapes.

We can call this ‘the rule of five’.

This is an excerpt from Modern Horse Training: Equitation Science Principles & Practice, Volume 1 by Andrew McLean.

This book is available for purchase on our webshop and we have a small stock of this edition available for fast shipping in Europe (get in fast though as there are only a few books left).

07/06/2026

❓Do you think we OVER-RUG horses? 🇦🇺

➡️ Most healthy horses don’t need a rug between 5°C and 25°C.


Horses are naturally designed to regulate their body temperature through:

🌱 Fibre fermentation in the hindgut: creates heat as fibre is digested.

🐴 Their winter coat: natural insulation against cold weather.

🐎 Movement: walking and grazing help generate body heat.

🏠 Seeking shelter when needed: instinctively finding protection from the elements.

Consider rugging if:

👴 Older horses may struggle to maintain body temperature.

⚖️ Underweight horses has less body fat for insulation.

✂️ Clipped horses have had their natural winter coat removed.

🩺 Sick or recovering horses have increased energy demands can make staying warm harder.

🌧️💨 Exposed to cold wind, rain, wet or windy conditions increase heat loss.

Before you rug you horse, ask yourself:

🌡️ Is the temperature actually cold enough?

🌾 Does my horse have adequate forage available?

🐴 Does my horse have a healthy winter coat?

🏃 Can my horse move freely to stay warm?

🌳 Is there access to natural or man-made shelter?

Many healthy horses with forage, shelter, and a winter coat are comfortable without a rug above 5 degrees celcius.

13/03/2026

Arena is closed, lots of rain yesterday 🌧