30/07/2026
Why “naughty” horses aren’t always naughty
Undesirable behaviours are often deemed as malicious, lazy, stubborn or “they are doing this to me because …xyz”. However, a lot of these explanations for undesirable behaviours are outdated and do not reflect current understanding of equine behaviour.
A lot of research and current understanding of equine behaviour have concluded that these behaviours are commonly associated with pain, discomfort, poor quality diet or lack of understanding.
Pain or discomfort can be from a range of things - muscle/body, hoof issues, tack/equipment, dental, joints. If you think it could cause pain or discomfort, then there is a high possibility it is. A big takeaway from the few dissections I have attended is you can never confidently say you have ruled out pain.
Poor quality diet - energy, protein, fibre and essential vitamin and mineral intake can have a huge impact on gut health, body function and mental state. Whether you’re over feeding or under feeding, diet is a dynamic thing and should be reassessed regularly.
Tack/equipment - incorrectly fitting tack can cause damage to the skeletal, muscular and nervous systems as well as the possibility of creating “remembered” pain and even if your tack is correctly fitting it also has an influence on biomechanics due to connections in the fascia and muscles.
Lack of understanding - training principles matter and setting your horse up correctly makes a big difference. If your horse doesn’t understand the basics, you can’t expect them to do the advanced moves. Breaking things down into basic steps and not expecting it to be accomplished in one session. Repetition, repetition, repetition.
So what’s the point to this post? To highlight that horses aren’t out to make your life difficult, they are communicating - and I’ll keep talking about it for as long as possible
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