Rebel horse care

24/02/2026

This winter has been a rough one in many ways.
The weather has been crazy and we’ve had so much rain, snow, wind and grey.

My otherwise very healthy horses have been ill. One by one, some needing medicine and several vet checks over the last 2 months.

My 23 year old Caroline has had mild asthma always, but she has never been particularly bothered by it because of her lifestyle, living outside 24/7 lots of movement and always access to good quality hay.

But this winter she suddenly had a severe flare up of asthma with heavy breathing and coughing.
I have it under control now with hay soaking and extra care.
She spends the nights in a separate paddock with my 30 year old gelding Junick for a while, so I can better give her the extra supplements and care that she needs at the moment.

Yesterday I spent a lovely sunny (finally 😵‍💫) afternoon making a wooden fence to extend their separate paddock with a little track.
This little stretch of track will eventually become part of the big track system, for now it serves as a recreational area for two of my
Beautiful seniors. ❤️

Spring is welcome now, please…

16/02/2026

Relaxation is not something one can force another living being to experience.

I practice relaxation with my horses by bringing myself to a calm, relaxed, meditative state and then sharing that space with them.

In this video I am practicing with Vinta, one of my foundation exercises that I call: Calm presence.
Vinta is used to this exercise and she can stand quietly for a long time, even when she’s feeling a little anxious about the wind in the trees, but we didn’t start out this way.
We took it a little bit at a time and built it up slowly together.

It is important to practice calm presence in tiny steps, beginning with a few seconds at first, especially with horses who are in constant high arousal and find it very difficult to find relaxation around humans.

This exercise is in no way about forcing the horse to stand still, but about gently and quietly inviting them to find calm and relaxation by matching the persons energy.
It is very important to know the difference between a relaxed and a shut down horse.
These are two very different things.

In a fast paced, goal oriented, performance is everything kinda world, I believe this is one of the most important exercises to practice, for ourselves and for our horses.

You might be surprised at how much you will learn about yourself your horse and your relationship by practicing this exercise, and how much your connection with your horse will improve and develop if you practice it regularly. 💙

The full video with explanations is uploaded to the video library in Rebel Academy, link in bio. ☝️

05/02/2026

Hoof care should be about helping the horse keep the hooves balanced and maintain natural wear.
The horse should be doing most of the work themselves by moving over different surfaces in a species appropriate environment.

For horses that don’t wear the hooves much themselves, trimming cycles should be kept short so the hooves never grow long and imbalanced.

Meanwhile we don’t live in an ideal world and as hoof care providers we do the best we can, have continuous conversations with horse owners and keep educating people.

This video is of my 23 year old mare Enya’s left hind hoof after light maintenance trimming. She does most of the work herself in the track system, but she still needs minor adjustments.

If you want to learn more about my approach to hoof care, join the Rebel Academy for only 5 euro a month and get access to my video library with 3 main categories:
Environment, hoof care and gentle training.
You also get access to my blog and special courses and you get a discount on private lessons with me. 😊

To join, see the link in bio. ☝️

31/01/2026

Trimming little and often is what I have found to be the best way to keep hooves strong and healthy.

Besides a species appropriate environment, diet and herd life off course.

When I trim the hooves little and often, I facilitate the wear on the hooves the horse is not getting enough of on its own, and I make sure imbalances never get out of hand.

There is a big difference between asymmetry and imbalance and it’s important to understand the difference when trimming hooves.

A hoof can be asymmetrical for varies reasons. Sometimes it’s just the natural shape of the individual hoof (especially hind hooves are usually naturally asymmetrical), sometimes the asymmetry is there temporarily because of a problem elsewhere that needs solving.

A hoof can be asymmetrical and balanced.
A hoof that has an imbalance needs to be trimmed often, to keep the imbalance in check.

This is a light maintenance trim of my Vinta’s left hind hoof done in the wet season.

10/01/2026

Slalom over poles is one of Vinta’s favorite exercises.
We had not done it in a while so today I pulled out the poles for her.
She knew exactly what we were doing and needed very little guidance from me.

When I first introduced her to this exercise a long time ago, she would many times lift the front leg furthest away from the pole over the pole first, which disturbed the rhythm and made the exercise loose some of its potential.
Now she lifts the leg closest to the pole over the pole first almost every time which tells me that her balance and body awareness has improved, and now she gets a nice front leg, shoulder abduction every time she steps over the poles.
This exercise is also good for the thoracic sling, glutes, back and core muscles.

Vinta is very enthusiastic about pole exercises and It’s so much fun to do liberty work with her.
I’m doing more and more liberty work with my horses in general and it’s such an amazing journey to be on.

09/01/2026

New video up in the Rebel Academy library !
In this video I’m working on a simple foundation exercise using non escalating pressure and positive reinforcement.
I am sharing some thoughts on escalating versus non escalating pressure and why I choose to mostly use non escalating pressure in horse training.

The video library has 3 categories:

Environment, Hoof care and Training.

Become a member of the community and get access to the video library by following this link:

http://rebelacademy.simplerosites.com

07/01/2026

Giving my 30 year old boy Junick a hoof trim after a month of rain and wet conditions.

Hooves look different in dry and in moist conditions, and it is perfectly natural for them to go through periods of dry and periods of wet weather.
If the horses and the hooves are healthy, these differences in weather should not affect the hooves in a bad way.

Hooves are not made to be subjected in mud and wet for months at a time, and extreme conditions like this will affect their health, but if the surroundings allow the horses to go to dry ground and there is gravel and sand to stimulate and clean the hooves, they will do just fine in the wet season with regular hoof trimming.

Junick is old and stiff and has some issues in his body, but his hooves are in good health and he is perfectly sound in his feet.

04/01/2026

Everything is connected.
This fact lies as the foundation for the work I do with horses, and the way I teach.

The life we choose to give our horses, the feed, the surroundings, the herd, the hoof care, the training, the tack, the mood we are in when we are around them, the way we take care of ourselves etc. etc. etc.

Everything has an impact on our horses.

We cannot isolate one thing and not give attention to the other factors, we must see and understand the connections and see things as a whole if we wish to have a healthy, strong, happy, well balanced horse.

Because of this I work with 3 elements of horse care and I have created a membership site called Rebel Academy, with a video library where you can learn about all 3 elements, and find inspiration and motivation to improve your own horsemanship.

The 3 elements are:

Environment: This is where I share videos about track systems, the natural needs of horses and species appropriate horse care.

Hoof care: In this category I share trimming videos and general knowledge about natural hoof care, as a professional hoof care provider with 20 years experience.

Training: Here I share theoretical knowledge about how horses learn, their emotional world, physical biomechanics and practical training videos with my own and clients horses.

The library will be constantly growing and new videos will be added every month.

As a member of the Rebel Academy, you gain discounts on private lessons with me, and you get access to my blog and exclusive courses and webinars.

See link in bio 👆
I would love to see you there!

31/12/2025

Happy new year from me and my herd to everyone out there.
Thank you to family, friends, clients and colleagues for a beautiful year 2025.

I’m looking forward to a new year of learning and sharing, reflecting and evolving.
And a year with moments of joy and sadness, of peacefulness and unease, of victories and struggles.
I welcome it all, because everything is about balance and we cannot have light without darkness.

Love to all, see you next year. ❤️

23/12/2025

My membership site Rebel Academy is up and running!

Find link in bio ☝️

Join the Rebel Academy membership site for a small monthly fee and get access to my video library, blog and courses.
Rebel Academy is the place where I share knowledge, thoughts and practical videos from my work in 3 elements of horse welfare:
Environment, hoof care and training.

Learn about species appropriate horse care, track systems, natural hoof care, gentle horse communication and balanced, bitless riding, and why all these elements are connected.

The video library will grow over time, and new videos are added every month.

Members get discounts on private lessons with me and access to exclusive courses and webinars.

Hope to see you there, and
Merry Christmas 🎄😀

23/12/2025

Thank you Track Talk: A Podcast on Horse Track Systems for having me on again, new episode coming out tomorrow!!

What if the biggest influence on your horse’s training isn’t the training at all, but the environment they live in every day?

In my upcoming episode I discuss exactly this with my guest Louise from

🎧coming up soon

06/12/2025

My husband Thomas has been restoring the water retention ponds in the track system, over the past few days.
The wild boar like to come and search for roots and acorns and they cause quite some destruction to the ponds and the land surrounding them.

My track system is built on old terraces on a mountain side and erosion is a problem here.
Besides the horses we care about the land, the soil, the plants, the trees, the wildlife, the insects and the climate.
So we do things to manage the erosion.

When we get rain here, we often get a lot at a time and these ponds are made to capture the water and make sure it slows down and doesn’t flush down the mountain taking all the soil and nutrients with it.

The water runs into the ponds and seeps slowly into the ground, keeping the area around the ponds green and alive.

The horses decided to take a nap while watching Thomas handle the mini digger.