15/08/2025
I love this post by LS Horsemanship It's very true, advocacy for horses can be very difficult in the current equestrian climate 🥺 I'm lucky that the wonderful professionals i choose to work with and seek their opions from WOULD speak up and that's one of the reasons I support them and the work they do 💪 It's very difficult and disheartening when you tell someone they shouldn't be riding or doing something with their horse, and they chose to do it anyway 😳 Shout out to the following amazing equine professionals who inspire and help educate me every time I see them 🙏 Moira Knowles Remedial Saddle Fitter Bit, Bridle & Saddle Fitting Consultant Jane Cumberlidge The Western Saddler Ltd. Elaine Jenkins Animal Physiotherapist & Equine Touch Practitioner Stuart Lindsay Equine Dentistry ALD Equine Solutions Pegasus Farriery Annette Dick With Animals In Mind Dorothy Heffernan
Advocacy Is Uncomfortable 🐴
The more I learn about horse behaviour and their bodies, the stronger my ethics become. I know many of us are on a path to improving equine welfare within the industry and I know we’re all at different points on that path.
I am well-aware that my ethics seem extreme to many in an industry where high-stress behaviour has been normalised and that still primarily sees horses as things to use and dominate. I am also realistic in that I know radical change isn’t going to happen overnight and that there is a huge in-between space to fill here.
There is an accepted tendency in the industry to put human feelings above horse welfare that leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth. I strongly believe that as professionals we have a responsibility to, tactfully, advocate for the horses we come into contact with, even if that conversation is going to be uncomfortable and potentially fall on deaf ears. Horses cannot advocate for themselves, someone has got to be their voice.
It is extremely common for me to go out to a horse for behavioural issues to find a horse that is very clearly in no physical (or emotional) state to carry a rider at this time, and find out they have been seen by a vet, perhaps multiple bodyworkers, instructors and a saddler. And not one of those professionals has voiced any concern about the horse being in ridden work. Now one of two things is happening here, either the professionals genuinely don’t see any issue because it is so normalised within the industry that a horse is fine to sit on as long as they’re not dog-lame and they possess a back, or, they do think there’s an issue but didn’t want to upset the client so they didn’t advocate for the horse. I’m not sure which one is worse.
Uncomfortable conversations are not fun, sometimes you do get a lot of defensive push-back, but as long as you are calm, tactful and can explain your reasoning thoroughly you will be able to advocate for that horse. Maybe you will lose the client, maybe they will feel relief as they’ve been waiting for someone to say this for a long time or maybe they will go away and sit with it for a while and eventually act on it. I think what is really important to understand as professionals is that sometimes by not commenting our silence is taken as approval, we cannot talk in vague riddles and assume the client understands, we must be straightforward. Saying the back/topline is poor isn’t enough, if the horse isn’t in a place to carry a rider healthily then you must say this.
Another scenario I come across frequently on my travels are horses that are clearly lame/in pain being ridden in lessons and clinics. I witnessed a very blatantly lame horse being ridden in a pole clinic, at one point she even stumbled to her knees, the instructor laughed about her being “clumsy” and they continued. In my head I’m thinking this instructor must recognise that this horse is lame, but maybe they don’t, both options are extremely concerning.
Someone I know was telling me a story about a clinic she was at with a very well-respected dressage trainer that she adored. They were telling me how someone rode into one of the lessons on a very obviously lame horse and how terrible this person was and blah blah. And I asked what the trainer said, and she said nothing, they taught the whole lesson without mentioning the horse was lame. She then defended the trainer when I questioned this saying that they didn’t want to upset the organisers as it was some relation of theirs. If a big name trainer like this can’t quietly pull someone to one side and say “oh no your horse looks a bit off today, maybe he slipped in the field, lets postpone until he’s feeling better”, then what hope do we have? You don’t have to stand and berate someone. By saying nothing you are enabling this and creating the environment we’re stuck in now where everybody is too scared to hurt people’s feelings or be ostracised so they do not advocate for the horse.
I’m sure people think that all of my clients are pony-hugging idiots who just feed their horses treats all day (I am describing myself here) but I actually have several clients who are still competing at fairly significant levels and working professionally in the industry themselves. We have very open conversations about our differing ethics, and it is really interesting to have those conversations, watch them soften over time and watch them start to recognise more and more stress/pain behaviour when they’re out at shows and clinics and express their discomfort. These people are the ones who are going to create that much-needed middle ground that is going to improve welfare within the sport.
I am at a point where I will walk away from clients rather than go against my ethics, this is where things become muddied for many professionals as they have bills to pay. But, for me personally, it is not worth the emotional toll of compromising my morals, some people may think I’m too sensitive or pathetic but it genuinely affects and upsets me to see horses in distress and not being treated kindly. If needs be I will find other sources of income, but of course continue to hope that there will be more and more need of ethical, horse-centred professionals.
There is no conclusion to this post, I just wanted to open a discussion and see how others felt about and are navigating this. I’d also love to hear of any experiences people have had where a professional has raised concerns about your horse that you were unaware of, how they approached it and how you felt about that. 🐴
